THE FAB FOUR? FAB FIVE? DEREK AND THE FANCY LADS?
Above: Some pics of my garage band from back in the day. I believe we called ourselves Derek & The Fancy Lads ...? not sure ... memory is hazy. Or maybe I fantasized all of this during the life-changing "Summer of Love" weekend of the Monterey Pop Festival. June 16-18, 1967. For a brief weekend, my home town of Monterey was at the center of the rock music universe.
Ah, how music has changed since the golden era of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Though there have been some great songs created here and there, in general rock and pop music devolved to a nothingburger since perhaps the early to mid 90s. Music has become generic, formulaic, disposable and unmelodic. Shockingly bad!
Music used to have such an important role in our culture. That has ended. Great artists were revered, at the cutting edge, reflecting back the best of all of us as well as leading the way. Today's artists are musical whores lining up at the trough, trying to affiliate themselves with corporate brands and keeping their generic pop as watered down and sound-alike as possible as they strive to be brand endorsers and corporate spokesholes. There is zero integrity anywhere in today's pop music. It is empty cotton candy spun sugar full of diabetes and fatty liver disease and diabesity for those who consume it.
In contrast, consider the cultural impact of the rock, pop, and soul music artists of the 60s, 70s, and even 80s. Not just the Beatles - who are the absolute gold standard. But so many others. (They are listed - approximately 280 of them- on my DerekMoment.com site as inspirations.) They created music in the 60s, 70s, and 80s that is listened to today and which still dominates the streaming services. Songs that are covered by other musicians today and which appear in movies and TV shows and commercials. Will today's disposable sound-alike pop music be covered by artists in the future? No way! It is throwaway junk. I really wonder if many kids today even like the stuff they say they like. Or are they engaged in some sort of FOMO charade to fit it and be accepted by others, like a Jimmy Kimmel "Lie Witness News" bit where the kids at Coachella attempt to convince the interviewer that they are really fans of bands which don't even exist and which were made up by the interviewer. It is so revealing of the state of pop music faux-fandom today.
THIS CLIP IS SO TELLING - AND ALSO SO HILARIOUS! THIS IS OUR YOUTH CULTURE TODAY? WHAT AN EMBARRASSMENT! AND THIS CLIP IS OLD - FROM 2013 - TEN YEARS AGO! THIS INSANITY HAS BEEN GOING ON A LONG TIME - IT IS PART OF OUR CLUELESS CULTURE TODAY. AND MORE KOOL-AID DRINKERS ARE BEING CREATED EACH YEAR!
Music used to have such an important role in our culture. That has ended. Great artists were revered, at the cutting edge, reflecting back the best of all of us as well as leading the way. Today's artists are musical whores lining up at the trough, trying to affiliate themselves with corporate brands and keeping their generic pop as watered down and sound-alike as possible as they strive to be brand endorsers and corporate spokesholes. There is zero integrity anywhere in today's pop music. It is empty cotton candy spun sugar full of diabetes and fatty liver disease and diabesity for those who consume it.
In contrast, consider the cultural impact of the rock, pop, and soul music artists of the 60s, 70s, and even 80s. Not just the Beatles - who are the absolute gold standard. But so many others. (They are listed - approximately 280 of them- on my DerekMoment.com site as inspirations.) They created music in the 60s, 70s, and 80s that is listened to today and which still dominates the streaming services. Songs that are covered by other musicians today and which appear in movies and TV shows and commercials. Will today's disposable sound-alike pop music be covered by artists in the future? No way! It is throwaway junk. I really wonder if many kids today even like the stuff they say they like. Or are they engaged in some sort of FOMO charade to fit it and be accepted by others, like a Jimmy Kimmel "Lie Witness News" bit where the kids at Coachella attempt to convince the interviewer that they are really fans of bands which don't even exist and which were made up by the interviewer. It is so revealing of the state of pop music faux-fandom today.
