What Happened to me: Popular Music

What happened? I used to think that I was hip to the latest, greatest music. I danced and drank at all of the “alternative” nightclubs in Rochester, NY and always knew when the lesser known acts would be coming into town from Vancouver, New York, LA, Austin, and Nashville. For example, I saw Pearl Jam before they released ‘Ten’, and I caught the Chili Peppers and Fishbone for next to nothing at a tiny nightclub in Ithaca before they ran up a $25 ticket for the Auditorium Theater in Rochester. ($25 was a pretty big ticket then). Bands like New Model Army, Harm Farm, The Authority, and regional standout Yolk, were tearing up the circuit in the late eighties and early nineties, and I was on the case.

So why am I now playing the blues, and classical music, and belaboring the inadequacies of today’s popular music to my oldest daughter? Paramore, Daughtry, and The Black Eyed Peas just don’t seem to cut it for me. I find myself disgusted at the sensation of Lady Gaga, not because of her strange exploits on stage, but because it has all been done before (even though no one acknowledges this). She is a postmodern collage rip-off of David Bowie, GWAR, Tiny Tim, Kiss, Siouxsie Sioux, and Laurie Anderson. Maybe I’m bitter at the fact that while Kiss and Bowie met some measure of large-scale success, it bothers me that lady Gaga is more popular than the other previously mentioned artists, without having the musical talent to justify it.

Schtick, it has become more important than the music. There was a time when schtick, or oddity was used to capture the attention of the listener so the artist’s music could then be heard, but now it seems that schtick is an end to itself. Why bother even plugging in the amplifiers, no one cares what you sound like. At this point I hesitate to mention that I now sound like my parents did in the 1980’s. They had no care for the stylings of The Clash or even Rush. This makes me wonder if maybe I’m missing something in today’s music the way my parents missed what I heard in the music of my youth.

Is there something to the Jonas Brothers that will have them revered as high popular art twenty years from now the way Zappa and King Crimson are in certain academic circles? I don’t think so. Nor does Lady Gaga, nor Rhianna have that extra something that will make a difference. I say this given the history of popular music and the difference between what was popular in the day and what is regarded as art now. In the 80s and 90s, few of the super gold record stadium rockers are currently revered. King Crimson, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa, and Jethro Tull are among the examples of ‘pop’ music of the eighties now being researched academically, not Poison, Def Leppard, nor even Duran Duran (although I might make an exception for the latter as I have my opinion on how they expanded the rhetoric of New Wave using modernist techniques). Using this historical data, which contemporary pop composers can we predict will be academic fodder twenty years from now?

My money is on Radiohead. There are three large reasons for mentioning them. First, they have revolutionized the music industry. With each advance in technology; the invention of radio, and the phonograph, there have been geniuses who have utilized the tools and created the model in which all others will follow. Marketing geniuses that are academic benchmarks in this area include George Lucas, The Beatles, and Michael Jackson. The music industry has been in a state of confusion since the dawning of the internet and it is has been Radiohead that have made the greatest advances in using this tool. Second, their music is informed by popular and classical techniques used before them. They developed their own progressive musical language theoretically using Wagnerian tonal language while employing Babbit’s and Reich’s electronic and phasing techniques, and pop hooks. Finally, they are already being studied in academic circles. They are noteworthy because not only do they have the marketing sense, but the musical authority to be mentioned from this point forward.

Unfortunately, because I have become so jaded about the popular music industry, I cannot name another contemporary band or person whom I think will be studied in the future (with the possible exception of Beck). In my retreating to music that comforts me, (which is odd because most of it was composed to challenge the listener and be uncomfortable), I have not stayed current in my discovery of new music, popular or serious. As a result, I am afraid. Why, because my daughter who listens to Paramore, doesn’t know who Radiohead is, and because I don’t know if there is anymore new, valid music being made. I’m afraid that in the age of ‘Reality TV’ being famous for being famous is more important than being famous for accomplishing something. Is schtick all there is anymore?

I also see this trend not just geared toward music marketed to our youth. With regard to popular music geared toward us older folks, I see a similar phenomenon. It isn’t the music that matters, it’s the scene. And while the scene has been an important part of live music since the 50s, it now seems to overshadow the music. Go to a Phish show, an Allman Brothers Concert, a ‘Music and Arts festival’ or any of the Pixies’ reunion shows and see how many in attendance are aware of the music vs. how many are there to merchandise (hippy paraphernalia, drugs, t-shirts, concessions), there to get high on chemicals, or there to be seen and brag that they were there. It is as if the music has become meaningless in a sea of cultural capitalism/addiction/narcissism. Is this what people really want? Is this what we chose?

Maybe I’m a curmudgeon, but I long for the days when good music was good enough. Being that the current state of radio is still corrupt, and that the internet is too big to be useful in finding good music, I am pleading for input on good music that is current. Leave me a comment, who, and what should I listen to, and why?