I had an overwhelming urge to listen to Spacehog's 1995 #1 hit, In the Meantime earlier this week. I had a tough time finding it, I thought I once owned the album, but I didn't. Youtube blocks it for some reason, or at least I couldn't find it, but I eventually found it on Clevver.com, and from the first few notes, I was totally pumped up to hear that bass rockin'.
I realized when I listened to this song that I wouldn't be shocked, if I had never heard it before in my life, if it came out on the radio today it would again be a #1 hit on Rock Stations and mainstream. That got me thinking, is that appropriate? I don't think it is.
Lets go to an extreme, the Beatles, for example. When they released something like Help! in 1965, the title song was a #1 hit, obviously. Fast forward to FOURTEEN years later - the same amount of time that has passed from In The Meantime's original release to right now, and can you even imagine a song like Help! being #1 at that time?
The top songs in 1979 were Heart of Glass by Blondie, Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive and Pop Muzik by M. Are you kidding me? The difference between Help! and Heart of Glass is astonishing.
I didn't pick those 2 songs to prove a point either, I started the blog with no songs to use as examples and just sorta landed on Help!, then moved on to the 1979 billboard chart. It also should be noted that both Help! and Heart of Glass are considered, by real people who know real music, to be major achievements, groundbreaking records.
So what does this all mean? I'm getting older. I'm 31 now, and music is different than it once was, and that's fine. It has evolved, its still evolving and I cannot be expected to keep up. People think that getting old is defined by age, wrinkles, bad backs, divorce, kids, grandkids, etc...It isn't. Getting old is defined by losing touch with the generations that followed you. I hear it every week from friends - we all think that all the boys out there who dress like the Jonas Bros. look like complete morons, but thats just us getting old.
When it comes to music, I do not buy new albums anymore. For the most part, I have no interest in buying any music that was released in the past 8 or 9 years, and that even includes bands I, at one time, considered to be part of my DNA. I am done buying Coldplay albums, Oasis albums, Radiohead albums. I'd probably buy a New Fountains of Wayne album, and Juliana Hatfield, but not much else.
I am getting old, that's what old people do, but I cannot get away from the fact that I feel like music hasn't evolved, at all. When a band like Spacehog, who by all measures isn't anything special in the history of music, can produce a song that will live as a contemporary rock song for nearly 15 years, that's just disgusting.
In an era where we have the most amazing national and global shifts going on - an era of multiple wars, economic collapse, global pandemics, Lebron James...we really cannot get our best musicians to produce groundbreaking and earth-shattering records?
Where is our next Thriller? Where is our next Heart of Glass? Mucho mistrust, dude, I can't take it anymore. My depths of musical despair have fallen to a new low - a place where I sorta was daydreaming the other day that maybe Mike Jackson wrote an album in 85-87ish and has had it hidden until his career is offically dead, then he'll re-release it and it'll be what we all dream for.
Musical significance is an important thing - from Elvis to the Beatles to Zeppelin to Fleetwood Mac to a host of others, we have allowed music for a long time define our generations, our cultural shifts and institutions, and really, right now, we have absolutely nothing to hang our hat on.
Our musical #1's are produced by a television show that has duped this entire country into believing there is an ounce of reality to it...You know things are horrible when a mid-80's pop sensation who danced with an animated cat on MTV, once-Laker girl, etc, is at the very heart of entire generation's music. We are so totally screwed.
Pharrell, from NERD, etc, has been applauding Susan Boyle as an example of how musical talent is making a comeback, and it's not true. Musical talent can be found in places like Broadway, and maybe will make its way into the mainstream on a show like Glee! in the fall, where real singers with talent and not so many good looks can show their wares, but aside from that there is little to no hope.
To quote Debbie, "Mucho Mistrust" in what music has to offer in the near, or distant, future.
5 comments:
The world is becomming too small, and too set in its ways. Big business has taken over the music world, and it's impossible for a band to get big because of listeners liking its music, bands/musical acts now get popular if "reality" tv execs, or major labels think they are cute and can sing the songs that the execs approve of.
I was not a Nirvana fan at all, but I believe they are one of the last bands to really buck the system because they sounded different and kids liked it. I love when musicians rebelled, when lyrics were politically or socially driven. Now all we get are stupid songs about meaningless pop culture from a group of cute kids that execs think can sell out venues.
I know you hate Dispatch, but they are a prime example of a band that couldn't make it huge because they didn't buy into force fed music from giant corporate conglomerates. Luckily they became a college sensation and could get their music out to their fans through napster when it was free. Based on their own marketing and word of mouth they were able to get 100,000 people from across world to the hatch shell for a free concert and then 3 years later they sold out MSG for 3 straight nights and donated all of the profits to help the situation in Zimbabwe. It makes me so sad they never made it on the radio because radio stations are all owned by execs that happen to be tied to the producers of huge music labels.
The current system is stunting the growth and progression of music. It makes me sad.
Maybe you're right Nick... with all of this ranting, I think we are getting "old."
Jeff
Can you believe kids these days are back to giant hats with flat brims? Crazy.
Well, I feel there are two ways to look at it. There's the side that's inclined to agree with you. Grum already mentioned what's going on in the music world, but it's not just music. It's TV, movies, and literature, as well.
America is just getting dumber. The Hills is a hit, Paul Blart is a blockbuster, and everyond buys books because Oprah says to. As America gets dumber, the people in charge of distributing the arts are less and less likely to take chances because they know they can make money with dumbed-down material.
The reason why I can see another side of that is that the Internet, cable, and satellite radio and TV has allowed a lot of niche artists flourish. You can see the really great shows on HBO and F/X and you can download music directly from bands' websites. I honestly don't listen to the radio except during the grunge hour on WAAF on weekdays, but I still get excited by new music. Follow this link and tell me that this three year old song isn't awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WdIkgzwHVs
That's a band whose new album that I was looking forward to for months just came out on Tuesday and it kicks ass.
There are still a few bands whose new stuff I always look forward to and I honestly think you'd enjoy at least a couple of them.
Dandy Warhols
Ian Brown
Gorillaz
Kasabian
The Bravery
Enigma
Monster Magnet
VAST
I'm going to go at this at a different angle... I think 20 or even 10 years ago, we were able to gauge what was "good music" by what was on the Billboard hits and what was playing on the radio. That's because there weren't many other ways of listening to and evaluating new pop music. Using any sort of big media to try and define what's good now is more unreliable than ever because they aren't needed as much anymore.
Maybe that sounds dumb. Here's what I mean. Since the Beatles' "Help," through Blondie, through Spacehog, through Coldplay, we relied on radio to give us a heads up on what was cool to listen to. We totally don't need to anymore. We have internets, double-clicks, and downloads (if you've got the intel) that makes individual niches of music so much more available and personalized. So, unlike the past 60 years, I am able to find the music that defines me and not what defines a generation. Granted, there's still a lot of crappy music to endure no matter what, but at least I don't have to listen to it on the radio anymore.
Plus, today I get to share with you the best music that you may have never heard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL4mywCOJXA
I would also argue that while "Help" wouldn't be a hit ten years after it came out, "Come Together" would've been a hit in any year since its release.
P.S. I love Elbow.
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