What will be the next new wave (excuse the pun) of music? The music today isn't as good as it used to be. The top sellers now are Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry and Lil' Wayne (whereabouts unknown about Big Wayne.) Country music has a couple artists who hop over to mainstream airwaves like Toby Keith and Taylor Swift. Rap and dance music are a majority of mainstream music. About 5 lines in the whole song but who cares it sounds cool.
Each year there are only a few new bands I listen to that get into my iTunes rotation. The music of today doesn't interest me like it did ten years ago. It doesn't interest people today because band's albums aren't making money like they once did. Today people can download them from iTunes, burn/rip whatever they call copying music from one source and putting it to another source these days. Here are my three thoughts about why the music industry is down in the dumps.
1. What I stated above about there not being a music movement and there hasn't been in a long time.
2. Thanks to stupid reality shows like American Idol it has lowered the bar for artists. Now before you get mad there are some people that do well and deserve to win, Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Chris Daughtry. Wait, only Kelly Clarkson won the show the first season. Clay Aiken was a runner up to some guy who is nowhere to be found. Chris Daughtry wasn't even in the final two and his career is better than the guy who won. Who did win that year? American Idol, in my view, has really destroyed music. It might be great quality programing for families and the show all the people talk about on Facebook, MySpace and whatever the next thing is that comes out in the next three months. Despite all of this, the show is still a crock of bull.
3. Since MTV has stopped playing music videos, artists aren't getting the recognition like they should. Remember when you used to get up and get ready for school? You used to have the TV on while you got ready and listened to the music. You also got to see a cool video that got the band even more recognition. I remember when I saw Everlong by Foo Fighters and thought it was one of the best videos ever made. Then again it was one of the first I ever really watched. Video might have killed the radio star but now without videos you don't have a music star at all.
Think about these points for a moment. Now I'm gonna tell you what we have today with music. We have songs that sound so mellow and boring. Death Cab for Cutie songs sound like a bunch of hippie free love garbage. Then you have the lady singers between the age of 23 to whatever the youngest one is who sings from the Disney Channel. I think it's great that they can have a hit show, perform music and star in movies. It's great they can show their talented in not just one area of the entertainment industry. However I don't understand how kids, who don't even have jobs, can buy everything their favorite musician does and yet people who have jobs don't have a must see now band anymore. We need more talented musicians like Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. All we can do is play the waiting game for someone with creativity like them.
Closing thought. Since we are in a non risk entertainment industry now how will there be another trend like Seattle grunge that shock the 1990s? How will record labels do that again if all the companies want the easy and safe way to making a buck?
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that when people look back at the music that was created in the early part of the new millennium it will be known as Indie Rock. The reason I say that is because so many groups this decade have been found via the internet. Either from file sharing amongst friends, the artists official website or even their MySpace, Facebook or Twitter pages. These performers are getting out at any means necessary without a label. I wish these people the best and hope they achieve success that other groups have but don't deserve.
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