By Michael Foster-Sanders/campus editor
As I sit here with my Beats by Dre Professional headphones on, Apple Music on shuffle on my iPhone, I’m hearing the sounds and lyrics that shaped my musical taste from Luther Vandross, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Public Enemy, Michael McDonald and the one country song that I love Thunder Rolls.
When I attempt to listen to new music so I won’t be the old grumpy, man that just complains that the old is better than the new. I unwittingly become that old man that complains that the old is better than the new. It happened because this new age music has no soul at all and no staying power.
But how did we get to this point of soulless music? I noticed around 2005 around the ringtone era, that record labels, especially Universal Music Group, said to hell with artist development and started to sign anyone that had a song or single charting in the clubs in hopes of finding a nationwide hit so they could quickly make quick revenue from ringtones.
Record labels are playing it safe and putting out “cookie-cutter music.” You can’t distinguish one artist from the next. Pop music, EDM and country music are blending a rap subgenre sound called “Trap” that has played itself out because of the simple production that anyone with a modest smartphone can do because of the heavy 808 bass drums that tends to craft a feel-good groove and that also tends for you not to focus on the lyrics.
Pharrell Williams said something that stuck with me, and it might be the reason why the music is the way it is now. “Kids do not want to think anymore. They just want to feel.” And it makes sense.
Children have everything instant these days, and it makes having an attention span impossible. They have no ties to music like people did in past generations with going to buy music or waiting until your favorite song comes on the radio to tape it or waiting for your favorite video to be played on MTV or The Box. Everything is instant from going to YouTube to watch an artist video instantly or streaming a song at their fingertips with Spotify or Apple Music.
I still have hope for music because artists like K.Dot and The Prodigy are bucking the system to show there’s still real heartfelt music out here. But it’s going to be an uphill battle.
