Stop bitching about contemporary music. In fact, stop bitching about music in general and just enjoy what you love and ignore what you hate.
Perhaps in your internet explorations, dear reader, you've stumbled across this gem:
My response to this is:
Sugar,
Oh Honey Honey.
You are my candy girl.
and you got me wanting you. ("Sugar Sugar" The Archies 1969)
I provided this example to show that inane, silly lyrics are not a recent invention, . In fact The Archies were part of a music genre from 1968-1972 called "bubblegum pop", a genre devoted to preteens and teenagers that inexplicably swept adults up in its path- so basically the 70s version of bieberfever. Now tell me all music was better “back then”.
I want to make two things about what I'm advocating very clear:
1. There is obviously nothing wrong about listening to older music. In fact, by all means, listen to old music! Listen to the Velvet Underground! Listen to Michael Jackson from when he looked like a human! Listen to Bob Dylan from when he didnt sound like an asthmatic toad! Listen to Janis Jopin! Hell, take it back further! Listen to Beethoven! Listen to Chopin! Listen to Hildegard von Bingen!
2. There is nothing wrong with "shitty" music. You don't have to call Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" your guilty pleasure just because it's not amazingly poetic or intellectually stimulating. According to it's Wikipedia page, it's one of the best selling digital singles of all time, so you are not alone!
It just angers me to see people my age who rant about how music was so much better over 40 years ago. First off, enough reminiscing you weren’t even fucking alive then. Second, why do you have so little faith in our generation to produce innovative and revolutionary music? Is it really fair to judge our entire generations musical taste by what's on Billboards Hot 100? Think of every person whose musical taste you ever respected and ask yourself if they spent most of their time listening to the mainstream radio.
Yes, mainstream music of today has very little merit. Sex, drugs, drinking, and pathetic love songs dominate the radio stations and it's all pretty much the same. so you know what you do? turn off the radio and find GOOD music… trust me, if you open your mind a little your itunes library will thank you. Theres lots of resources to find it too…
Go on the websites of local music venues. Most places will have a pretty extensive list of shows well in advance, and lengthly descriptions of the bands in question. Find ones that look appealing, and find a way to check them out (hint- youtube). This way, you not only get introduced to a new band, but you're all set to go to see them live!
Music to me is a very social thing, so if you want to expand your library, get out and talk to people about it! Ask them for favorite bands or tracks or albums and check them out! They might even allow you to take tracks from their libraries through cd’s or flashdrives. Music’s a great way to bond, so not only will you get great tunes, you may actually make a friend, perhaps one with whom you can go to concerts with!
If you read this last paragraph with a sense of terror at the prospect of being social (don’t worry my interweb friends, i know we tend to be a shy bunch and I don’t judge) NEVER FEAR!!! The internet is a beautiful thing and there are lots of ways for you to discover new tunes without any sort of awkward social interactions. You can creep on peoples facebooks, tumblrs, or twitters for music they like. Theres also pandora.com, where you can get introduced to music based on tracks or artists you already know and love. Finally, there's my little secret. There are websites called video 2 mp3 converters that allow you to take youtube or other online videos and convert it to mp3 files that are combatible with itunes… so pretty much any song you can find a video of is yours to own!
The trick is to remain openminded. I never really listened to much hiphop/ rap or electronic before coming to college, as the only stuff I was exposed to was mainstream on the radio. However, after being introduced to certain rappers and artists, I found myself really loving it. Same thing with electronic/ rave music.
It's irritating with all the resources to find great stuff at our disposal to hear people bitch. What's the point of it? If you really genuinely feel that no music produced after 1975 is worth listening to here is my advice: lock yourself in your house with your record player on Stairway to Heaven on repeat, burn incense, and cry into the tie-dye pant suit your hippie great aunt wore to Woodstock to lament the tragedy of being born in 1991. Just make sure your window is also closed and locked to make sure no openmindedness can work its way in!
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