Music

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about music. I don’t want to be one of those people that only listens to the music they grew up with. I mean, I could do that easily - I’ve got hundreds of homemade CDs with all songs that I like. I could just listen to those nonstop and forget about the radio. But, I don’t want to do that. I believe that there’s still good music out there. It’s just hard to find sometimes. I watched the MTV Video Music Awards last Thursday. I fast forwarded through most of it (happy that AFI won best Rock Video), and there were so many bands that I had never heard of. I used to be able to name practically every band I heard on the radio. Now, I’m lucky if I know one every two hours. The only reason I still listen to the radio is for the excitement of hearing a new song that I love. The excitement of finding a band I didn’t know about before and becoming a fan. I felt that way with AFI and have been enjoying my new-fan enthusiasm. But, I think that more and more, I just like a song on the radio, but am not driven to look them up on Amazon or try and listen to the rest of their CD. That disappoints me. That I’m losing my passion for new music. Growing up, I had a tape boombox and I would listen to the radio while doing my homework. As soon as a song came on that I liked, I would record it on a tape. Once that tape was full, I would re-record the songs to a new tape and clean up any DJ talking or advertising. From 6th-12th grade, I accumulated 24 90-minute tapes. Most had one-hit wonders and I didn’t even know the band name or the real song title. When I quit consulting in 2002, I took about six months off. During that time, I downloaded songs off Napster and Limewire (before they started handing out subpoenas and all that crap). I was able to find about 90% of the songs. For the last 10% I bought software that allows you to record songs from a stereo onto your computer. My dad used it to record all of his albums too. Awesome stuff. I had to google lyrics to find out what the real song titles and band names were. For those last songs I couldn’t find before, it was mainly because I had the wrong title. But now, I feel my 80s/90s library is practically complete. Sure, there’s some random songs that I’ve forgotten about, but in general, I’ve been pretty thorough. Now though, thinking about the past few years, I have very few ‘recent’ songs. I guess I’ve just got to start writing down the names of bands that I like, and once I realize I like a couple songs from one band, I need to check out their CDs. It’s something that I’ll have to drive myself to do. I don’t want to ignore the new music. Sure, some if it is whiny crap, but some is interesting.

A few weeks ago Jayson posted on his blog about the demise of MTV. I’d been thinking about that lately too. I remember watching MTV when it came out in 1981. It was all videos, all the time. Now, I never see a video on there. I thought MTV2 was supposed to fix that and only play videos. But, when I turn that station on, it’s all show programming as well now. The only music station I’ve been interested in is FUSE. Angie at work mentioned it to me, and I’ve liked it so far. It’s mostly metal, alternative, and rock. I don’t think they play much rap or r&b. There’s definitely a lot of rock songs that I have never heard of. I’ve also gotten hooked on VH1 Classic. They play some videos that I didn’t even know had been made in the 80s and 90s. If you have cable, check it out. I wonder if the diminishing impact and availability of videos has contributed to the shrinking music sales. Videos really draw new fans in and make current fans more excited about the song. It also doesn’t hurt if your lead singer is hot. Never underestimate the buying power of young girls. For all the videos mentioned at the VMA’s, I don’t even know where kids would’ve been able to watch them. I guess that’s where TRL comes in. I don’t know where I’m going with this topic….I guess it’s just my overall dissatisfaction and disappointment with what MTV has turned into.

Another strange topic I’ve been dwelling on lately is my generation that had kids young enough to now be raising teenagers. It’s just so odd that bands from the 90s like Tool, Nine Inch Nails, and Red Hot Chili Peppers have all recently released new albums. Potentially parents and kids could be listening to the same music. While I was at the mall today I saw so many kids dressed all punk/goth. But, if your parent was punk/goth too, how do you rebel at that? If your dad is rockin out to NIN’s Closer and Trent Reznor is screaming ‘I want to fuck you like an animal’, where does a kid go from there? Or if your mom tells you about the time she broke her ankle in a mosh pit at an Alice in Chains concert – what does a kid say? Do they rebel by wearing khakis and polos? It’s just an intriguing thought. Or maybe once people have kids they give up their past musical passions. I know my sister did. She used to be into music as much as I am – she’d seen Pearl Jam, gone to several Lollapalooza’s, etc. Now, she doesn’t even listen to her old CDs cause she’s too busy with her 4yr old. I guess it’s all just part of kids sucking the life out of their parents.