Music And The Downward Spiral To The Abyss

As we all know music evolves much like anything else. But has it evolved for the better or for worse? Anyone's parents would say, "Music was so much better in my day," or "What happened to the good stuff," when they hear their children listening to a mediocre Rihanna track or Soulja Boy's "Superman." If we're being honest it is rare to find music that follows through on everything it promised. Hence, we're stuck with artists that go hard in the studio, or should I say the sound engineer working hard to make them sound good, and then they sound terrible at the concert after fans paid money to see them come through and show all the great singing ability that the album claims to have. When my dad usually compares music from his day to present, he usually brings up the great Stevie Wonder, who is a legend to say the least; a blind man with so much talent he could bust the doors off of a house. This man has an amazing talent that artists who are famous today don't stand a chance against. He also brings up the great music of Earth, Wind and Fire, which is musical ability that could never be mimicked.

Artists of low quality talent, but good looks and a gimmick are cleaning up, because our standards have been lowered. We don't expect much from artists today. But how is that someone who can't sing live can become famous overnight and never look back? Do we only care about looks and not about talent? Part of a requirement should be able to sing live shouldn't it? Even if we take someone like Beyonce who can sing live and is insanely talented but became brainwashed by the mainstream control freakism that sold so many souls. She is a perfect example of someone who could have way better music and not just this lame pop diva crap that she pumps out. Lately, everyone in the industry has been trying to fit this mold and get the certain "sound," but the truth of the matter is, not everyone needs to sound the same to sell records. Why in the world would I want to hear every artist alive on a techno pop track and stray away from why I liked them in the first place? Don't get me wrong, Usher's voice does sound great over the techno pop beat on "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love." But not everyone needs to take this road. Rap is an entirely different horror story; now thats a genre that is actually deceased. We let anyone who can talk call themselves rappers. I mean, Soulja Boy, seriously. Long gone are the days of real hip-hop, the chill vibes of jazz mixed with head-bobbing from the crowd. Long gone are the days of real R&B and Mary J's "Real Love."

Everyone is just lost in the sauce of the UK electro-sound, which I don't mind from the right people. Also, if we really think about it, anyone can make an electro track sound great; singing ability isn't nearly as important if at all. Electro is definitely my S*** right now, just because its feel good, it doesn't promise much and does its job, which is to make us dance.
I'm not disappointed in it at the concert and I'm not bummed because I don't get how they got famous. Artists like Diplo, making a living off of DJing and remixing standard joints are who I look forward to hearing. They have a talent and they come through on the promised performance.  Its about the music for them. Having fun with it and making the most of what they have. At least they're not on the stage with mediocre voices sounding completely different from their recordings, constantly disappointing fans. The way to not be disappointed is to find underground artists who are not yet smothered by the mainstream demons and being dragged into a downward spiral of unoriginality and cloning, and find those that just love to make music, the way they think it should sound, in the quality that they believe in.

Here are some artists to experiment with that I recently appreciated:
Jessie J
Gold Panda
Florrie
Florence and The Machine
The Radio Department
Dragonette
Oh Land

Happy Blogging!