Why Music is Less Relevant Than It Used To Be, and Where Art is Moving as a Form for All Mediums

Listening to my copy of CSN, by Crosby, Stills & Nash, I was wondering why a band whose first studio album came out in 1969 was still a common name. When they came back to putt out “Looking Forward”, as Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, how did they still reached number 34 on the billboard top 100 with “No Tears Left”, the single (Crosby Stills & Nash award list). How did The Rolling Stones premier “A Bigger Bang”, in 2005, at number 3 when they put out their first album came out in 1964(Rolling Stones award list)? All of these artists surviving for up to 50 years while Vanilla Ice peaked at number 1 with “To The Extreme”, and then never even reached 200 again during subsequent 5 album run(Vanilla Ice award list). Asking anyone else, you would get a simple answer, “good music lasts, so time will tell” but time has already shown that “good” is decided by the relevancy, lasting itself. Music lasts based on what it attaches itself to, by becoming part of history rather than just talking about it; artists have done it with their lyrics, with their sound, but most of what makes them so attached to the fans that keep them in the limelight, are the emotions they appeal to.

Then, Older artists used their influences and inspirations as references in their music. Quoting, “The king is gone, but not forgotten, is this the story of Johnny Rotten?”, Neil Young is asking the same question this is trying to answer in his own music (“Hey Hey, My My (into the Black)” off of the album“Rust Never Sleeps”). Without knowing it, he is also creating an important piece of history. . Song writers like Neil Young would still rather write about the lead singer of a band that only lasted 3 years, only because he changed his stage name. In a way this is a partnership; while this is an example, Neil Young has been famous for writing about historical events well before he wrote this song, which make his music source material for common opinions, but by writing about Johnny Rotten's change to John Lydon he is also adding even more context to what the Sex Pistols already had. Even then, some of the most popular bands can still be forgotten after a breakup, Paul Revere and the Raiders had 10 top 200 studio albums in their 18 year run, but that’s because they didn't write about anything of importance (Paul Revere & the Raiders award list). When lyrics read off the page like a history book, they become as important as one.

Now, most artists are either not giving recognition to their influences or they don’t have any. the only artist still making the same kind of effort in recent years is Maroon 5 with their single, “Moves Like Jagger”, a billboard number one hit (Maroon 5 awards list). They’re riding on the backs of The Rolling Stones who have survived for a solid 50 years and are still getting their albums in the top 5 billboard chart positions (The Rolling Stones award list). Now that most listeners are focused less on what the artists are saying and more on the choruses they can sing along to a song like “Moves Like Jagger” gives their fans a friendly nod to a band, that has inspired everyone, in a chorus that is stuck in a generations head. It’s hard to believe that people will ever walk around saying “Who is this “Jagger” guy?” and as long as current musicians still care to bring him up, neither of them will lose relevance. Hip-Hop is becoming more and more referential to it’s past as well, and most top 40 rappers feature each other on tracks, which in the short run is helping them all stay alive. It’s a very young genre though, at least at its current level, so it doesn't have the same wealth of influences to pull from.

Not all music is lyrical though so this explains the sudden rise popularity for music highly based on production, hip-hop and many other forms of instrumental electronic music, but it doesn't explain the immediate respect that each passing generation is giving it. The simple explanation for that is that most of the artists involved in that culture are creating a sound exclusive to the age of its popularity. While it can easily be seen as repetitive, as well as derivative, there are artists who are guaranteed to come out the other end of the era as legends and forefathers. It’s the result of a necessary death; a genre that comes in, over saturates itself and then leaves like, gritty, 90s Hip-Hop did at the tail end of it’s popularity and swag rap is doing now.

Considering that the past and present share a common pattern in this way more than any other and it’s easily seen that sound is still more important than a fad. Nirvana was not the first band to do what they did; Kurt Cobain even admitted that he was trying to rip off a Pixies song when he wrote one of their biggest hits (Kurt Cobain interviewed by Robert Frick for Rolling Stone Magazine), “Smells Like Teen Spirit” hitting the billboard charts at number six (Nirvana award list). Nirvana also admits to admiring bands like the Melvins who took influence from other bands, like Joy division and Soul Asylum who put out their first albums before they had their chance. Bands like Megadeth and Metallica are still selling albums off of the relevance the gained in the dead thrash metal scene that died in the 80s, Megadeth’s 2011 release, Th1rt3en, hitting number eleven (Megadeth award list) and Metallica’s , Beyond Magnetic EP, reaching 29 on the billboard top 200 (Metallica award list). They keep their fans coming back because they all want to hear an album that puts them back in the scene that used to thrive.

