In 2011, some names that graced Billboard’s weekly Top 100 lists were Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry and Rihanna. In 1968, the same lists looked like this: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles, The Doors and The Who.
What happened?
Everywhere I go, I hear the same awful auto-tuned droning coming from speakers, whether it’s a local restaurant, a department store or even here at ASU.
Sometimes I feel like I’m a guest star on an episode of “The Twilight Zone,” where everyone is tone-deaf and nobody has any taste or respect for music. But this is not my TV set; this is my reality.
I’m not saying there aren’t any mainstream musicians worthy of praise, because there are plenty. I’m saying that these musicians aren’t receiving praise where it’s due, because today’s most popular music isn’t being created by musicians at all — it’s being generated by computers with drum machines and audio-mixing software.
Here’s a thought: If you need auto-tune to make you a talented singer, you’re not a talented singer.
Therein lies the biggest reason why popular music of today is so shameful. It’s not because the music industry is greedy, it’s not because it’s what all the kids want today. The top contenders just don’t have any talent. There, I said it.
“The popular music that I hear today is definitely catchy, and I know a lot of kids that do like it. It’s not hard to see that much of it is repetitive, unoriginal garbage,” said undergraduate performance (guitar) major, Henry Bayless.
“I feel like the main focus of music these days is just heavy bass and empty, meaningless lyrics,” Bayless said.
If you listen to the top songs on the radio or on MTV, it becomes shockingly easy to forget that people used to make music with, you know, instruments. Is this a dying art?
“It’s been dumbed down,” Bayless said, “You can’t argue the fact that it’s simpler. The most popular songs are so terrible. The bar has been set so low that almost anyone could make the same songs on their MacBook if they wanted to. It’s predictable, it’s boring.”
We haven’t stopped heaping accolades on The Beatles four decades after their last album was released.
Keeping that in mind, I doubt most people will know whether Rascal Flatts is a band or a town in Arkansas 10 years from now. Musicians of the past poured real technique and real artistic thought into each of their albums. They played real instruments. In today’s musical climate, artists can get away with titling a song, “Doo Head” and still walk away with a hit. Just ask Soulja Boy.
To that end, it takes one look at LMFAO’s lyrics to “Party Rock Anthem” to find out where our generation’s musical priorities lie. Sorry Bob Dylan, the times are a-changin’.
Reach the columnist at jwadler@asu.edu
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