THIS CLIP IS SO TELLING - AND ALSO SO HILARIOUS! THIS IS OUR YOUTH CULTURE TODAY? WHAT AN EMBARRASSMENT! AND THIS CLIP IS OLD - FROM 2013 - TEN YEARS AGO! THIS INSANITY HAS BEEN GOING ON A LONG TIME - IT IS PART OF OUR CLUELESS CULTURE TODAY. AND MORE KOOL-AID DRINKERS ARE BEING CREATED EACH YEAR!
The sad reality is that the current music business is in trouble and in serious need of revitalization so that music has a chance to becomes "music" again. We need a return to melody and harmony. People are forgetting what real songs sound like. And the current major labels are out of ideas. They don't know what to do. I hear the same formulaic drivel everywhere. I feel like I'm watching a current day version of the movie Idiocracy. Yes, it is sadly that bad. Don't people recogize this? Am I taking crazy pills?
According to Luminate (formerly MRC-Data and Nielsen), catalog songs created predominantly in the 60s, 70s, and 80s long with their covers, still comprise 70% of songs streamed today, though the major record labels try to convince you otherwise. As a percentage of total music streaming consumption, new music is actually declining in popularity compared to catalog music. Yet the major labels keep pushing crap on the public.
New music is losing market share because it is competing with great music from the past. That is the beauty of streaming and of the total availability of music through sites like Apple Music and Spotify and so many others throughout the world. We have the entire history of recorded music at our fingertips. And it is ultimately meritocracy. Why should someone listen to Led Zeppelin imitators like Greta Van Fleet when one can listen to Led Zeppelin - the OG's?
This begs the obvious question: what happened? Why is our present day music culture so devoid of innovation and even basic melody, harmony and musicality. Why haven't there been any truly great new artists to emerge since peak rock era of 1964 through roughly the late 1980's?
Various experts have broken down some of the "problems" with modern day pop and hip hop. According to various experts and musicologists... and me ... below are some elements that that make "music" today so unlistenable.
1) Same tempo throughout the song without rhythmic variation as it is done to a click track. Boring and repetitive!
2) Repetitive sounds throughout (808 drum machine bass, clap and snare and "cicada" sounds). Boring and repetitive!
3) Minimal chord changes - usually 3 chords at most - sometimes even less. Roring and Bepetitive!
4) Songs never modulate into another key, which perpetuates the boredom and repetitiveness!
5) Lack of volume dynamics - the only volume change is "additive" by the addition of instrument and additional recorded tracks and not by playing individual "instruments" softer or louder (this is often related to the fact that rappers can't play and instrument and bring in loops and don't even know how to vary the dynamics of these sounds on the computer.) Roring and Bepetitive!
6) Simplistic nursery rhyme melodies. The lack of melody in today's pop and ALL hip hop is an absolute embarrassment. Nursery rhyme types of melodies are an upgrade. At least some nursery rhymes are memorable and catchy! Repetitive and boring!
7) "AutoTune" digital recording software plug-in. AutoTune has become a standard "effect" in pop music - some say a song doesn't sound like "pop" without it. (AutoTune is the name of the synthetic vocal sound effect first heard in a Cher record "Believe" from 2003.)
8) "Melodyne" pitch correction. (A related problem to AutoTune.) This is overused and it sanitizes the song and tries to "perfect" all vocals and instruments. The result is even more of a "fake, synthetic, contrived" sound.
9) Lame pathetic lyrics. Dumb lyrical images. (Eating linguini, driving a Lamborghini, "hanging with the bro's, banging the ho's," flashing the bling, cash register ring - whatever. This is the kind of simplistic junk obtained from any rhyming dictionary is one can't think of the words on their own.) Then again, what kind of lyrics or "music" does one expect from the typical rap or hip hop "artist" who dropped out of 5th grade? What a race to the bottom.
