I went MIA last week with my post, but I’m back, and coming in with a question that is sure to get you all thinking: has music gotten worse over time?
As a kid I always found it funny whenever parents would listen to the songs of today and think they were horrendous. “What is this trash that you kids are listening to?” “This is not music. I don’t know what this is.” It seems to be a tale as old as time. You grow up on certain music in your adolescence, you love it, and then you get to a certain age where you think all of the new music coming out sounds repetitive and/or horrible.
At the ripe old age of 28, I caught myself thinking this way the other day. “What are these kids listening to these days?” “This is what’s popular?” I had reached a point in my life I vowed to never get to: parental music syndrome. The first thing that popped into my head was just to act like I was into the music of today. Maybe I could force myself to like it as some people do when they first start drinking coffee or alcohol. I could start out with a new song every 10 songs, kind of like coffee drinkers starting with a sugary frappuccino. Eventually I could dwindle it down to solely listening to the music of today, but this would take some time. So instead I decided to think about why I was feeling this way.
My thinking seemed to be that all of the music I hear today sounds the same. Nothing seemed to be original. The same themes, concepts, ideas are repeated over and over again. It was monotonous. But then I started listening to the music I loved, and had a horrifying realization: it all kind of sounded the same. Ok, not all of it, I like to pride myself on listening to people that change with every album they put out, but most of it sounded the same (or to be honest, I might just be telling myself it all doesn’t sound similar, but to others it might). So why was I thinking that it is ok to hate on the music the kids listen to today, when the parents of our generation did the same thing to me, and their parents did before them, and so on?
Art is subjective, and as music is an art, through the transitive property, it is also subjective. I’m not going to like all the music that is put out into the world. I will surely like some, hate some, love some, and be able to tolerate some. My close family and friends might hate what I love, and vice versa, but that doesn’t mean either of us is right. The music we listened to in our formative years will always inform what music we like, from the past and into the present. Those formative years will always rule in what we deem to be the best music, and the ways in which music is made properly (in our eyes).
I really don’t know where I am going with this, but I think my main thru-line is to continue to ask the question why when certain thoughts come into your head. Don’t let old age trick you into thinking that what you listened to was better than what is currently being listened to now. Do some research into certain artists that you might jive with now, or just keep listening to what you know best. But one thing is for certain, if you don’t get hyped up whenever Grillz comes on, I don’t know if we can be friends.
(I’m obviously joking about Grillz, but know if it comes on while I’m in the vicinity, I will be rapping it in its entirety.)
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