I always find it interesting to observe human behavior whenever I put up a music post. In addition to those who are locked in time and can’t pull their ossified preferences out of the 60s/70s/80s/90s through which they lived their formative years, I’m always somewhat mystified by those who seem to think that discussing music is some sort of competitive sport.
I mean, if instead of discussing the example at hand, your instinct is to say “you know what is even better!” (link), then how are you ever going to analyze or understand anything at all? I just don’t get that.
But what is probably funniest is those who appear to sincerely believe that they just happened to be between the ages of 14 and 19 when the greatest music in the history of mankind was recorded. Not only that, but even the young appreciate this when exposed for the very first time in their lives to music they have certainly never ever heard before and now vastly prefer it to the songs they listened to before, and continue to listen to afterwards.
No, Virginia, Journey is not the musical pinnacle of the human experience. Neither, I am sorry to inform you, is Led Zeppelin, even if “Stairway to Heaven” was the #1 request on KQRS for the 42nd year in a row this year.
(I have to admit, one of the unexpected pleasures of my life has been Millennials expressing a genuine appreciation for the various musical innovations of the 80s while snorting in derision at the lack of creativity, poor production, and technical inferiority of the Classic Rock that was repeatedly shoved down our Generation X throats by the Baby Boomers. Don’t get me wrong, I like “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Carry On, My Wayward Son” as much as the next guy, but music from that era now sounds as technologically dated now as the music from the 1950s did in the 1980s.)
As Bill Simmons wrote of basketball, you can respect the classic BMW for doing what it did first while understanding that the modern car is simply a much better automobile across the board. Anyhow, in response to some of the comments.
Sorry, Vox, you have no musical taste whatsoever.
I appreciate everything from Wagner and Vivaldi to Babymetal and DNCE and I can tell you exactly why in each case. But how can all of that compare to Skynrd? FREEBIRD!
I would like to commend you on not allowing your musical taste to age as you do. Too many continue to listen to what was popular when they were teenagers and it is embarrassing when these people attempt to foist their taste on next generation.
I understand why so many people age out, and it is entirely normal, but I find it absurd to dismiss music simply because it happens to have been recorded after you passed the age of caring intensely about music. And it’s particularly stupid to say “X is just Y” because it’s not true. In fact, quite often, X is musically influenced by Y, and Y not only recognizes that, but appreciates it.
Ironically, musicians are much more catholic in their tastes and generous in their praise than most of their fans are. I’ll never forget hearing Tommy Lee waxing on about what great musicians the guys in Duran Duran were, at a time when every Motley Crue fan would have dismissed them out of hand.
This is a joke right? I mean there is nothing funnier in the world then seeing the millennials victimized by their own sick twisted thinking and philosophy. The first thing I thought of when I heard the lyrics was that a Section 8 negro or illegal immigrants stole his car stereo haha…
It seems many of you fail to understand that the songwriter should be judged on how well he manages to evoke the emotion he is expressing rather than how you feel about the emotions being expressed. The mere fact that so many non-Millennials reacted so badly to the Millennial sense of loss and the desire to return to “the good old days” of childhood demonstrates how powerful the songwriting is.
You can learn a lot about a generation by listening to the music of its youth, and you can learn a lot about the history of that time too. It’s almost heartbreaking now to hear the optimism of the early 90s; I can barely stand to listen to the wonderfully intelligent Jesus Jones song, “Right Here, Right Now”, because now we know that we woke up from history only to get run over by the bus it was driving. We thought that we could move any mountain and that something good was going to happen, and we were so absolutely wrong.
Great song, it sounds like they couldn’t make up their mind what genre
they want to be in, so they went with all of them (emo, rock anthem,
trance).
Even more than that. They can do anything from country to early 80s to techno. Moreover, they know it and are not above musically flexing their muscles to flaunt it.
All these songs I’m hearing are so heartless
Don’t trust a perfect person and don’t trust a song that’s flawless
Honest, there’s a few songs on this record that feel common
I’m in constant confrontation with what I want and what is poppin’
In the industry it seems to me that singles on the radio are currency
My creativity’s only free when I’m playin’ shows
They say stay in your lane, boy, lane ,boy
But we go where we want to
They may not be confident about much, but they are certainly secure in their musical abilities and songwriting.
That singer is a whiny little bitch. I prefer Sabaton when I’m lifting weights in the gym.
And then I eat red meat, raw, and throw down a couple of brewskis before I go out and slay some pussy!
I still say he needs a beatdown. It would straighten out his thinking a lot.
This is backwards. They are already beaten down. That is why they are looking backwards rather than forwards. That is also why they are so offensive to the Baby Boomers, who can’t help but react to their implicit rejection of Boomer assumptions and ideals.
In my view, those of previous generations who dismiss Twenty One Pilots for being quintessentially Millennial are completely missing the point and failing to ask the salient question. Why do they express such a sense of loss? What is it that they are missing, what is the yearning in their generation that they express so vividly? There is a depth there that is absent in the vapid self-absorption of Boomer music as well as in the optimism turned bitter of Gen X music, to say nothing of the superficial posturings of more than three decades worth of the musical dead end that is rap.
They may not have the answers, but they are asking the right questions. And they may not be the fighters, but they will raise them.