In the years exiting my teens and entering my early 20's, I made a promise to myself. I promised that I would never be 'that guy' who stops listening to new music and only listens to the stuff they grew up with. I pledged to never be the guy who utters 'music was so much better in my day' when the subject comes up.
But today, I have to think that's the case. Modern music completely sucks.
Let me clarify, by that I mean modern popular music. There is a tremendous amount of amazing stuff being produced by smaller artists and on indie labels that is truly amazing. I've discovered new artists and genres that I never would have been exposed to in the pre-Spotify, pre-YouTube era of music. I love new music from talented and original artists like Pretty Lights, Caravan Palace and Chromeo who are both modern and very original.
But our popular music today is seemingly less about the music, and more about the celebrities behind it. Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, etc. have become icons more than musicians. Songs on the radio seem indistinguishable from one another, seemingly spit out of the same pop music generator that most of our new music seems to come from.
It has no creativity, originality or soul. Its auto-tuned commercial fluff.
When I enter my office to go to work, I find myself pulling up playlists of 80's one-hit-wonders, classic thrash metal or 90's r&b. I couldn't name a single song by any modern pop artist because I simply don't care (except for Firework due to YouTube celebrity JonTron's hilarious cover of it). Modern music seems as fake and artificial as Nicki Minaj's...well, pretty much any body part. She look like the unholy amalgamation of a sex doll and My Little Pony figurine.
So while in past generations, the older generations ranted about how bad music is nowadays. But I grew up listening to Michael Jackson, Dr. Dre, Megadeth, Nirvana and countless other bands that stood primarily as musicians first and personalities second.
Today, music has transformed into the platform that holds up celebrities and the music is an afterthought. Beyonce could fart into a tuba and it would sell a million copies, because its simply not about the music anymore, its about our current obsession with celebrity worship.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go listen to some Tears For Fears, Jodeci and Pearl Jam to wash the thoughts of horrible modern music out of my head.