Is Modern Music Getting Worse

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Today'due south music is terrible

| Mon, April 1, 2019

Music is terrible nowadays. The music manufacture has been saturated with artists who pander to the masses with stupid "songs" with piddling-to-no substance. I miss the days when most artists could play an musical instrument, write and compose their own songs and sing information technology.

I don't want to be misunderstood. I enjoy some of today's music, including some of the stupid "songs" I only talked about. As a Zahm House resident, we have a biweekly tradition of getting together to capeesh the female person pop genre by singing and dancing forth to artists like Ariana Grande, Shakira and even Taylor Swift. However, these songs should exist enjoyed with the realization that they are lacking in substance.

My outcome with today'south music is that people genuinely think this music is artistic genius, and they idolize these personas that have been crafted for the public. It's not artistic genius, it's marketing genius.

It's fine to sing about men who treat you terribly such as T-Swift does — in "I Knew You Were Trouble," "Dearest John" and "We Are Never E'er Getting Back Together" — but at a sure point, you have to wonder if the girl is the one at fault for her terrible taste. Or, even worse, Tay-Tay is the root cause of all of this, then she tin can continue churning out hits nearly terrible men to rally her fans around her. Not to mention she has terrible pitch, and her "country" voice (which to her credit even she lampooned in her "Look What Y'all Fabricated Me Do" music video) is every bit made every bit they come.

It's fine to sing nearly female empowerment as Ariana Grande does — in "Unsafe Adult female," "God is a Woman" and "No Tears Left to Cry" — but acting like a bad b—- who betrays another daughter and offers her trunk as incentive (see "break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored") sends a conflicting message, doesn't it? To Grande's credit, yet, she really has singing talent, but I think she's wasting it.

And don't even go me started on today's versions of "country" and hip-hop. Today'southward "land," or "stadium state" as some call it (see Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, Rascal Flatts), just helps feed into the stereotypes people have of southern culture, with the constant rotation of tropes such as cold beer, pickup trucks and blue jeans and the incessant cornball reflection on what was and could take been.

Merely don't get me incorrect, at that place are a few great lyricists today — especially in hip-hop, such as Kendrick Lamar (you lot don't win a Pulitzer Prize in music for zip), Eminem and Logic. But, mumble rap — including such songs equally "Gucci Gang," "Bad and Boujee" and "Mask Off" — is an barb to what rap used to be: an honest articulation of racially-charged experience and grade struggle.

Again, I actually bask some songs in these categories, only I bask them because I recognize how terrible they are, whether information technology'southward because of the fact that they are hollow of whatsoever pregnant or just repetitive and catchy. But I don't idolize these people who have a marketing team crafting their identities in the platonic style to anesthetize the masses.

I miss creative royalty similar Prince and Queen (pun intended), and I long for the days when Huey Lewis was correct in maxim, "The center of stone and roll is still beating." Withal, times have changed for music, and I couldn't just sit by and "Let it Be," as The Beatles said. So please, for your own sake, listen to some of the oldies and gain a little perspective as to what has happened to music. Then maybe, simply maybe, nosotros tin can go on Taylor Swift out of the Rock & Coil Hall of Fame.

The views expressed in this cavalcade are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Tags: Ariana Grande, Eminem, Inside Column, Kendrick Lamar, Music, Taylor Swift

Almost Hayden Adams

Hayden is the former sports editor of The Observer. When he's not working toward his four majors (physics and film, television & theatre) and three minors (journalism, ideals & democracy), you tin can probably observe him hopelessly trying to save his beloved Zahm House from being wiped out. He plans to attend police force school at a TBD location subsequently graduation.

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