Music has lost its importance to the younger generation.

Responses to This Article

Permalink Reply by Jason Scott on March 4, 2011 at 14:54

I agree. Check out my reply above. Theres loads of good music out there, you just have to dig around a little, but its always been like that. Timothy is right in as much as kids reliance on computers. We all had the N.M.E. or late night radio stations, or just word of mouth to know whats hot.
  
Pete Smith said:

I fear that is your loss Timothy, not theirs. I for one am very glad that the yoof of today is out there making music, and I think a lot of it is great. Listening to new sounds from kids who are nearly young enough to be my grandchildren keeps my mind young, active and open. I've used MyFace and BookSpace to track down all kinds of niche musicians around the world, and the music I make has benefited as a result. I refuse to get stuck in a time-warp rut of pomp-rock, big hair and gatefold sleeves.

Permalink Reply by Martin Rider on March 5, 2011 at 12:49

I’d love to think I was the last contributor to this discussion because I want to make us all feel better.  I’ve just celebrated my 52^nd birthday and as I look and listen around me everything is good as I’m playing more than ever and all the young players I meet take their inspirations from old school music.  This web site is for musicians of a certain age and the one thing we all have in common is that we are all blessed with a talent and not everyone has that.  We should count our blessings as we are different and I don’t mind taking the moral high ground on this one.  Any comparisons between new music and old music are a waste of time otherwise you sound like our grandparents saying, “That horrible noisy rock n roll will never catch on”. Raging against the music industry with its wannabe culture is simply tilting at windmills or pissing in the wind.  The music biz is as much about marketing as anything else and its massive.  The current crop of temporary stars is not meant for us, they are transient products for a different age and they rarely stand the test of time.  I understand the views of most contributors to this thread but I would suggest you started to like yourselves a bit more and learned to sneer at the pap others are allegedly enjoying.  I’m a very happy snob; no sports or leisure wear, no drum and bass, no estuary English, just a suited and booted guitarist belting the hell out of Strat leaving the rest of the world in the wake of my own happiness.

Permalink Reply by Martin Ashworth on March 6, 2011 at 3:05

A nice ending to this conversation Martin. Many of the comments on here have seem to digress into comparisons. The initial point i was making was that mainstream music today appears to be another string to a bow of marketing a 'brand'.

The notion of celebrity has lead many to aspire mainly to the lifestyle and its trappings and the rites of passage that can all be packaged and sold, drug addiction, alcholism, the list goes on. Which becomes how can we package the 'behind the scenes' antics of these celebrities? the list goes on...  Rather than the performer as an artist. Amy Winehouse is a classic example of this. All the media attention she gets is about her staggering out of a club in the wee wee hours in an advanced state of inebreation. Or her time spent in detox.

While all this can be viewed as acceptable from the no publicity is bad publicity perspective. After all for many performers from the 50s onwards perhaps didn't earn much at all untill they marketed themselves this way.  That is acceptable I guess. But a true artist isn't in it for the money.  If's a calling if you like.

Todays 24 hour music TV to me doesnt offer the quality of say The Tube or The Old Grey Whistle Test. I don't mean this in a nostalgic way. On freeview the 2 music channels play the same 12 songs all day. These same 12 can I call them artists end up winning the Brits and Grammys etc. Ok Im sounding like my grandad. Maybe theres kids out there who really dig that stuff. But heres food for thought...

I remember watching a young Janet Streetporter introducing to the masses the underground phenomenon of 'Punk Rock'. Shocking. Today we wait for the media to tell us what the next big thing is going to be. Much like the fashion business and both are linked and have always been but not as aggressively as today.While this is mainstream music Im talking of here. Would at least admit to imagining the whole world had come around to my way of thinking and I had top ten hits in a hundred countries. The unforgetable interviews I would give beguiling Parky with my wordly wisdom and maybe laying one on Graham Norton oh the controversy. See, I'm no different to those Im having a rant about....

Now I digress! I think we are all conditioned to respond to or adapt to change by the social environments we live in.  The is more musical diversity out there today than ever before if you look for it. But its those who shunned the fame and so called glamour side of celebrity and whose lives where often tragedly cut short simply because they weren't prepared for the attention they got, whose music has stood the test of time so much as it continues to influence those up and comming in this wonderful world of musical discovery.  I've said here before that there is light at the end of the tunnel I won't go into it again but there is hope as the younger generation say within 10 years or less will have more integrity than the current one. Those who have the tools we could only dream of to aquire knowledge and and skills to become masters of their craft. A bottomless pit of musical genre at their finger tips.

So who gives a fuck about mainstream music anyway? I must or else I wouldn't be sitting here writing all this. Or those who have taken the time to read  or even reply. I could just be plain wrong tho (sigh). As I get older Im just happy to be out there doing it. And thats why we joined this site.  Sadly it could all go the other way too. Where music doesn't hold centre stage in youth/popular culture anymore. There are now so many other distractions that influence our values and desires. Its all a profit driven illusion mainly through media saturation which influence our values, likes and dislikes inwhich we are encouraged to endlessly consume.  Perhaps todays mainstream music really does reflect a sick and decaying society. So how can music be as important today to the younger generation? I think the answer is in the new technology. The internet has revolutionised how we can gain access to knowledge. Self education is a wonderful thing. To those who have their own vision that can be expressed and controlled by the artists themselves by finding innovative ways to present their ideas. Ground breaking stuff is still happening today i'm sure of it and theres a global audience eager to suck it up.   To these people I believe music is as  if not more so important to the younger generation. And why not?

Phew! Can we talk about something else now? I'm really burned out on this one now.... memarti

 

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