10) Songs are getting "shorter." Some little more than 30-seconds - designed to "count" as valid Spotify and Apple Music "listens." And to fit into TikTok videos. These are "songs" with front-loaded choruses that repeat and repeat, without any kind of slow build-up, and often without verses or with minimal verses and without any pre chorus or even solo. So the traditional structure of songs that our western civilization has gotten dumbed down in recent years in the quest to register "listens" in the streaming services. Why are songs are getting shorter and shorter each year? Well, few listeners have the patience to let a song develop. It is an ADD culture. Music is at best a background pursuit these days. Nobody pays that much attention to the new junk. It is background noise. Now more than ever to get the listener's attention, the the motto is "don't bore us - get to the chorus." And the fact that kids put up with this is a sad testament to the overall decline of music appreciation in our culture. I truly wonder if many kids today can distinguish between artists or are they going along pretending to be into certain music because of the FOMO factor - which is so so strong today. Don't discount this influence. I'm reminded of Jimmy Kimmel's interviews of kids attending Coachella. Fake, made-up band names are mentioned to the attendees and they all confirm that they know the band or are looking forward to seeing them at the show. The sameness of todays pop is so bizarre. Who can distinguish one song from another. They all sound alike The result is increasingly freakish non-songs, designed to immediately get the attention of the ADD FOMO-addled distracted young listener - and keep them listening just long enough for the 30 seconds to pass, so that the song is recorded as a bonafide "listen" in the streaming stats and rights holders get paid.
Do Not Panic
But do not panic. Despite all of the above-expressed musical frustrations, all may not be lost. Things may be stirring. A re-awakening could be developing. Probably not, but we can hope against hope.
With recent Covid19 societal and cultural disruptions, maybe we are at the edge of a musical revolution? A Renaissance could happen, as old ways and old institutions and old habits are rearranged. They say the Italian Renaissance followed the Bubonic Plague. Can melodic rock follow the plague of Covid and the plague of rap and hip hop? Will history repeat itself? Or are we are fated for an even more horribly bland pop music future. I think the trend frankly is the latter - I hear a loud flushing sound, as Ross Perot once said. But you never know.
There is also the "glass half full" view. One strong argument to keep in mind: "Classic Rock" (a misused term but I'll use it anyway) actually never really went away - the "classic rock" genre (music of say the 60s, 70s, and 80s) at least is still hanging in there - "Rock" remains the most popular musical art form in the world based on recent publicized analysis of streaming statistics and concert attendance. Sure its a vestige of the baby boomer generation but it also has appeal for all age groups - and there is an increase in covers of classic rock songs being recorded and released. And besides, if a listener is trying to decide to listen to some new poseur rock act today, while meanwhile they have available on their phone artists like Led Zeppelin and The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and dozens and dozens of truly great talented artists available to hear on their phone, what reason is them to chose the poseur act? Why should they accept substitutes?
Will the Covid19 shake-up will create a renaissance of good melodic new music? Clearing out the past garbage like a flood? Probably not, but we can hope. And as the Covid-weary public yearns for normalcy and for live shows, concert tours are back on track in a big way. Large venues are booked solid and tour tickets are selling big time. I think the American public is rushing back into this a little too fast for my liking. I'm not quite ready to go to any small clubs or enclosed theaters and sit next to potentially infected people who may or may not have even bothered to get vaccinated. The American public is notoriously braindead about taking care of its own health - the US had the highest death rate from Covid than any western country - with out of control US obesity being a major contributor. Plus anti-vax deniers.
On the other hand, perhaps a music renaissance is wishful thinking and wishful drinking. Don't forget that this decline has been doing on a surprisingly long time. Hip hop fans have PTSD from 25+ years (35+ ?) of this music being embedded in the "culture" - kids since toddlerhood have been growing up with this stuff for so long - that by now they know of nothing else. There are now parents who grew up with hip hop having 2nd generation hip hop listeners! Do fish realize they are in water? And an added problem: many kids today are not very curious to explore music that preceded them.
Which is another irony - all the music from the past is at their fingertips yet they don't explore music from the past? And if a new major musical talent were to emerge today would anybody even pay attention? I'd like to think that great talent would breakthrough but who knows. Have you seen any great talents emerge in the last decade? (2010-2020) Last two decades? (2000-2020). Last three decades? (1990-2020). Go ahead name names! See - there are none. A few who looked promising but where are they now? Coasting on one great album at best? Or one great song? And some of the great rock and pop and soul artists I can think of from the early 90's broke up because the culture had changed after the corporate hair metal era of the late 80's and grunge became big. Melody was out for a while. (The only great grunge-era band in my opinion was Alice In Chains).
