Growing up, music was a big part of my household. Every weekend, my family and I would hang out and put on MTV or whatever channel was showing music videos in the morning. A lot of what I grew up listening to was whatever my parents currently liked. Typically it was usually 90s-00s hip hop and R&B. Now music just doesn’t hit the same. There is not that nostalgic feeling when listening to music and remembering the good times associated with songs like there used to be.
One major issue that contributes to this can stem from technology. Everyone can get their hands on technology and use the various apps or software that help to make tracks and beats for songs. People can manipulate anything to produce a song to make it sound good. While this is a talent to some degree for some music creators, it does not do much other than produce a quick buck. A new catchy, trendy song is great and all, but it does not always mean that it will stay popular or even be considered timeless.
Timeless artists are hard to come by now and since many artists are still becoming established there is no saying to if they will be timeless in the future. Most of the greatest artists of all time do not even come from within the past ten years. Taking a look at Billboard’s chart of the greatest of all-time artists, not one artist listed had started their music career recently. These artists burst into the music industry ranging from the 70s to the early 00s. Most of these big-name artists become sampled to create the new mainstream music today.
Hip Hop alone has changed over the past decade or so with all of these new random rappers that have ‘lil’ somewhere in their name. While music is subjective and has no restrictions, it just seems as though today’s hip-hop is just spewing words out to a generic beat that everyone else uses. It doesn’t send a message or tell a story like it used to anymore, instead it only centers around sex and money. In other words, it is overhyped oversexualized songs that will be popular for a few months before they are long forgotten. It will be quickly replaced with the same song just a different beat, tweaked just a fraction than the previous.
I think that is why lately I have not found myself motivated to listen to any new music unless I know I really like the artist. Recently, I found myself getting into rock and alternative, which has opened up a whole new catalog of music for me to experience. Again though, these artists that I am just now taking the time to dive into were from the 70s instead of new artists. Music is always adapting and forever changing, so it only makes sense that the artists change too. I just wish there were some artists that could produce more than just one-hit wonders and become established artists that could potentially have timeless songs.