Musical monotony

Posted over 2 years ago

Artist:
- PLAY
The Who
Album:
- PLAY
- QUEUE
Who's Next
Track:
- PLAY
Baba O'Riley

It's 1971 and you're arriving home after purchasing the new album by one of your favorite bands 'The Who'. 2 years ago they released the self-labeled rock opera 'Tommy' and last year they released a live version 'Live at Leads'. These two albums are already being regarded as some of the greatest pieces of music of all time and you've been anxiously awaiting the newest studio album. As you unwrap the cellophane covering the record you think to yourself 'the hell are they doing standing next to this rock, and what's it doing way out in the middle of nowhere?' The thought quickly passes as you lay the needle of your worn record player down on the brand new black vinyl. You sit back and hope 'Man, I hope this doesn't suck.' The soft violin of Baba O'Riley beings, anticipation builds until the crash of the cymbals starts into what will soon become one of the greatest songs to grace the airwaves. This is what music used to be like. Songs changed peoples lives, inspired new ways of thinking, of acting, new philosophies and shaped the world around us. When was the last time you heard a song that changed your life? And have you ever heard a song that changed your life that was made after 1985? Music today has fallen into a groove of dull repetition. Even the independent scene mimics itself when something inventive comes along. Have we really reached a point in musical time where everything has been done before? When will the next musical revolution be? When is the next time you'll hear something that will forever change your life? Jon Densmore of the Doors once said "People lost their virginity to this music, got high for the first time to this music. I've had people say kids died in Vietnam listening to this music, other people say they know someone who didn't commit suicide because of this music…. On stage, when we played these songs, they felt mysterious and magic. That's not for rent." This feeling is still alive somewhere ... someday someone will find it buried beneath a Led Zeppelin album and say 'Wow, it's been a long time since I felt like this' and suddenly everything else will seem dull the way the world looks through a dirty window ... someday somebody will walk out the metaphorical door of musical monotony, feel the sunshine on their face, the wind at their back and bring something new and vivid to your speakers.

Comments (5)

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cbowers says It's all been done before, no doubt. Will there ever be another Who, Zeppelin, Doors or Clash? Absolutely not but we'll revisit them forever and those they influenced have made/are making some great music still. Like you said - It's the connection that matters most. For me, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Spoon, Elliott Smith, Death Cab For Cutie, The Shins and Wilco made those connections with me. I've lived, loved, celebrated and suffered to those albums.

Permalink posted 01/04/2007
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super-chris says Agreed - the greats of the 60's, 70's, early 80's are irreplaceable amd unique. But I will also say that I've been completely floored by albums made in the last 10 years. Death Cab - Transatlanticism, Moneen - Are we Really Happy, Stars - Set Yourself on Fire, The Get Up Kids, Radiohead, amongst others...These are records/bands that have reached profound connections with me for different reasons. In my opinion - it's in the ear of the listener. I will agree that you have to look a lot harder now for a band with the ability to connect like this than you did 25-30 years ago. 90% of music today is dull and repetitive, but it's that 10% that keeps me going, searching for that feeling that I know is there somewhere if I just look hard enough.

Permalink posted 01/04/2007
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AudioStatic82 says Perhaps it is my youth. I may not have lived through the era of the bands I hold in such high regard, but thanks to my dad I grew up listening to them. I have made several connections with modern bands. Taking Back Sunday, Motion City Soundtrack, Jack's Mannequin, and Pantera to name a few, but as much as I love those bands, and as much as I enjoy listening to their music ... there's a certain joy and love that comes over me when songs like stairway, or baba, or riders come on that has yet to be matched. Of course, on the other side of the coin, the pure artistic talent of people like Andrew McMahon, Flea, Slash, Chris Cornell, and several others does compete with Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, and the radio heroes of days past. I guess it may just be memories and trained feelings ... but, I'd take them over the new sound any day.

Permalink posted 01/04/2007
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sugarbaby says I was 11 or 12 and fell asleep on the sofa watching some movie on HBO and when I woke up, it was the middle of the night and a concert was on. I was mesmerized. I remember watching the entire closing credits because I couldn't get enough of that song. It was Baba O'Riley. That same year, I heard "Stairway to Heaven" when I sneaked into my older sister's room and was so curious about that dangerously mystical picture inside the Led Zep IV album cover that I risked having her give me hundreds of nugies to turn on her record player and listen. I had discovered "Rock and Roll All Nite" a few weeks earlier on another clandestine trip into her room. The album cover looked like a cartoon and I couldn't resist. I also remember the exact the moment I first heard "Wish You Were Here", "Run to the Hills", and "Seek & Destroy.". There are not many songs in my life that prompt that kind of memory recall. Sure, "Everlong", "Forty-Six & Two" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" continue to wear out my iPod, but I can't tell you when they entered my consciousness. I don't think it is because new music isn't as good or epic. I think that it has a lot to do with the fact that those classic songs came into my life while my personality was still being formed. These songs woke me up from childhood and represented the first times I ventured into territory beyond the safety of my parents. If I was that age today, instead of Led Zep, Pink Floyd, and Iron Maiden, perhaps I would idolize Green Day, Audioslave, and The Strokes.

Permalink posted 01/04/2007
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lemontwist says I don't think that music will ever stop changing me as a person. New music, old music, good music, bad music - it all finds a way to embed itself into my psyche and change me in subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) ways.

Permalink posted 01/04/2007