I think that is what you may be missing in today’s music. It’s called ‘musical roots’, something most of the evanescent superstars today absolutely don’t have. And those ‘giants’ themselves came out of a variety of musical traditions–New Orleans, Appalachia, and so on. They stood on the shoulders of giants, as did Newton. These were the people whom the Beatles and the Stones listened too. My heroes were Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, and a few others. I, being older (but no wiser), was present “at the creation” of rock and roll. Jerry, you speak from the point of view of your generation. I am Professor Ceiling Cat, and I endorse this message. What we have is a crop of overhyped, oversold, autotuned mediocrities. Why will their music last? Because these people were artists, who produced interesting music, with lovely tunes and (often) meaningful lyrics.

No, the songs on the oldies stations in 20 years will be pretty much what they are now: the Beatles, the Stones, the great soul music of the 60s and early 70s, the Band, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Ray Charles, Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, and. One of them, to use a band on the current charts, is Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning,” but that’s already nine years old. Now not all modern rock songs are lame there are some that I actually like. “Holy Grail” by Jay Z (with Justin Timberlake.It will be Beethoven, Bach, and Brahms.Īnd in 20 years, do you think the “oldies” rock stations will be playing the rock that is popular today? They should, because today’s kids will be tomorrow’s consumers, and presumably they’d want to conjure up their youth by listening to the music of their halcyon days.īut this is what they’d be hearing: stuff like this week’s top ten songs on Billboard: Do you believe that in 200 years symphony orchestras-if they still exist-will be playing largely the “classical” music composed today? I doubt it. Can modern jazz really compare to that of the 30s, 40s, and early 50s, when Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Django Reinhardt, and innumerable greats held sway? You’d be hard pressed to make the case, for jazz has largely exhausted itself. People will say, “Hey, there are still some great rock songs around,” or “Hey, what about this jazz musician?” But really, those are the equivalent of anecdotes. Modern poetry can be okay, but I’d rather read Shakespeare, Dylan Thomas, Wallace Stevens, or Yeats. Modern art is execrable, most modern classical music lame, especially in comparison to the greats of the 16th-19th century, modern jazz has degenerated to a cult embracing but a few aficionados. My theory, which is mine, is that eventually every art form, with the possible exception of movies and the novel, degenerates. It is an ex-music form and sings with the choir invisible. And the overweening thing wrong is that rock and roll is dead. When all these bells and whistles are used to gussy up what is essentially a mediocre song, you know there’s something wrong. Who had that bad idea, which is grossly overused? AUTOTUNING (voices are adjusted electronically): the curse of modern rock.Other recent music videos have covered up the lack of interesting music with unclad women. Attempt to cover up lack of creativity with shock value: cursing girl-on-girl kiss featuring Danica McKellar (think Katy Perry) superheroes and even a shark beheaded by a buzzsaw.Tune (if there is one) is dull words forgettable. Song shows no signs of creativity sounds like many other songs on the air.Here’s what’s wrong with this song, and with many rock songs and videos these days:

Remember that night grouplove