One of the best parts of my job is listening to music, discovering new and exciting things and having a great vehicle to share then with others when I do. Sadly, a lot of the music that I stumble across is pretty awful. From uninspired, assembly line pop to the desperate death rattles of has-been rockstars.
Lately, I've had to come to terms with something terrifying.... The people that we should be able to have a little faith in to save Rock and Roll have been poisoned. I speak of the angsty youth... who have been quelled by mind altering drugs... Ritalin and mood stabilizers are killing the youthful base of Rock and Roll.
Back in the day when Rock and Roll was being born nearly all the best known Rock and Rollers were popping pills; Elvis, Hank, Cash and others. There was some heroin floating around in the Jazz and R&B scene, and a lot of pot at the time too.
Then, as the 60s unfolded rockers wandered from pills to pot to LSD. Cocaine ruled for a few decades and is still a huge problem in the entertainment world. Of course, this whole time everyone has been drinking.
Now I'm not saying that you need to do illegal drugs to be a Rockstar. The way I see it what you need is madness, spontaneity, creativity, emotional intensity and such. For some that's just part of who they are, creative genius is in their blood. For others it's a process they've home honed for decades. For very few it's a rare combinations of those things and some foreign chemicals.
The drugs we pump kids full of these days may be doing great things. My concern here is more music, and I don't think a "stable mood" is really conducive to creative, energetic art.
The evidence of it's damage is what is largely knows as "Indie" rock, not all independent artists but the "hipster" scene. There's a lot of it out there, and at the risk of sounding like an old man... it all sounds the same. Here are some of the common features
-The vocals are buried under a ton of reverb, which doesn't really matter because there's not really a melody and the lyrics are mostly about how nothing matters anyway....very passionate and inspirational....
-The drums are almost always playing some sort of vintage beat, surf being the most popular it seems.
-The guitars are usually chugging on a single chord for the whole song with little regard for dynamics and even less regard for tone. There are no guitar solos, too expressive, people might look up from their Pabst if you played something interesting.
-Someone with grade 2 piano skills will be noodling out a fantastically arrhythmic yet mind-numbingly repetitive bit. In some cases this is all sampled off an archaic 8 bit synth and looped. If you can't manage a keyboard or 8 bit synth a second guitar player can handle this component.
Of course I'm not referring to the Indie band's YOU like because they ARE original, creative geniuses.
I just wonder why people would want their art to be intentionally inexpressive and low quality.
Is it a political response to the ultra-high production values of modern pop?
Is it because they don't know how to operate the equipment?
Punk could say "Yes" to both of those questions but still had emotional content, the lyrics were unintelligible but could inspire with their tone and conviction.
I think the problem isn't really Ritalin, that was just for the headline... I think what we have is a situation where we are geared to embrace the average, not the exceptional. A culture where people want their political leaders to be a good drinking buddy more than a brilliant visionary. Where celebrity is short lived and comes from a lucky iPhone video, not a lifetime of dedication to a craft.
Maybe, as a culture we have removed the motivation to be truly exceptional. We auto-tune pretty faced teens and give them Grammies, make someone a celebrity for their own sake then FORCE their album onto the charts. It's disheartening for those working hard to make art.
I don't think the answer is to decide to produce indifferent music. I definitely don't think the answer is to support those who choose to make our musical alternatives bland in some sort of "ironic" protest.
The answer, is to love and embrace those who still take their craft seriously in the face of a largely indifferent world. Support the creative people out there that actually do enrich our lives. Ignore what people tell you is good, myself included, and judge for yourself. Most of all DEMAND quality from them, by feeding quality and not mediocrity, together we can save Rock and Roll.
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