When did I stop listening to new music?
Why did I stop listening to new music?
[Image: Zero 7]
Other than immediately jumping on any new "Winger" music, I can think back to about 2015-2016 as the last time I actually heard about, found, listened to and actually liked any new music that I had never heard before. There has been absolutely nothing since.
There were three artists who I listened to non-stop. One was "Yuna". She did a song called "Live your life".
When I heard it, I just fell heavy-in-like with it. It is clearly a series of repeated, copy-paste computer midi tracks that never really change, but the music and the melody made me think about the old days when I worked as a skycap at Orlando International Airport, so many years ago - back when things were good. Her voice is so incredibly smooth and unique. I had never heard of her prior to this music. I have no idea if she's done anything since.
The second is a girl named "Kimbra". Her album "Vows" came out in 2011, but I never knew about it until 2014. I think I saw one or two of her videos on YouTube, and I was immediately hooked.
The CD never left the player in my car. It was all I listened to for over a year. I absolutely love Kimbra's vocals. Then one day, I found a video on YouTube of her doing a duet with someone named Sam Lawrence. The song is called "Wandering limbs''.
Something about this song just resonated with me. So much so that I introduced it to one of my former younger female students who also loved the song. She and I played it all the time together. Kimbra should be at least as big as Taylor Swift, and I can't understand why she isn't.
And third. There is this band that I discovered purely by accident. Have you ever heard of "Zero 7"?
Their song, "In the waiting line" was played in a 2004 movie called "Garden State". I heard it - and I just had to know who or what this music was. This all happened around early 2014. I made an mp3/CD of all of their music and stuffed it in the CD holder in my car. (Yes, I'm dating myself. I still had CD's in my car back then). If I wasn't listening to Kimbra, I was listening to Zero 7. Such weird, cool, ethereal music. This stuff was so unlike what I would normally be listening to in my car. I was so used to cranking loud classic rock as I drove like a Nascar driver on I-4 on my way to lessons. I think I must have been going through some much needed changes and growth.
Honestly, I can't think of anything that has come across my table that captured me as much as those three artists did nearly a decade ago. Why is that?
I think that for me, it was probably a last ditch effort in me trying to maintain an open mind in listening to new music. Prior to all of this, the only "New-ish" music I had been listening to were artists like, "Evanescence", "Foo Fighters" and "Green Day". That's it.
Keep in mind, I'm talking about pop-rock music. I never listened to any of the pop or rock radio stations in Orlando anymore. I used to only ever listened to a now-defunct, mainstream jazz station out of Winter Park called WLOQ. That station has been gone for a while. If I ever turn the radio on now, it's to listen to WUCF. It's the traditional jazz station in town.
Maybe that's part of the problem. Only a handful of conglomerate corporations own all of the media, TV and radio stations across the country. They all have the same playlists, compiled from - you guessed it, “algorithms”. It's either that or pay for satellite streaming or something else.
It is a disappointing reality to know that most of the best music that has ever been created, happened in the last century. The past twenty-plus years have proven to be far less than stellar in new music. It's not just my opinion. I talk with my teenage students all the time about new music, and even they admit that it sucks.
I do know however, that there are some incredibly talented musicians out there in the world. I have seen most of them on YouTube. It is staggering to see some of these young people play such amazing, incredibly difficult music. Why aren't they as big as Taylor Swift? It's simple. Music is not about the art of music. It hasn't been, for a long time. It's about the "cookie-cutter" producer. It's about looking good for social media and not requiring actual talent. Sex sells. Talent does not.
At 60-years of age, I may sound like an old curmudgeon, griping on and on about how good the music used to be back in my day - however, I am also a lifetime musician who has seen and heard just about everything you could ever listen to since the 1960's. Hell, I even know music from well before that. Music was indeed better back in the day. There is no argument about it.
It would be really nice to see a new kid come up out of nowhere and be the next Eddie Van Halen.
Where did all the rock bands go? Why aren't there any guitar-gawds anymore? Why aren't there any guitar solos in music? Why is it that 70% (or more) of the kids of today listen to and love music that was recorded fifty years before they were born? It’s because even they know that it was better music.
Maybe one day, the trend will change, and enough people will demand good music again by voting for it with their hard-earned money instead of clicks and likes. That's how we used to do it. Of course, that's when there used to be a music industry. The music industry died shortly after the advent of the home computer and "Napster". By the time they figured out a way to regain any remaining control, it was far too late. The damage had already been done. If we're really lucky, maybe the truly talented artists in the world will eventually outweigh the talent-less hacks, and create great music again. Hope springs eternal.