the devolution of music

Who
here owns an IPod? Don’t be shy, this is a serious question, raise your hand…
Just as I thought: EVERYBODY in this room has an IPod. Every single one of us
has, in our pockets or purses, a small electronic device, capable of holding
hundreds of hours of songs and other media entertainment. Heck, most of them
have a phone and internet, too! How can this be possible? Forty years ago, the best computer known to
man had a processor less powerful than today’s IPhone. One simple word:
Technology. Over the years, people have found new ways to store files, trade
information, and, yes, play their favorite music. In fact, technology has made
pretty much everything in music more accessible to the people. Unfortunately, this surge in technological
advances is turning out to have a sort of “degrading” effect on music. A large
portion of today’s mainstream music scene is rife with poor lyrical content,
electronically emulated instrumentals and controversial visual aids.
I
understand that music is something to be interpreted. Every note, every rhythm,
every stylistic choice is interpreted differently by everyone who hears it.
Teenagers usually enjoy the heavy overdriven guitar parts of rock and metal,
whereas parents still have a hard time not thinking it’s the devil.
Grandparents and elderly find classical music to be soothing and relaxing,
while children and young adults can be bored to death by it. As music in its
instrumental base can be interpreted, so can its lyrics. That is of course, if
the lyrics have ANYTHING worth interpreting. The more music you listen to, the
easier it is for you to realize that a large majority of today’s music contains
lyrics about one of three things: partying, drinking, and sex. That’s pretty
much all there is. Sure, we still have songs about lost loves, hope, and pretty
much anything you can think of, but what do you hear on the radio most of the
time? What are the most played songs on MTV and VH1? Songs with this type of
lyrical content. Not to mention the fact
that a lot of these songs have to repeat what they say over and over because
they don’t have enough creativity and imagination to come up with something
that has meaning. “Now hold on Spencer,” many of you are thinking, “you’ve got
to be exaggerating a little bit, there’s no way it’s as bad as you say.” Is it?
Let’s have a look here. Forty years ago, Kansas came out with a song called “Dust
in the Wind.” It included this verse: “Same old song, just a drop of water in
an endless sea, all we do, crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see, Dust
in the wind.” Jump back ahead forty years to now, and we have the example of Nicki
Minaj with her own hit song, “Super Bass. “He got that super bass. Boom badoom
boom boom badoom boom bass yeah that’s that super bass.” I’m pretty sure that’s
not exaggerated.
In
fact, this song is a perfect example of how technology is making it too easy to
create music. Before the invention of the computer, recording music took long,
arduous hours of work as people pushed their abilities to the limit, laying
down the final riff, beat, or voice that fit the piece perfectly. But look what
has happened in recent years: what used to be days of hard work now takes only
a few hours. Instead of someone pouring their heart and soul into the music
they created, all that we hear now are overdubbed bass tracks relayed through a
looping machine accompanied by electronic whoops and whistles from a computer
generated modulator. Those are big words that mean there is zero talent needed to
make “music.” Does anyone here know about Autotune? It’s pretty much the bane
of any pre-2000’s musician. It’s everywhere, helping more people sound like
they can actually sing somewhat. Or in Rebecca Blacks case, make her wildly
famous for being God awful. And the I Am T-Pain microphone? That’s pretty much
teaching kids that making music is as easy as singing into a magic mike. Now
with music software, people think they can just be like “I’ll take some of
this…a bit of this that sounds cool!...and some of that and BOOM! I made
music!” No, you took bits and pieces of other peoples work and made it into a
pile of crap. You didn’t need to work hard at all, just a few button clicks and
you’re done, no talent required. There was no emotion in that; it was electronic
and sampled together. In fact, Cracked.com had a review about such software,
calling Apple’s GarageBand “an application that has been allowing aspiring musicians to record
their noise-routines and organize them into a homegrown track that can be ignored
by the music community at large since 2004.” Why can’t everyone have the same
mindset as Cracked? To many of you, this is a shocking revelation of what today’s
music has become.
Speaking of shocking,
has anybody seen Lady Gaga lately? She’s still wearing the craziest outfits you
can imagine. She’s pretty famous for it too. Everyone here remembers her insane
meat dress at the 2010 Video Music Awards; For a lot of us, that’s a pretty
disgusting thing to wear. Oh, but who can forget the time when she popped out
of an enormous egg at the Grammy awards this year? No one of course! Her sense
of fashion and her music has shot her to stardom. Or…is it just the fashion?
According to the Washington post, Lady Gagas second album, “Born This Way,” “is everything that
she's not. It's boring.” Washington brought up an excellent point. Lady Gaga
may be outrageous and crazy, but that doesn’t make her music good. Would Lady
Gaga be as famous as she is if not for her shocking visuals? Gaga isn’t the
only one in question. Nicki Minaj has also taken to the shock factor, donning
racy getups in her music videos and, like her “Momma Monster,” has taken to
wearing ridiculous outfits and hairstyles on and off the red carpet. Many other
artists have hopped on the insane train, such as Kreayshawn and Ke$ha, finding
new and more bizarre ways to cross the line and push the envelope. But is that what
being an artist is about now? Apparently the looks are becoming more important
than the music.
What I find to be the most interesting, and painful, about all of these new
disasters in music, is the fact that people can’t get enough of it. Our
generation is soaking in all the digital tracks, the outrageous looks, and
nonsensical lyrics. Every day, I hear someone singing or humming the latest
music sensation. I’m not a hater. Personally, I myself enjoy some of these
catchy rhythms and funny looks that the artist has to offer. I’m happy that the
IPod can let me listen to music whenever I want on a digital file. But it’s
starting to become too much to bear. For hundreds of years, music has been
written, composed, and played, fruits of the hard work and sweat the artist put
into it. George Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” moved King George II of England
with such emotion that he rose to his feet. At Woodstock, thousands of people
ventured onto an open field to hear the heart and soul that musicians like Jimi
Hendrix and Carlos Santana poured into their music. In 1968, James Brown
soothed the uneasy city of Boston after the death of Martin Luther King,
quelling would be riots throughout the city. But now, in the course of little
over thirty or so years, it’s as if musicians have left all of this hard work
behind, all of the talents of the centuries, placed them in a single room, and
closed the door on it. But we can open that door again. Why should we sit back
and relax and let the computers make the music for us? If you make music, make
it worthwhile! Show the world what you have to offer! Don’t settle for what
electronics have to offer. Make your music like it has been made for the
longest time: with YOUR talents, YOUR emotions, and YOUR hard work. And please,
leave the meat dress in the refrigerator.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Apple
GarageBand." Cracked.com. Demand Media, Inc, 2005-2011. Web. 11 Dec
2011. .
Richards,
Chris. "Album Review: Lady Gaga, "Born This Way"." Washington
Post [Washington, D.C.] 20 May 2011.
Livgren,
Kerry. "Kansas-Dust in the Wind Lyrics." Metrolyrics. CBS
Interactive Music Group, 2004-2011. Web. 11 Dec 2011.
.
Maraj,
Onika Tanya. "Nicki Minaj-Super Bass Lyrics." Metrolyrics. CBS
Interactive Music Group, 2004-2011. Web. 11 Dec 2011. .
Arlene
, Wszalek, Prod. The Night James Brown Saved Boston. Dir. Dzvid
Leaf." Shout! Factory: 2008, DVD.
Fun
Trivia: Handel." FunTrivia.com. N.p., 1995-2006. Web. 11 Dec 2011.
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