Hey Hey My My

Rock and Roll is not dead, it’s just in remission…
I’d like to talk about something very near and dear to me, the subject of music. More specifically the idea that much of the spirit of Rock and Roll as well as much of the general “goodness” has left modern music, never to return. To these prophets of the musical apocalypse I say, there is hope. It is not the end, however bleak much of the musical landscape, the popular musical landscape especially, may be I don’t think rock and roll will ever die. My intent by writing this is twofold, first I intend to point out what I think is wrong with a lot of modern music, as well as giving some counter examples that prove that Rock and Roll isn’t dead, its just hiding, as well as give examples of past times when I feel something similar has happened and sort of show through charting the path music has taken to get to where we are now (in a very broad and semi-uneducated way). I’m not a music major, I took piano lessons, played a brass instrument from 5th grade all through high school. I don’t know a lot of theory, that much history, or obscure music. If I slight anyone’s favorite band by not including them or including them in a way that doesn’t capture their true “soul,” sorry, I’m going of my opinions and what I like. Feel free to not read this, it won’t hurt my feelings. Anyways, here we go…
What’s wrong with modern music:
There are a LOT of people (by my calculations) that are not fans of modern pop music, calling most of it things ranging from musical abortions to the worst music made by anyone ever. I myself am not a fan in the slightest and I think I’ve figured out the reason why. Most people point to the inane lyrics or overly repetitive beats, all of which are true, but don’t necessarily separate THIS bad music from other music I personally enjoy that I know is not that much better in either of those regards. No I have another theory as to why I can’t stand most of the modern trash that comes out, even the catchy stuff. The music. Has. No. Soul. Music is supposed to harness and emotion, ballads make us yearn for love, punk music personifies our anger, odes bring us to tears, etc (again, just to be clear, these are GENERALIZATIONS, not meant to imply that all forms of music cannot capture all facets of human emotion). Yet modern music doesn’t try to express an emotion as much as a drive, and that drive is sex. Now to set things straight, you can sing about sex and have it be emotional and especially passionate (Black Dog comes to mind as a great example). However, modern music, for the most part, doesn’t even display passion. It’s mindless, talking about sex and want without discussing desire or passion and it comes out in the instrumentals (as loath as I am to call them that) as well. Looping bass and repetitive beats do not an emotional song make. I think this lack of emotion may stem from the fact that modern music is a lot less personal than music used to be as well, people don’t write their own stuff, don’t make their own “instrumentals” (part of the reason rappers such as Dr. Dre and PUTS are far FAR superior to any modern stuff), and the music isn’t even made on instruments but computers (not that I have anything against computerized background music, electronica and artists such as K-Flay use them very well, but especially if you aren’t making the music yourself using the computer then it just makes the music have even less of a personal and human feel, taking away from the emotion). All of these just serve to distance artists from the music and prevent them from really connecting with their audience because if they didn’t write it, how can they truly express what the song is about? They can’t, unless the song is vapid and either overly bubbly nonsense or inane songs about sex. Lastly, I’d like to add that mediocre background music can be excused in the face of extremely clever wordplay or extremely poignant lyrics. Modern music doesn’t have these.
But in spite of all of this there is still good music. Bands like the Hives, Stereogram, Cage the Elephant, and the Arctic Monkeys have kept the punk music scene very much alive (also Bubble Puppy, but they only do vinyl which makes them quite hard to get). Jack White (and his numerous projects), Them Crooked Vultures, Government Mule, Foxy Shazam, and Black Joe Louis and the Honey Bears are still out there for those pining for classic rock and there are numerous other bands that I don’t want to get into. But Rock and Roll has also branched into a more subtle expression of emotion, usually dripping with irony, that is “indie music.” With indie music, Rock and Roll has gone more underground and taken on more of a folk sound but regardless it is still there. There are also fantastic music overseas, with surfer rock like the 5,6,7,8’s and the Bristols, as well as amazing alternative out of Asia like Asian Kung-fu Generation and the Pillows, as well as some amazing folksy stuff like Camera Obscura. And there’s metal. I don’t know much about it, but it’s there, growing in popularity, and I don’t think it can ever be killed. Ever.

How we got here and why not to worry about where we’re going:
The way I see it, the vacant overly sexualized modern pop as well as the subtlety of emotion in indie music can be linked to the nineties. I love the nineties, but alternative especially had a tendency toward the melodramatic and hyper emotional (not that that’s a bad thing necessarily). But we’re seeing the backlash against that now. Fortunately I think modern music is already headed in the right direction. See, the way I see things, the nineties extreme emotion was both a backlash against the very electronic sound of eighties pop (which isn’t bad, it still captured the feeling of wonder and emotions associated with it very well) as well as drawing inspiration from the very emotional music of post punk like the Smiths and Joy Division as well as punk and the very original stirrings of alternative like the Pixies and the Violent Femmes. Now modern music is, in my opinion, headed back towards the electronic sound of the eighties with synth heavy bands like Phoenix and Passion Pit. So it seems we’re going in a sort of reverse backlash order. I don’t know what we’re going to get next but my guess would be a return to a sort of seventies glam rock pop, which the eighties both drew from and were a sort of backlash against. If anything we should see a very heavy resurgence of electronic music, as has happened with the groundswell of internet electronica artists like Pogo gaining major recognition as well as the new branch of electronica that’as gaining popularity, Dubstep. From here I would think pop will move away from the skippy auto-tune like T-Paine and head in two directions, one towards a Peter Gabriel/Genesis/Huey Louis etc kind of pop and the other towards a very electric sound. Regardless of how it happens, I foresee the lack of emotion in modern music leading to a resurgence of one of the extremely emotionally charged musical styles emerging from the indie scene (be it punk, post punk, bubbly 50’s esque pop/rock, or something else, I think it’s too early for a resurgence of the nineties Seattle scene sound). These are just my thoughts.
So, in conclusion, fear not lovers of rock. The rock isn’t gone, its just hiding.