WARNING: I might as well tell you now, there's going to be some really bad excuses for music in this post, two to be exact. I just want everyone to be prepared so it doesn't catch them off guard like an obese fellow without a fast food joint in range of his motorized chair. There will be some spectacular sounding stuff as well, so it wont be all bad, but you have been warned.
WARNING #2: This is gonna be a long post, and I tend to ramble at times. With that said, I'll begin.
In addition to having some of the coolest cars this world has ever seen, the 'good ol days' as we'll refer to them [even though I was not around to experience or remember them first hand] had some of the best music ever made/recorded. For clarification I'm referring to the mid 1950's through the mid 70's. Man there was some serious musical talent in those days! Decades before frosty haired boy bands, teeny-boppers, and auto tune, there was some real music happening! I realize that a lot of folks who grew up during that time may not realize that people my age can actually recognize good music when we hear it, but trust me, those of us who can actually form our own opinion rather than blindly listen to what the DJ tells us to, do indeed posses the ability to distinguish the good from the really, really, albeit popular, bad.
I suppose a lot of this would make more sense with examples huh? Well let's get down to the dirty dirty then. This first video is a song of Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Tuesdays Gone' covered by Metallica. A lot of people argue about how well someone can cover someone else, but that's besides the point here, because it takes actual musical talent to make a recording like this. You wont hear any synthesizer or artificial sounds in this one. What you will hear is a collective group of musicians coming together and blending their talents into one memorable concoction. Songs like this [whether it be the original or a cover] will live on forever.
[Tuesday's Gone]
Pretty awesome huh? Taking a complete 180, it's time to reference that warning I handed out at the beginning of this post. I promise I will not be mad one bit if you don't make it through some of these videos either. This next one is my a girl named Ke$ha. What? How you pronounce a dollar sign in your name?? Retarded. You might also remember I referred to auto tune in a previous paragraph, and it's because that tool and others like it make possible for people with little to no singing ability to sound shall we say....interesting. Obviously it's not their real singing voice, but oddly enough I think most people would be thankful that that is the case. I don't want to get too far off track here, so click below [if you dare] to hear some over-produced, over-digitized, 'music' from an artist who's currently quite popular.
[Tik Tok]
Notice how I said 'currently popular' well it's because it won't be in a very short time, thankfully. And it is with that, that we finally get to the point of this post. [Sorry to keep you waiting] In the first song, there was no software changing the pitch or key of the singers' voices or instruments. There is no gaudy, fake music video to accompany it, and for a reason. It's real music, music that won't die or grow old. The second song clearly needs all the help it can get. Digitized voices, effects, and computerized beats doing all they can to save it. Fortunately no one will be listening to it one year from now. Lifeless.
Do I dare continue?? Yea, why the heck not.
Round two will provide more examples with basically the same principals applied. This first song has got to be one of the best rock songs of all time, by one of the most popular bands that ever played. This song has been used probably hundreds of times in movies and TV shows and for a reason, it's timeless, and it will always be around.
[Gimme Shelter]
Ready for that 180 degree turn again? Cause it's about to hit ya. The second song is another computerized monstrosity. [Seriously, I don't think there's a single note sung that hasn't been tampered with in some way] And again, the only good thing about all of that is that no one will be listening to it a year from now. If you can make it even 90 seconds into this song, well then you're a braver soul than I.
[3]
Seriously, what are 'musicians' aspiring to nowadays? Cause it doesn't seem like a whole lot to me. Unfortunately though, instead of letting this crap just make it's way to the gutter, it gets plastered all over the television and interwebz. Why though?? It's not any good.
Time for a couple clarifications. Clearly not all music made past the 70's is bad. That would be a moronic statement. I simply chose to use the good stuff, the timeless stuff to make my point. In fact, I rather like a lot of new music out there, especially the new country. I'm not sure how to best conclude this little post other than to ask you the reader, for the sake of self preservation, the next time you hear some hot new, popular 'song' ask yourself if it's truly music, and if you think it'll go down as one of the greats. If not, why torture your ears more than you have to?! Timeless or Lifeless?
Or, you know....I could be completely wrong.
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