Generational music
Jan. 14th, 2003 01:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrikThe young are supposed to listen to music their parents (and even moreso, their grandparents) utterly hate. It's supposed to be rebellious, scandalous, and downright misunderstood. Each wave of things, from the British Invasion to punk to metal to rap, was keenly suited to alienating the parents of those who listened to them. Given this observation so many pundits have made, I keep wondering how long it'll be until I grow up enough to start utterly hating the music the next generation is listening to.
I thought I found signs of it nearing the late 90's. The whole pop-trash thing going on, with squealing psuedo-rap Divas, "hard core" hip-hop, 'kill you dead" rap, and more notably the utter trash that is most boy bands/girl bands/RIAA-top-pop-of-the-week... they all served to offend quite nicely. Sure, there was a gem or two within each of them that was worth listening to, but I figured, hey -- I'm finally getting the first part of my 'old codger' status underway. I can't stand this stuff! There was still a lot I liked, though... and the massive crushing weight of the 80's Resurgence not only kept a good background theme going, but it re-inspired modern artists into new venues. So yeah, while some of the music scene was annoying, a lot of it still clicked right. I couldn't be righteously indignant yet.
However, that's been shattered for me over the last year or so. I started looking into the generation after the one below me -- the 'kids' market of today -- just to see if it was going to get worse from here. I took a sneak-listen to things like 'radio disney', the 'kids' channels on XM, the music going in behind cartoons on saturday mornings, etc... and I found a familiar genre, now all grown up, and already deeply ingrained into the mindset of this newer, little crowd.
Techno.
Yeah, it surprised me too. The underpinnings of trance, ambient, techno, house, and the many sub-variants are surfacing everywhere. It's not just that it's coming out more in the people my age and just below -- it's becoming incredibly saturated throughout the very-young. What was once considered music for tech-heads, ravers, burning-man attendees, metal outcasts and electronic dreamers has gotten one hell of a foothold in mainstream society, from the bottom up. If you don't believe me, find a kids-radio-station (not common but they are findable) and check out the 'top 10'. Try to figure out which ones are pop-trash and which ones are techno. Most are fusions between them, with the techno component winning out. Take alisten to XM's dance channels (BPM, The System, The Move) and listen to the callers. Most sound like Jr. High kids!
I can't quite figure out why this is the way it is. However, I highly approve. Techno, once just a thumpa-thumpa-synthfreak genre, is finding whole new ways to play with sound. It's growing up, and becoming much more. What we hear nowadays will simply be background education for the much more advanced sounds to come, and I can't wait to hear it. With any luck it'll help drone out the nasty splotch of 'mass media' that was the late 90's, and seal it off into the footlocker of history. I know, no form of music truely ever dies, but one can hope that we'd never have to hear another "All Backstreet Boys,. All The Time" radio station ever again. Still... I had to wonder. Why did the music in the 90s happen like it did... and why is it getting better?
The way I see it, a good part of this trashy music selection came about because of the peak of the mass-marketed-music craze. It times well with the takeover of almost all commercial radio by super-huge groups like Clear Channel Communications as well as the ham-fisted actions of the RIAA and music-publishers to create 'megastars' and promote the hell out of them and anything that sounded like them. Instead of being fed a well balanced diet with a few nice flavors here and there, the industry tried to figure out which little sweet-treats folks looked forwards to, then tried to ram them down your throat in firehose quantity, with near-zero vareity. What was once a dessert rapidly became oversweet and made me sick... I stopped feeling like a music appreciator, and started feeling like a marekting target. Unfortunately, memes can survive on momentum alone, for at least a little while... which lead to wave after wave of copycat pop/boy-band/girl-band/angsty-teen music through most of a decade.
For now, I blame the electronica-resurgence on the cracks in the grip of the mega-marketers. MP3s, P2P filesharing, satellite radio, video games, cartoons... you name it. Variety started to happen, even as some of the bigger music congloms worked to stomp it out. Kids who would normally only hear what the local radio station had or the local mass-music-store sold are now using Kazaa and to get world beat, electronica, techno, gothic, celtic. XM is popping up everywhere, with it's 100+ channels of diversity. "Edgy" media grabs onto this and tries to get even deeper into the strange new things, which just makes the teenage set latch onto it all the more strongly.
The heck if I know where this is all going. I won't even begin to pontificate on the success or failure of groups like the RIAA trying to keep a control on things, other than to say that I hope someone, be it consumers or industry (or both!) figures out that diversity is more important than making the most money in the shortest amount of time. As a race we humans are incredibly creative and we need to be taking that creativity to its limits. It's how a species inspires itself, and grows to new heights.
