My dad is that typical old fart who complains whenever I put the radio on, saying, 'music was better when I was young.' The thing is, I agree with him.
The majority of music in the charts is passionless, manufactured noise, exerting no creativity whatsoever. Obviously the main offenders for this are the likes of One Direction, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift etc. but even a lot of the more 'indie' stuff is dull.
I'll start with the obvious. Earlier this year The Saturdays released their song, What About Us.
This is an upbeat, club-type anthem, lyrically about a partner who will not commit.
Whatcha doin to my head?/Should be here with me instead/What about those words you said?/What about us?
The way they perform this song is wildly different to what is said, proving how insincere their performance is. They are dancing around having a great time, while what they are saying is the sort of thing that would make most girls angry or upset.
There's also the meaningless lyrics that feature in most pop songs nowadays.
Whatever the weather/We gonna be together
Like you'd ever break up with someone because it's raining.
But that's understandable from a manufactured pop group. What is really scary is the lack of current bands who are not offering any real alternative. There's bands like The-very-middle-class-1975 who prance about singing about sex and girls but not offering a real insight into teenage life.There's You Me At Six who sound like every other American Rock Band ever; they're unique factor being that they're from Surrey. I won't even go on to mention the sexism and homophobia present in the whole hip-hop industry, and is there anything to talk about EDM-wise?
I much prefer going to gigs for bands that are independent, unsigned or up-and-coming. These kids have so much more passion and spirit on stage. I recently went to a gig in a pub and saw a fantastic band, On Mercury, who owned the stage with so much energy. I have never seen anything like it. They played their own instruments (yep, no karaoke) and wrote their own songs too. Yet their audience was a handful of regulars.
But it seems the minute a bit of money and a record deal comes, a band's creativity and energy dry up. Forced to write album after album, global tours of shows every night, it's surprising they manage to write anything at all. The great thing about the Sex Pistols was that they had one album, they made a difference, inspired everyone, and then went their own separate ways. Obviously we would have loved to have had a bit more from them, but would it have meant anything once that moment of anger at the music industry had gone?
Let me know what you think... Am I old before my time, or do we need some new talent to take the music industry by the balls?