Anyway, I've heard some writers even claim that today's "country music" is essentially rock music from the 70's with the added tropes of "trucks, booze, redneck lifestyle, the South, patriotism, relationship regrets, drunken nostalgia, blah blah blah etc. I could not disagree more. I find today's country music to be so incredibly contrived, simplistic, and predictably vapid and boring. It all sounds so alike. No wonder - it is all written by the same people and recorded by the same Nashville session musicians. It is a caricature of itself. A bunch of poseurs in cowboy hats. So forget that argument. An argument from people who know zero of music from the 70s.
Meanwhile, where is the encouragement in today's culture for a new major rock or pop music or soul music talent to emerge? Would anybody even notice if a new Beatles, Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, ELO, Pink Floyd, Cat Stevens, Moody Blues, David Bowie, Cream, Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane suddenly appeared? Or a Smokey Robinson, Four Tops, Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? Some say it is such an uphill battle today for a melodic artist to fight the musical borg hip hop hive mind.
Still, those of us remaining who know how vital and transformative rock and pop and soul music once was can semi-console ourselves with the fact that at least the entire history of rock and pop music is now streamable. It is easily accessed on our smart phones or iPads or desktops. So much to choose from at our fingertips. Lest we forget! It really is magical and miraculous. What a phenomenally wonderfully great era of technology we are in. And again it is ironic that now have the technology to access great music - and to create great music inexpensively with home recording technology - yet sadly the new music being created and foisted upon the masses for the most part is so unlistenable. The only thing that the record labels and mass media are selling today is that the music is "new." But new is not enough.
Obviously there is the issue of the "signal to noise" problem - too many artists and too many genres and too much music to sort through. Who has the time? Too much "content." Ironically we don't have the record label or radio gatekeepers anymore. Do we now sort of miss them? As much as we resented record labels and CD rip off prices, labels did serve a function in sorting out the junk! And record stores were fun to go to! Back then record labels kept the marginal stuff from even being recorded - and yes, some great music never reached us - there are many examples - but often the really great stuff still rose at least to the level of our awareness. Of course in the pre-streaming LP and CD days, we might have been aware of some artists but maybe never got to hear their music because it was so expensive and not well distributed and not to be heard on the radio. One could not easily "sample" like one can do with streaming services today. How many LP's or CD's could the typical person buy in the 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s to keep up? What a sad irony! There was so much great stuff we all missed back then. Today at least we have the technology to look back and explore the past. Perhaps there will be a future of newly curated music presented by DJ's on various streaming services - like in the old days of radio. I hear it is being done somewhere but I am so disheartened by our current musical environment that I haven't bothered to find it on Spotify or Apple Music or Amazon Music Unlimited or Sirius. I've never heard the DJ's but perhaps don't trust the taste of the wannabe "tastemakers." Still DJ's do seem like a good alternative to help curate music if we can find DJ's we like. If this is even possible with the many niches we have today! Again, too much content!
Back to the disappointing music present in our culture: Today, with Covid19, what will become of all those retail stores and restaurants and bars that blasted dance disco-pop and faux rock and hip hop to the assembled customers in their establishments for so many years? Customers aren't showing up at these establishments anymore with Covid19 and lockdowns and social distancing. As if those patrons ever actually wanted to hear that "music" to begin with! I mean how smart is it to have your in-store music revolve around the tastes of 12 or 13-year-old pubescent teenagers? What were these businesses thinking? Catering their music to the lowest common tween denominator? Who informed restaurant and store owners that customers really want to hear tween pop, faux rock, and hip hop music? Oh well, many of these restaurants and retail businesses will soon be gone, victims of the pandemic and social distancing precautions and increased reliance on Amazon and InstaCart and burgeoning home delivery services during the massive economic reshuffling. Some like me might have the tendency to say good riddance and just as well but it is a major loss with lots of pain and economic adjustment.