All fans have very strong connection with the music they listen to; it’s a part of their personality so it has an amazing emotional appeal. It takes a rightful place as part of their personality. The reason why our parents still keep their vinyl recordings, why our parents still buy CDs, and why this generation is obsessed with downloading singles on MP3 are all for this reason. The two previous reasonings are reasons why this kind of attachment exists but what makes emotion such a strong comparison between present and past musicians is that they both take it drastically different ways. The way casual listeners have been hearing music through the last decade is based almost exclusively on an emotional appeal that doesn't connect, legitimately, to the other two varieties, almost, at all. In the past few years boy bands and pop punk/new metal bands have been appealing to young people in ways that, in any other case besides music, would not hold up in the real world. While the newer acts are getting younger, groups like N’ SYNC and The Backstreet Boys had men, whose ages average out to about 20 years old, making music about love for girls budding into puberty from ages twelve to seventeen. Emotion like that can’t be considered real and nothing makes it harder to stay relevant than giving something fake to a generation approaching an age that allows them to realize that, even when your first album hits number 4 on the billboard charts (The Backstreet Boys)(Backstreet Boys award list) or you break the new millennium with a number one album (‘N SYNC)(N’SYNC award list). Even when artists like Justin Bieber or One Direction are closer to an appropriate age, they still follow the exact same song format, which is usually not even written by them, which is still fake. On the other hand bands like Black Veil Brides, Three Days Grace, A Day To Remember, and Blessthefall are all appealing to the angst of the side that rejects what pop stars are doing. They create a form of art that can only be attached to one age group or one generation and it cannot be passed down. It would be ignorant to say all radio music is like this, but that’s the exact reason why some current artists will still be able to continue moving with a healthy fan base and stay relevant.

The point of bringing all of this up is to expose what is becoming a more visible truth. Even though music goes through paces just like any other art form there is a much more linear way of seeing what will happen. In terms of what people like, and what people want on the radio, things will stay the same. This means that the level of variety will alternate as it has every decade, but as each decade goes by less artists within the popular field survive. This means that constants are becoming less and less common and when the ideas and people who remain constant leave all you have left are artists who die off with the art form itself. Music will not die, no more than literature is dead but it is still a far cry from the blossoming culture that music proved itself to be in the past. As a music lover this is my plea to see that people change the way they pay attention, and a an art lover I want to expose this as a possibility for all forms of entertainment.

Bibliography

"Charts and Awards for Crosby, Stills & Nash on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/crosby-stills-nash-mn0000131581/awards>.

"Charts and Awards for A Bigger Bang by The Rolling Stones on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/album/a-bigger-bang-mw0000408720/awards>.

"Charts and Awards for Vanilla Ice on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/vanilla-ice-mn0000262445/awards>.

Young, Neil Percival, Front-man, and Jeff Blackburn. "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)." Perf. Frank Sampedro, Poncho, William Hammond Talbot, Billy, Ralph Molina, Nicolette Larson, Karl T. Himmel, and Joe Osborn. Rec. 27 Aug. 1979. Rust Never Sleeps. Neil Young and Crazy Horse. David Briggs, 1979. Vinyl recording.

"Charts and Awards for Paul Revere & the Raiders on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/paul-revere-the-raiders-mn0000750456/awards>.

"Charts and Awards for Maroon 5 on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/maroon-5-mn0000285232/awards>.

Fricke, David. "Kurt Cobain: The Rolling Stone Interview." The Rolling Stone 27 Jan. 2012: 1+. Rolling Stone Archive. Web. 1 Oct. 2012. <http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/kurt-cobain-the-rolling-stone-interview-19940127>.

"Charts and Awards for Nirvana on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/nirvana-mn0000357406/awards>.

"Charts and Awards for Megadeth on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/megadeth-mn0000406294/awards>.

"Charts and Awards for Metallica on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/metallica-mn0000446509/awards>.

