Music: What Happened?

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
by jakehilbert

Music is more than just blabbering about nothing. Music is suppose to be about actually theory and meaning in each song or score. When you look back at what music was, artists were recognized as legends, not just plain old musicians, people like Jimi Hendrix, The Eagles, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Now, take a look at what the majority of the music has become. The songs have no musical merit. An Instrumental solo in the old days would have been an actual solo and they would know what they were doing as they would shred up and down the fret board of their guitar or what ever instrumentalist had the solo. Back in day (50s-80s), music had meaning and there were no tricks or gimmicks to the recording process. It was all live recording, not digital. Can you really call someone like Hannah Montana a legend? Are we going to look back ten or twenty years from now and say, “She was so good, what a legend!” Well I hope not, because there is nothing special to her music and many other musicians songs today. A whole bunch of skilled artists are out there, and they will most likely will remain undiscovered, because of  today’s culture and the way the music industry runs.

There are several reasons why music in the “old days” was better, and still remains better than today’s music. In the past, musicians  did live recordings. That meant that nothing was digital about the tracks and there were minimal modifications and mixing done in the recording studio. The bands would come into the studio ready to play, jam, and get work done. Today, more often than not, more takes are being taken during the recording process and money is not an issue because record labels are making so much off this “music”. There was a minimal amount of editing and slicing to the songs in classic music. Today, the majority of the music is digitally edited and sliced to make every single aspect of the songs perfect. For example if a small snare drum hit was off but 1/10 of a second, the audio technician would digitally edit it so it was precise and right on beat, rather than keeping it original and true. Music is not about perfection, it is about showing people something they haven’t heard, something new, something ORIGINAL.

A lot of people would ask, “Well, why is this a bad thing?” The answer is clear and obvious to someone who knows music and what it is about. The first reason; it is bad for music because the business is only taking in artists who sing a certain type of music, or else they will not get signed. This is just so they can make more money instead of having artists who want to play their genre of music. Today, it does not matter who you are or what you have done, your social status is all about your income and how much money you have. This is a huge problem for real musicians and people who enjoy something other than the bubble gum pop music that is taking over the radio and internet. A lot of bands today and from the past have changed their style of music that made them big, into this bubble gum pop music that appeals to those who have been brain washed by the radio and the style of clothing these “artist” are wearing. For example, a band called O.A.R. rose to popularity from their talent and making good alternative music that drew in a large diverse groups of people. The last two albums they made were completely poppish with sappy lyrics, simple chord progressions and lyrics about “loved ones” and concepts about “missing you” compared to their old song that had tricky riffs and tempo changes that can be played by real musicians. Where as bands like Moe and Pink Floyd (without Roger Waters and Syd Barret), and many others, still use guitar technique that was and only can be picked up by taking college classes or lessons for many, many years.

There is no question that the override of this mumbo jumbo about today’s brain washing music, a lot of undiscovered and outstandingly talented bands are being underestimated or even worse, completely ignored because they do not play today’s most popular genre, pop. “Real music” is about artists who bring emotion from their instruments just as much as their vocals. The lyrics of  “real music” have a meaning to them.

Today’s top 40 songs on the list are all by the exact type of artist I am talking about, the “Hannah Montana’s” of the word. I’m sorry ladies and gentlemen, but that is not music. That is pre-ordained songs and layouts with not creative value. Is this what you want music to be like? Or do you want music like in the old days: true, meaningful, and full of skilled musicians with brilliant ideas. You decide.

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk

Photo Credit: .bullish

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