Let's hope during this pandemic or post-pandemic era that somehow we get a musical renaissance. Today's new music can't get any worse than the low it has already reached in our culture. It is so bad that it feels like some sort of joke perpetuated by The Onion or the late great National Lampoon or perhaps an SNL bit (though SNL is too desperately trying to attract youth culture to tell the truth and expose today's music for the crap that it is.)
Simply put: the Emperor has not clothes. Yet so many people are scared to tell it like it is - that we are surrounded in today's culture by mindless, melody less, harmony less junk! They go along to get along. I wonder how many people working at the major record labels detest the junk they are selling. I'm sure it is a large amount. Or they have somehow drunk the Kool Aid and are beyond hope. I mean how can people listen to "artists" talking in broken english using rhyming dictionaries with nursery rhyme melodies accompanied by old Roland 808 drum machines! I mean how can people actually listen to this crap? It mystifies me to no end! Most rappers and hip hop "artists" can't even play a single instrument. Their songs are constructed with "loops" and "beats" on laptops. They cobble together loops and suddenly they think they have "composed" a "song." And when I hear about someone who makes "beats" what is it exactly that they are doing? Pushing the button of a drum machine? That is their creation of a "beat?" They consider this some sort of creative act? It really mystifies me!
This concludes my rant! And if anyone is triggered by these comments, I'm so sorry to offend your of so delicate sensibilities. In today's hyper woke overly sensitive world full of pronouns and political correctness, certain people can't even handle others' contradictory opinions about art without feeling some sort of micro-aggression assault is being directed at them. Please if you are offended, get over yourself, you fragile flower. I'm just stating my personal opinion about art.
~DM
1) Same tempo throughout the song without rhythmic variation as it is done to a click track. Boring and repetitive!
2) Repetitive sounds throughout (808 drum machine bass, clap and snare and "cicada" sounds). Boring and repetitive!
3) Minimal chord changes - usually 3 chords at most - sometimes even less. Roring and Bepetitive!
4) Songs never modulate into another key, which perpetuates the boredom and repetitiveness!
5) Lack of volume dynamics - the only volume change is "additive" by the addition of instrument and additional recorded tracks and not by playing individual "instruments" softer or louder (this is often related to the fact that rappers can't play and instrument and bring in loops and don't even know how to vary the dynamics of these sounds on the computer.) Roring and Bepetitive!
6) Simplistic nursery rhyme melodies. The lack of melody in today's pop and ALL hip hop is an absolute embarrassment. Nursery rhyme types of melodies are an upgrade. At least some nursery rhymes are memorable and catchy! Repetitive and boring!
7) "AutoTune" digital recording software plug-in. AutoTune has become a standard "effect" in pop music - some say a song doesn't sound like "pop" without it. (AutoTune is the name of the synthetic vocal sound effect first heard in a Cher record "Believe" from 2003.)
8) "Melodyne" pitch correction. (A related problem to AutoTune.) This is overused and it sanitizes the song and tries to "perfect" all vocals and instruments. The result is even more of a "fake, synthetic, contrived" sound.
9) Lame pathetic lyrics. Dumb lyrical images. (Eating linguini, driving a Lamborghini, "hanging with the bro's, banging the ho's," flashing the bling, cash register ring - whatever. This is the kind of simplistic junk obtained from any rhyming dictionary is one can't think of the words on their own.) Then again, what kind of lyrics or "music" does one expect from the typical rap or hip hop "artist" who dropped out of 5th grade? What a race to the bottom.
10) Songs are getting "shorter." Some little more than 30-seconds - designed to "count" as valid Spotify and Apple Music "listens." And to fit into TikTok videos. These are "songs" with front-loaded choruses that repeat and repeat, without any kind of slow build-up, and often without verses or with minimal verses and without any pre chorus or even solo. So the traditional structure of songs that our western civilization has gotten dumbed down in recent years in the quest to register "listens" in the streaming services. Why are songs are getting shorter and shorter each year? Well, few listeners have the patience to let a song develop. It is an ADD culture. Music is at best a background pursuit these days. Nobody pays that much attention to the new junk. It is background noise. Now more than ever to get the listener's attention, the the motto is "don't bore us - get to the chorus." And the fact that kids put up with this is a sad testament to the overall decline of music appreciation in our culture. I truly wonder if many kids today can distinguish between artists or are they going along pretending to be into certain music because of the FOMO factor - which is so so strong today. Don't discount this influence. I'm reminded of Jimmy Kimmel's interviews of kids attending Coachella. Fake, made-up band names are mentioned to the attendees and they all confirm that they know the band or are looking forward to seeing them at the show. The sameness of todays pop is so bizarre. Who can distinguish one song from another. They all sound alike The result is increasingly freakish non-songs, designed to immediately get the attention of the ADD FOMO-addled distracted young listener - and keep them listening just long enough for the 30 seconds to pass, so that the song is recorded as a bonafide "listen" in the streaming stats and rights holders get paid.