"Charts and Awards for Backstreet Boys on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/backstreet-boys-mn0000765595/awards>.

"Charts and Awards for *NSYNC on AllMusic." AllMusic. Allmusic, 2012. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allmusic.com/artist/nsync-mn0000516929/awards>.

MUSE - The 2nd Law ALBUM REVIEW

"I'm working here!

-Austin Lovelace"
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MUSE is a band that I've been trying to putt my finger on for a while. Coming out with the very ambitious space rock, Radiohead inspired, "Showbiz" they got my interests engaged. I understand how people mark them off as a copy but I saw no reason to place that name on them, yet. Fallowing that with my favorite MUSE album, "Origin of Symmetry", they made them selves out to be a band that had found their sound, one they could call their own. I loved the aggressiveness and in my opinion, it had some of the most creative bass lines of the early 00s, especially the single "New Born". Sadly they fell hard on their next album; "Absolution" was the Radiohead copy everyone always uses against them, and I can't say I disagree. I heard a very clear "Ok Comp./Bends." influence on "O.O.S." but they took it to such a level that any of their songs could be confused with Radiohead's by a casual listener. I hated that album so much that their next just skipped by me and I didn't hear it until "Uprising" dropped from "The Resistance". I listened to "The Resistance", only because I loved the single, but I found MUSE once again copying, just another band. I'm really not a Queen fan and so the only reaction I could have, to an album ripping so much from their corner, was to rush back to their last album hoping for something better. "Black Holes and Revelations" was an album I can defiantly say sounded only like MUSE, not the same as the album that sounded like MUSE before, but still strictly MUSE. 

So, we're clearly dealing with a band that has a very rocky past, with my career as a fan. One album I like, two I love, and two I hate; I hoped that this album would break that tie. I don't think MUSE did much to advance them selves from their last album. Almost every track here sound like it would have fit fine with anything on "The Resistance". "Survival" even has these background vocals that sound completely torn from Freddy Mercury's play book, along with "Supremacy" and "Explorers". "Panic Station" has a guitar riff that sounds way to close to the bass intro from "Another One Bites the Dust", to even call it a MUSE track. They even pull from a side of the 80s a lot of fans are guaranteed to hate. The only real difference between "Big Freeze" and U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is Matt's vocal. 

I know that taking other peoples songs, and sound, is a long standing tradition in music, Just Look at Balkans  and The Strokes. I'm just not hearing MUSE take these influences, or even when they take  rhythms and sounds directly, in a way that is moving them in a unique direction. MUSE is a case of a band who wares their influences on their sleeves, and they've done it very well in the past, but the only thing they're adding to all these, over used 80s sounds, are the dub step wubs that are just carelessly layered over their instrumentals.

There are tracks that brake this mold but they don't even come close to saving the album for me. "Madness" is an electronic love song that gets more and more ambitious as it runs from very dub sounds, not dubstep just dub, to a full collage of instrumentation that easily meets the volume of their older material. "The 2nd Law Unsustainable", is pretty much just a dubstep song though the aimless drop is pretty underwhelming, especially when it sounds just like all the other dubstep productions flooding the market. "Animals" is a really smooth jam that sounds nothing like anything I've heard from MUSE, or any other band for that matter, and the outro is a refreshing  instrumental, Matt's vocals are more a part of the background that foreground, that reminds me that this Album isn't all bad. Sadly the only song that I liked enough to give them the credit, that I wish I could, was "Animals".

I don't want to sound like a snob, saying "MUSE should go back to their old sound", in fact I encourage progression but if this is the direction that they're heading I have no interest in going with them. I'm also sure that a lot of readers will have a different definition of copying, and will also have a different idea of where the line should and should not be crossed. I can't recommend this album to any MUSE fans who fell of the bandwagon on "The Resistance" but if you liked that album I can't see you disliking this, but for me they've crossed a line I'd rather not cross my self, two too many times.

The Note Pad:

Other Anthem Rockers: The Killers, U2, Queen, Bruce Springsteen, Arcade Fire, The Foo Fighters, Radiohead. Journey, Styx, Kansas, R.E.O. Speed Wagon, Aerosmith

Other Bands You Might Like: Almost anything from the 80s

















-Austin Lovelace

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The Note Pad: The Music Is Sound Rating, Paying for Music, and Supporting Our Fans

"I'm fell off with green day a while back but I'm digging the hell out of this trailer!

