First, let's take a look at musical styles over the past several decades. In the early 1900's, blues and R&B was the primary style of music. According to Media & Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, Blues and R&B is the foundation for rock & roll. This brings us to our next major genre: rock & roll. Rock & roll brought a whole new ball game to the music industry as it shook what people believed about popular music. Next we have the incoming of British rock & roll. "All we need is love" is an overly used line by none other than The Beatles. In addition to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones stunned American airwaves with their cutting-edge music that appealed to a variety of listeners. During the period of rock & roll, listeners experienced folk music such as Bob Dylan, and psychedelic music such as The Doors. In the 1960's and 1970's, punk and alternative made its way onto the scene. The Talking Heads, The Ramones, and The Sex Pistols lit up the music stage, just to name a few. As music shifted, so did the culture. One could not move without the other; they were (and are) intertwined.
We now live in the days of hip-hop. If it's got a good beat, it's going to be successful. The content of the songs is truly unimportant, as long as it's a good "jam." It's gotta have some strong bass to get your car shaking, and a beat that you can bob your head to. The rest is completely inconsequential. Your main goal as an artist these days is to have mass appeal. Your feelings, your thoughts, and your music don't matter; the money is what matters. For example, the number one single on iTunes right now is "Mistletoe" by Justin Bieber. So how did this young man make it to stardom? YouTube. That's right, this wildly popular teen sensation got his record deal simply by posting videos of himself singing on YouTube. In today's internet era, it's that simple: get recognized and get signed. All you have to do is build a fan base and you'll get noticed. After all, it's the fans that bring in the money that everyone's so desperately chasing after.So when did this corruption begin? When did getting discovered become about popular demand rather than talent? When did image matter more than substance, quantity over quality, and money over morals? It all started with the age of the image, which is directly linked to the birth of Music Television (MTV). Before MTV, music was purely auditory. What you heard is what was important, and what you saw you only saw if you went to a show. With the birth of MTV, artists and music became extremely visual. As one of the interviewees on Before The Music Dies said, "Superficiality is in and talent is out."
In today's world, our artists are glamorous, sexy, sleek, and sophisticated. They're always put together, they're always beautiful, and they're (almost) always fake. One of the most popular pop-star of the past couple of years is Kesha Rose Sebert, better known as Ke$ha. Over the past couple of years, she has graced the iTunes charts with hit after hit, from "Tik Tok," (a song that describes a precarious night of drinking and partying- which of course can only commence when she has arrived) to "We R Who We R." The intelligence in her songs is striking, is it not? The first line of her #1 single, "Tik Tok," says, "Woke up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy." Compare this to a line from The Beatles song Across The Universe: "Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my open mind." What a difference.
Today, music lacks the feeling and passion that it used to contain. Through television and the internet, our society has killed music as a form of expression and twisted it into a money-thirsty industry. According to Before The Music Dies, "Longevity is determined by how much money you make." Because the industry has become so financially focused, talent often slips through the cracks. Music today is based on popular appeal and generated revenue- nothing more, nothing less.Oh, and check out these two videos; you'll notice some striking similarities!
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