I think we've got a weird current trend in music - homogeny.
Aesthetic conservatism and conformity are "in" it seems now. Lots of apathy and short attention spans. Everyone is being deluged by technology and a corporate-media created "
celebrity culture"... Reality show losers are our new "stars".
Why else would the "Situation" and "Snooki" be famous?
So.. it's more like a weird trend in
all popular "culture"!
There is more music out there than ever before, in more flavors, variations and styles than ever before...
I know! You would think that we would be in a golden musical era right now. I'm
hoping for some kind of musical renaissance in this upcoming decade (can you even
believe the last 10 years?). Hell, I'm hoping for a renaissance in all the arts! The things I wrote above about rock/pop music can be applied (with various changes/alterations) to almost all the things I love. Movies mostly suck now. CGI is the auto-tune of movies. Television is beyond shallow. Nothing that's being "produced" by "artists" (even the good stuff) is recognized or lauded because of the dumbing down of the masses (I'm mainly talking about America, since that's where my parents had sex and where I was born). There is no longer a valid outlet for the dissemination of these great works of "art" or even a community/culture to support the growth and development of said "art". Attention spans are just too short nowadays. People have become post-literate and are way too "busy" with electronic diversions that are the equivalent of solipsistic onanism for the mind. Where's the soul? Nothing seems to "connect" on an emotional or visceral level. Why is that? Why are the majority of young people content with this situation? Are they so brainwashed by corporate propaganda that they think that this is the golden age? Reality just does not support that view at all. Just look around you!
But all that volume creates its own problems. There is simply too much noise for new styles to emerge.
Exactly. Now the signal
is the noise!
Instead, what rises to the surface is the stuff that sounds like all the other stuff, and homogeny - sameness - prevails.
A consolidated media that promotes this stuff is a
huge part of the problem. For all of the supposed freedom, diversity and choices we have, it's really hard for the average person to sift through all the mediocre garbage and find the gems that are probably being lost in all this "noise".
On the whole, I don't think that music died. I think it spawned too many children, none of whom have much identity.
Yes my good Captain, music will never die. It's part of the human expression of the
soul.
And as Frank said,
jazz is not dead, it just
smells funny...