Do Not Panic
But do not panic. Despite all of the above-expressed musical frustrations, all may not be lost. Things may be stirring. A re-awakening could be developing. Probably not, but we can hope against hope.
With recent Covid19 societal and cultural disruptions, maybe we are at the edge of a musical revolution? A Renaissance could happen, as old ways and old institutions and old habits are rearranged. They say the Italian Renaissance followed the Bubonic Plague. Can melodic rock follow the plague of Covid and the plague of rap and hip hop? Will history repeat itself? Or are we are fated for an even more horribly bland pop music future. I think the trend frankly is the latter - I hear a loud flushing sound, as Ross Perot once said. But you never know.
There is also the "glass half full" view. One strong argument to keep in mind: "Classic Rock" (a misused term but I'll use it anyway) actually never really went away - the "classic rock" genre (music of say the 60s, 70s, and 80s) at least is still hanging in there - "Rock" remains the most popular musical art form in the world based on recent publicized analysis of streaming statistics and concert attendance. Sure its a vestige of the baby boomer generation but it also has appeal for all age groups - and there is an increase in covers of classic rock songs being recorded and released. And besides, if a listener is trying to decide to listen to some new poseur rock act today, while meanwhile they have available on their phone artists like Led Zeppelin and The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and dozens and dozens of truly great talented artists available to hear on their phone, what reason is them to chose the poseur act? Why should they accept substitutes?
Will the Covid19 shake-up will create a renaissance of good melodic new music? Clearing out the past garbage like a flood? Probably not, but we can hope. And as the Covid-weary public yearns for normalcy and for live shows, concert tours are back on track in a big way. Large venues are booked solid and tour tickets are selling big time. I think the American public is rushing back into this a little too fast for my liking. I'm not quite ready to go to any small clubs or enclosed theaters and sit next to potentially infected people who may or may not have even bothered to get vaccinated. The American public is notoriously braindead about taking care of its own health - the US had the highest death rate from Covid than any western country - with out of control US obesity being a major contributor. Plus anti-vax deniers.
On the other hand, perhaps a music renaissance is wishful thinking and wishful drinking. Don't forget that this decline has been doing on a surprisingly long time. Hip hop fans have PTSD from 25+ years (35+ ?) of this music being embedded in the "culture" - kids since toddlerhood have been growing up with this stuff for so long - that by now they know of nothing else. There are now parents who grew up with hip hop having 2nd generation hip hop listeners! Do fish realize they are in water? And an added problem: many kids today are not very curious to explore music that preceded them.
Which is another irony - all the music from the past is at their fingertips yet they don't explore music from the past? And if a new major musical talent were to emerge today would anybody even pay attention? I'd like to think that great talent would breakthrough but who knows. Have you seen any great talents emerge in the last decade? (2010-2020) Last two decades? (2000-2020). Last three decades? (1990-2020). Go ahead name names! See - there are none. A few who looked promising but where are they now? Coasting on one great album at best? Or one great song? And some of the great rock and pop and soul artists I can think of from the early 90's broke up because the culture had changed after the corporate hair metal era of the late 80's and grunge became big. Melody was out for a while. (The only great grunge-era band in my opinion was Alice In Chains).