I thought I found signs of it nearing the late 90's. The whole pop-trash thing going on, with squealing psuedo-rap Divas, "hard core" hip-hop, 'kill you dead" rap, and more notably the utter trash that is most boy bands/girl bands/RIAA-top-pop-of-the-week... they all served to offend quite nicely. Sure, there was a gem or two within each of them that was worth listening to, but I figured, hey -- I'm finally getting the first part of my 'old codger' status underway. I can't stand this stuff! There was still a lot I liked, though... and the massive crushing weight of the 80's Resurgence not only kept a good background theme going, but it re-inspired modern artists into new venues. So yeah, while some of the music scene was annoying, a lot of it still clicked right. I couldn't be righteously indignant yet.
However, that's been shattered for me over the last year or so. I started looking into the generation after the one below me -- the 'kids' market of today -- just to see if it was going to get worse from here. I took a sneak-listen to things like 'radio disney', the 'kids' channels on XM, the music going in behind cartoons on saturday mornings, etc... and I found a familiar genre, now all grown up, and already deeply ingrained into the mindset of this newer, little crowd.
Techno.
Yeah, it surprised me too. The underpinnings of trance, ambient, techno, house, and the many sub-variants are surfacing everywhere. It's not just that it's coming out more in the people my age and just below -- it's becoming incredibly saturated throughout the very-young. What was once considered music for tech-heads, ravers, burning-man attendees, metal outcasts and electronic dreamers has gotten one hell of a foothold in mainstream society, from the bottom up. If you don't believe me, find a kids-radio-station (not common but they are findable) and check out the 'top 10'. Try to figure out which ones are pop-trash and which ones are techno. Most are fusions between them, with the techno component winning out. Take alisten to XM's dance channels (BPM, The System, The Move) and listen to the callers. Most sound like Jr. High kids!
I can't quite figure out why this is the way it is. However, I highly approve. Techno, once just a thumpa-thumpa-synthfreak genre, is finding whole new ways to play with sound. It's growing up, and becoming much more. What we hear nowadays will simply be background education for the much more advanced sounds to come, and I can't wait to hear it. With any luck it'll help drone out the nasty splotch of 'mass media' that was the late 90's, and seal it off into the footlocker of history. I know, no form of music truely ever dies, but one can hope that we'd never have to hear another "All Backstreet Boys,. All The Time" radio station ever again. Still... I had to wonder. Why did the music in the 90s happen like it did... and why is it getting better?
The way I see it, a good part of this trashy music selection came about because of the peak of the mass-marketed-music craze. It times well with the takeover of almost all commercial radio by super-huge groups like Clear Channel Communications as well as the ham-fisted actions of the RIAA and music-publishers to create 'megastars' and promote the hell out of them and anything that sounded like them. Instead of being fed a well balanced diet with a few nice flavors here and there, the industry tried to figure out which little sweet-treats folks looked forwards to, then tried to ram them down your throat in firehose quantity, with near-zero vareity. What was once a dessert rapidly became oversweet and made me sick... I stopped feeling like a music appreciator, and started feeling like a marekting target. Unfortunately, memes can survive on momentum alone, for at least a little while... which lead to wave after wave of copycat pop/boy-band/girl-band/angsty-teen music through most of a decade.
For now, I blame the electronica-resurgence on the cracks in the grip of the mega-marketers. MP3s, P2P filesharing, satellite radio, video games, cartoons... you name it. Variety started to happen, even as some of the bigger music congloms worked to stomp it out. Kids who would normally only hear what the local radio station had or the local mass-music-store sold are now using Kazaa and to get world beat, electronica, techno, gothic, celtic. XM is popping up everywhere, with it's 100+ channels of diversity. "Edgy" media grabs onto this and tries to get even deeper into the strange new things, which just makes the teenage set latch onto it all the more strongly.
The heck if I know where this is all going. I won't even begin to pontificate on the success or failure of groups like the RIAA trying to keep a control on things, other than to say that I hope someone, be it consumers or industry (or both!) figures out that diversity is more important than making the most money in the shortest amount of time. As a race we humans are incredibly creative and we need to be taking that creativity to its limits. It's how a species inspires itself, and grows to new heights.
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no subject
Date: 2003-01-14 02:08 pm (UTC)I read far too much literature from 1830-1900. While there is an awareness of age and the passage of time and how that effects someone's maturity, it isn't nearly so regimented and compartmentalized.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-15 07:23 am (UTC)And yeah, I think the "kids listen to music their parents hate" is biased by artifacts. In the case of punk for instance, lyrics often intentionally go after the sterile and oppressive immorality of the adults' system... but instrumentals are just a derivation and furtherance of 60s surf guitar. Which the adult world would have heard as kids, if they hadn't only been exposed to the mindnumbing saccharinity of most mainstream 60s crap.
I sort of think techno works on the same musical theory as jazz, with more play and variability within the classification, and which extends the life of the genre... but I can't say exactly why I think that.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-15 04:23 pm (UTC)I think you're right, Tug.