Songs are an old medium. For
thousands of years man has used songs to express the multitude of feelings that
a person could be feeling. According to the Library of Congress the first step
when analyzing a song or poem is to understand the background. You need to
understand where the person is coming from. This is similar in art for
instance, when Francisco Goya started painting the dark, horrifying paintings
we remember he was being influenced by his depression and the horrible French
and Spanish war around him. There is a direct correlation between environment and
the material the artist produced. I find this fascinating. This led me to ask
questions about popular music. Why is my generation’s music the way it is?
According to Billboard albums sales
have dropped significantly. The reason for this is thought to be the new influx
of technology that allows you to download music with a click of a button and a
lot of the time for free, illegally of course. This has given rise to the
single and the importance of getting noticed. People have an almost unlimited
supply of music because of the internet. This gives people a way to get
themselves out like never before. Why then does the radio only seem to play
about five songs on rotation? I believe this is because songs have to be
recognizable now. Artists have to result to sensational songs such as “I Kissed
a Girl” by Katy Perry. This obviously is not a very artistic song but, it is
catchy and people will remember it. Because there is this huge pool of songs to
choose from only the ridiculous and the super talented get noticed. They rely
on targeting the young and frankly, silly people to get them popular. That is
why Lady Gaga and all of the loonies dress the way they dress, to get noticed.
Because these songs are what is demanded that is why they are played over and
over and over again. The song may even be good but because it is on all the
damn time I end up despising it. Honestly it is one of the worst things anyone
can experience when a song gets stuck in your head and that is probably the
goal of eighty percent of the artists now-a-days.
I have always hated radio because
of this. Unfortunately we are going to be remembered for Miley Cyrus, and I may
never come to terms with that. It is a direct response to the environment,
especially during the Internet Age, that this is the case. It appears as if
that we as a generation are mindless zombies. Fortunately though because of the
Internet, I will never have to listen to the radio ever again.
I feel your pain. I want my music to be authentic, sincere, and I distrust the message when the messenger is dressed like a clown. But, some of my favorite, most sincere writers and singers were playing a role. Bob Dylan was really Robert Zimmerman, Bono became "the fly" and Bono isn't really his name. Jimi Hendrix was clearly dressing an outlandish role that would compete with Lady Gaga. I must ask myself: what's the difference? Is it that she is a girl? Is it that her music is new? Am I just getting old?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you entirely, but I just saw facts it seemed like you already knew to be present in the article, no further research. I picked up on some anger and major sarcasm at the end and found it extremely entertaining. I can just see you pounding the computer out of frustration with Miley Cyrus. Anyways, this was extremely enjoyable to read. Good job Jack
ReplyDeleteYeah, I believe as society has continued to grow we have been a more consumeristic (not a word...) community. There for the things that sell and/or are more "catchy" and less thought provoking are the things companies home in on. Whatever people can make a profit on is becoming more and more important. So much research is put into that subject and how to draw people in. Miley has hardly done anything on her own (Albums, songs, dance routines). People help her create whatever will give her the most attention and cash.
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