Anyway, I've heard some writers even claim that today's "country music" is essentially rock music from the 70's with the added tropes of "trucks, booze, redneck lifestyle, the South, patriotism, relationship regrets, drunken nostalgia, blah blah blah etc. I could not disagree more. I find today's country music to be so incredibly contrived, simplistic, and predictably vapid and boring. It all sounds so alike. No wonder - it is all written by the same people and recorded by the same Nashville session musicians. It is a caricature of itself. A bunch of poseurs in cowboy hats. So forget that argument. An argument from people who know zero of music from the 70s.
Meanwhile, where is the encouragement in today's culture for a new major rock or pop music or soul music talent to emerge? Would anybody even notice if a new Beatles, Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin, ELO, Pink Floyd, Cat Stevens, Moody Blues, David Bowie, Cream, Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane suddenly appeared? Or a Smokey Robinson, Four Tops, Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? Some say it is such an uphill battle today for a melodic artist to fight the musical borg hip hop hive mind.
Still, those of us remaining who know how vital and transformative rock and pop and soul music once was can semi-console ourselves with the fact that at least the entire history of rock and pop music is now streamable. It is easily accessed on our smart phones or iPads or desktops. So much to choose from at our fingertips. Lest we forget! It really is magical and miraculous. What a phenomenally wonderfully great era of technology we are in. And again it is ironic that now have the technology to access great music - and to create great music inexpensively with home recording technology - yet sadly the new music being created and foisted upon the masses for the most part is so unlistenable. The only thing that the record labels and mass media are selling today is that the music is "new." But new is not enough.
Obviously there is the issue of the "signal to noise" problem - too many artists and too many genres and too much music to sort through. Who has the time? Too much "content." Ironically we don't have the record label or radio gatekeepers anymore. Do we now sort of miss them? As much as we resented record labels and CD rip off prices, labels did serve a function in sorting out the junk! And record stores were fun to go to! Back then record labels kept the marginal stuff from even being recorded - and yes, some great music never reached us - there are many examples - but often the really great stuff still rose at least to the level of our awareness. Of course in the pre-streaming LP and CD days, we might have been aware of some artists but maybe never got to hear their music because it was so expensive and not well distributed and not to be heard on the radio. One could not easily "sample" like one can do with streaming services today. How many LP's or CD's could the typical person buy in the 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s to keep up? What a sad irony! There was so much great stuff we all missed back then. Today at least we have the technology to look back and explore the past. Perhaps there will be a future of newly curated music presented by DJ's on various streaming services - like in the old days of radio. I hear it is being done somewhere but I am so disheartened by our current musical environment that I haven't bothered to find it on Spotify or Apple Music or Amazon Music Unlimited or Sirius. I've never heard the DJ's but perhaps don't trust the taste of the wannabe "tastemakers." Still DJ's do seem like a good alternative to help curate music if we can find DJ's we like. If this is even possible with the many niches we have today! Again, too much content!
Back to the disappointing music present in our culture: Today, with Covid19, what will become of all those retail stores and restaurants and bars that blasted dance disco-pop and faux rock and hip hop to the assembled customers in their establishments for so many years? Customers aren't showing up at these establishments anymore with Covid19 and lockdowns and social distancing. As if those patrons ever actually wanted to hear that "music" to begin with! I mean how smart is it to have your in-store music revolve around the tastes of 12 or 13-year-old pubescent teenagers? What were these businesses thinking? Catering their music to the lowest common tween denominator? Who informed restaurant and store owners that customers really want to hear tween pop, faux rock, and hip hop music? Oh well, many of these restaurants and retail businesses will soon be gone, victims of the pandemic and social distancing precautions and increased reliance on Amazon and InstaCart and burgeoning home delivery services during the massive economic reshuffling. Some like me might have the tendency to say good riddance and just as well but it is a major loss with lots of pain and economic adjustment.
Let's hope during this pandemic or post-pandemic era that somehow we get a musical renaissance. Today's new music can't get any worse than the low it has already reached in our culture. It is so bad that it feels like some sort of joke perpetuated by The Onion or the late great National Lampoon or perhaps an SNL bit (though SNL is too desperately trying to attract youth culture to tell the truth and expose today's music for the crap that it is.)
