It’s been a while since I’ve gotten inspired by new music. If you’re the type of person that depends on top 40 radio to provide you with your daily soundtrack, then you probably won’t understand my point of view. The state of popular music today is a laughing stock full of recycled garbage. I don’t believe most people can relate to music about having tons of cash, material excesses, being annoyed by the paparazzi, extreme depression or childish unrealistic love. The pop musicians of now are reminiscent of the ones from the late 80’s right before Nirvana showed up and destroyed the musical landscape and restored meaning & angst to music. That was 20 years ago and I think most of us are ready for a new savior. Music is too precious a thing to be left in the hands of Soulja Boy, Toby Keith, Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Green Day, Daddy Yankee, Miley Cyrus, The Fray, Puff Daddy and Papa Roach to name a few played out popular acts. The standards have become extremely low and these so called musicians are ripe for elimination & when that day comes believe me they are going to deserve it.
Lets us cut the crap out of music. I love beats, but in too many cases a good track can be completely wasted on some bad lyrics. This is the reason I like electronic music. It’s about ideas & beats, not some singer’s need to tell me his life story or what he woke up thinking about the other day. And I’m not talking about what most people think electronic music is, a never ending boring & repetitive trance song mixed by Paul Okenfold, Carl Cox or Danny Tenaglia. I am talking about artists that make groundbreaking sounds and the DJ’s that deliver those beats to us in the sickest of ways. Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin, Underworld, The Prodigy, Air, The Future Sound of London are a few of my personal all time favorites. These artists are composers that can’t afford to hire a symphony so they use the tools of electronic music to control sometimes hundreds of sounds at the same time to bring their big ideas to our ears. What type of music do you think Ludwig van Beethoven would be composing had he existed today?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw3mU-OrqzM]
I am very hopeful about the future of music. Right now there is a style called “Electro” that is rapidly taking over the electronic music scene & spreading to the mainstream. You can groove to its freshness, you can mosh to its rawness, you can tweak out to its sharp sound and it’s attracting diverse groups of people that you wouldn’t ever imagine partying together or enjoying each other’s company. It’s a beautiful thing to say the least and I for one am on board for the ride. Boys Noize, Simian Mobile Disco, The Bloody Beetroots, Kavinsky, Justice and DJ Steve Aoki to name a few that are at the forefront of the movement. The classical electronic group Kraftwerk is credited with inspiring this style of music. So if you haven’t heard of this scene you should give it a try, who knows you might end up liking it or loving it like I do.
