Just Listen To The Words: The Current State of Music

You want to know one of my biggest pet peeves? I am sick and tired of people flat-out saying that the current state of music is terrible. I mean, yes, the state of commercial radio is almost criminal, with everything being run by huge corporate entities that are solely in it to make money and have playlists that seem to make sure to repeat the same five songs incessantly, but that does not mean that there is not good music being made.

Most of the time, though, the fact remains that in order to find the good music, you have to actually look for it. Fantastic albums generally do not drop from the sky into your personal stereo. You have to look for them, you have to try new things, you have to be willing to branch out. This may require reading the small print in mainstream music magazines like Rolling Stone, which often has tiny little features on bands that I like quite a bit but that will probably never actually break into the mainstream. These blurbs don't appear because they are being sponsored, they appear because someone actually thought the bands were good enough to write about. Not that all of the bands recommended are for you, or that there aren't other bands out there, but you have to at least use these offerings a little bit to find good music. Listen to college radio, use the illegal internet search engines that let you download MP3s, listen to bands you have never heard of, and when you go to a show, get there for the openers. It's not that hard and it can actually lead to you finding some good bands. How many of you who have complained that there is no music being made that is worth hearing have actually tried for more than a few minutes to find something to listen to?

I may even be willing to admit that some of those five songs being played over and over on the radio are not that bad. Point #2: just because it's on the evil-evil commercial radio station or the evil-evil MTV, that does not mean it is bad. While it may be true that most of the things they play are solely to sell commercials and records and make money, that does not mean that some of it is not good. If you will remember, please, the Beatles were once disturbingly popular among screaming teenyboppers. That did not prevent them from becoming not only far more experimental but also actually respected in their old age. I feel like most people do not even acknowledge that this could happen with a band now. Hey, you know Nirvana? They were played on MTV! A lot! If they had TRL in 1991, I bet "Smells Like Teen Spirit" would have been on it! I bet the band would have gone on among all the screaming teenagers (with Carson, not those replacement hosts) and played something and sold lots of records! It's not that bad. It doesn't make it any less of a band if people like it. It just means it will be in the public spotlight and might like it enough to change what it is doing in order to remain in that light. This is not inherently evil. Many great bands have been in the spotlight and survived, and some of them even got better.

So, the point is, look for the music that you want, and don't dismiss the music that you have in front of you just because someone else thinks it's good.

Elitist music snobs suck almost as much as people who complain for no reason.