Simply put: the Emperor has not clothes. Yet so many people are scared to tell it like it is - that we are surrounded in today's culture by mindless, melody less, harmony less junk! They go along to get along. I wonder how many people working at the major record labels detest the junk they are selling. I'm sure it is a large amount. Or they have somehow drunk the Kool Aid and are beyond hope. I mean how can people listen to "artists" talking in broken english using rhyming dictionaries with nursery rhyme melodies accompanied by old Roland 808 drum machines! I mean how can people actually listen to this crap? It mystifies me to no end! Most rappers and hip hop "artists" can't even play a single instrument. Their songs are constructed with "loops" and "beats" on laptops. They cobble together loops and suddenly they think they have "composed" a "song." And when I hear about someone who makes "beats" what is it exactly that they are doing? Pushing the button of a drum machine? That is their creation of a "beat?" They consider this some sort of creative act? It really mystifies me!
This concludes my rant! And if anyone is triggered by these comments, I'm so sorry to offend your of so delicate sensibilities. In today's hyper woke overly sensitive world full of pronouns and political correctness, certain people can't even handle others' contradictory opinions about art without feeling some sort of micro-aggression assault is being directed at them. Please if you are offended, get over yourself, you fragile flower. I'm just stating my personal opinion about art.
~DM
THE FAB FIVE?
I used to play music with these lads during my time in England in the 60s. Before becoming known as the Beatles, they went through quite a few band name changes, along with some costume changes.
I guess my deciding to quit the group in order to start up a new band with Pete Best was not such a brilliant idea after all.
We were pretty good mates back then. Wonder whatever became of those guys?
I guess my deciding to quit the group in order to start up a new band with Pete Best was not such a brilliant idea after all.
We were pretty good mates back then. Wonder whatever became of those guys?
THE BEETLES?
THE FAB FIVE?
SUNDAY, 2/9/64 ED SULLIVAN'S BIG "SHOE!"
JOHNNY & THE MOONDOGS?
THE BEATALS?
THE QUARRY MEN? THE FAB FIVE?
THE QUARRYMEN?
LONG JOHN AND THE BEATALS?
THE SILVER QUARRY MOONDOG BEETLEMEN?
THE BEATALS?
JOHNNY & THE SILVER BEETLES?
LONG JOHN AND THE BEATALS?
JOHNNY & THE MOONDOGS?
JOHNNY & THE MOONDOGS?
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to those who have contributed to this site so far: Robert Stanton, Jeanne Stanton, Don Davison, Mark Smith, Joan Chapin, Kyle Wyatt, Martin Bradley, Marla Martin Anderson, Debbie Langdon Bradford, Lilly Hespen Menezes, Alan Herren, Annamarie Della Sala Stanton, Mike Welch, Mary Jane Porter Perna, Susan Turner Pohlmann, Mark Bibler, Joe Cutrufelli, Jeff Sumida, Alice Valdez Gerschler, Jon Wren, Duke Quinones, Susie Rochon Henderson, Pat Duffy, Gerald Armstrong, Carl Becker, Dennis Taylor, Mike Ventimiglia, Jack Frost, Steve Martin, Tom Russo Sr., Chuck Della Sala, Mel Hagio, Rick Hattori, Eddie Van Houtte, Victor Henry and Dennis Copeland.
Special thanks to those who have contributed to this site so far: Robert Stanton, Jeanne Stanton, Don Davison, Mark Smith, Joan Chapin, Kyle Wyatt, Martin Bradley, Marla Martin Anderson, Debbie Langdon Bradford, Lilly Hespen Menezes, Alan Herren, Annamarie Della Sala Stanton, Mike Welch, Mary Jane Porter Perna, Susan Turner Pohlmann, Mark Bibler, Joe Cutrufelli, Jeff Sumida, Alice Valdez Gerschler, Jon Wren, Duke Quinones, Susie Rochon Henderson, Pat Duffy, Gerald Armstrong, Carl Becker, Dennis Taylor, Mike Ventimiglia, Jack Frost, Steve Martin, Tom Russo Sr., Chuck Della Sala, Mel Hagio, Rick Hattori, Eddie Van Houtte, Victor Henry and Dennis Copeland.