-Austin Lovelace"

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I'm going to start reviewing new albums so I'll be abandoning the weekly format to cover the albums on my "anticipated list". I also want to cover other albums that came out this year so recommend albums to me and I'll give them a listen.

This is the system I'm going to use to rate the albums (already been used on the "Milo Takes Baths review". I'm hoping it's easy enough to understand, if not pleas let me know how I could fix it, but there are still some things I want to clear up. Rather than just using a number/star system or a symbol system we wanted to create a system that not only made it clear how we felt about it but could also be easily separated into 3 easey categories; simply put "buy it", "sample it", or "pirate it". We want to give the impression that we buy music that we like and for that matter, want you to buy and support. Even though our lowest rating is "pirate it" we don't support you doing it. We want this blog to have hummer so a rating of "pirate it" should be taken as a joke, though it does mean I'm not going to dish out any money for it. The ratings don't cross with each other, so you can't expect a rating including both "bad" and "buy it"; meaning that not dishing out any money means I didn't like it anyway and won't ever listen to it again. We do promote that you always pay for the music you like but our 2nd rating "sample it" can contradict that. Without trying to sound like I support pirating I do support "illegal downloads" to sample albums. I have used this method to listen and review albums before but I always had the intent on buying it if I wanted to hear it again, if I liked it, and I could rant on that but I will leave the issue at that. If there are any ways you can listen to a project for free and legally pleas sample that way; "Groove Shark", "Spotify", "Youtube", and more are all ways to legally listen to music. Our worst and final rating "rebecca black (why)" is not referring to the person it is referring to the meme and will only be used in the case of an album I actually find offensive and I can almost assure you our version of a 0 will hardly, if ever, be used. I don't like the song though.
(. )__(. )' ( .)__( .)'

We don't promote any particular way of buying your music as long as you pay for it but I will inform you that the older the medium is, the more money the artist gets. Record Companies not only have deals with stores and artists but also media developers as well; they move their attention to the newest media type; the artists get lower percentages of the money that goes into what is now cheaper mediums. In addition to also being more expensive and producing more money artists also get a larger percentage of the money spent on Vinyl rather than CDs, and more from CD's than MP3s. I myself always buy my music on CD but like I said before as long as you pay for your music than we don't care how.

Despite all opinions expressed we are not here to change minds or force ideas on anyone. We can only say what we think, and after that it's all up to you. You don't need to agree with a review I wright or a score I give so please tell us what you think. We'll even offer a download of our score template here so you can rate it for your self (here). You can use this system on your blog as well but please notify us. If you wright a review of the same album and send it to use We'll even feature it on the post, if we like it. We want to express our opinions but pleas take everything we've said with a grain of salt until you here the album for yourself, then tell us what you think. If anything, music deserves a collective opinion so join us and help us get there.

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-Austin Lovelace

Joel's Point of View 1

"Hello guy and welcome to my first presentation of "Joel's Point of View", I will do this more likely every week or so, don't be afraid to comment, this is made for it."

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now, what to talk about, what to talk about... OH YEH! So I was watching the Grammys last week and it was pretty interesting, I saw many many things happening and enjoyed all of the performances, but one thing came up to my mind. Why do they always make "Album of the Year" the biggest prize? I mean, today's "best" music (most likely pop) is all about producing and the sounds that's happening in the songs... So If music is not that all about the artist, then why is it that when they name the album of the year, the full crew doesn't walk on the stage, but just the artist? I think the biggest Grammy should be "Producer of the Year" or at least, If they want to make the "Album of the Year" so prestigious or, or, honored and shiny and all, then why don't they just have the full crew, who worked so much harder than the pop artist, walk on the stage? I'm not saying its easy to make music and all, as a musician I know that, but today's music is all about producing the energy in the sounds that they're using, the beats, the extreme work of mastering and mixing... Anyways I'll finish this off with a video showing how it works these days:



The girl could not sing at all in the beggining and at the end, she sounded like lady gaga... Anyways, talking about the Grammys, I'll be preparing something for you guys talking about the Grammys, what I liked and what I disliked.

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