This note has been prompted by a seemingly harmless argument between two of my friends, and although it was mostly sarcastic, it reminded me of my intense loathing of around 96.7% of modern music. Allow me to elaborate:
Rap, if it can be deemed music at all, requires little but an elementary understanding of rhyming, and most of the time, rap artists manage to somehow even fail in that criteria. Overusing the terms and concepts of “hoes, bros, parties, clubs, 40’s, 20’s, drugs, sex, and ‘not giving a fuck’,” furthers the point that rap is all but entirely devoid of any shred of intelligence. Being able to play an instrument is also an integral facet of being a good musician, and to my knowledge, no rap or hip-hop artist plays, let alone knows, what a guitar, piano, or set of drums is.
“Emo” and other forms of alternative are equally disturbing and unsettling to think of as good music. The incessant screaming lends to nothing but a broken up series of crying bouts. “But Doug, Robert Plant and Paul McCartney used to scream a lot! Lawls!” OK asshole, but neither Plant nor McCartney’s screaming (nor any singer of the Era of Good Music, aka pre-1980’s) was 1)exponentially louder than the instruments, and 2) consisting of more than maybe 10% of their songs durations, unlike emo’s unrelenting 90-100%. Possessing lyrical content comprising nothing more than lamentations, sorrow, and heart-rending crying, which seems to be the premise of almost, if not all of, emo songs, additionally supports the point that this musical genre is devoid of variation, versatility, and originality.
All modern music can fall under the accusation of catering to current trends and demand, and I can’t fault artists for that, due to the intensity and prevalence of human greed. However, I CAN condemn them indirectly through criticizing society’s desire for unoriginal, repetitive, and bland musical content. Through my observations over the course of my life, and especially in college, I have been able to conclude that people listen to popular music for the ultimate purpose of social conformity. Why this occurs isn’t beyond me, and it shouldn’t befuddle anyone who has even a remote understanding of human social phenomena. However, I am just refuting the overly used rebuttal that things are good simply by the virtue that they are popular.
All in all, practically all music from the past 20 or so years is horse shit, perpetuated by the invention of the synthesizer and the disappearance of genuinely talented instrumentalists and musicians that it facilitated. If the music of today is truly as good as most people deem it, independent of popularity and conformity, and the test of time (as in people remembering fondly the music of today in 30 years proves me wrong, I guess then I will apologize for this criticism.
And if you get offended by this somewhat biases assault on the type of music you adore, you have my most sincere apologies. Oh wait, no you don’t.
Popularity: 95% [?]
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