Looking for Connection

For this blog entry I’d like to take a step away from the analysis of genre in contemporary music, if I may, and discuss a more underlying issue. The reason, for the last few entries, that I have been so critical of contemporary hip-hop and rock music is that I care about it. I’ve been a music listener for as long as I can remember, and throughout the years I’ve seen eras begin and end, and though I’m not as old as some, I’ve taken the time to learn about eras in music long before I was around. It seems to me - and please correct me if I’m wrong - music is in a difficult stage. Pop music is not reliable, and what I mean by that is: pop music no longer provides the public with the most talented for us to find easily, and really hasn’t for a while now. Because of this, independent music has become the new pop for anyone who listens seriously. This contradiction provides for an interesting yet perplexing paradigm.

My complaint about pop music is that it is diluted and predictable, pedantic and unoriginal, but it’s pop music and we can all ignore it to the best of our abilities (no-one can completely avoid it being that we are literally saturated by it - hearing it in stores, commercials, movies, etc). What is so amazing, however, is that because independent music has become the new pop music for many of us, it too has followed this trend mentioned above - and what are we left with? One source of music that is completely unlistenable to any self-respecting aficionado and another: the alternative. The alternative (independent music) is not all that different from it’s hyped up counterpart. Independent music, hip-hop or rock, is in many ways completely stale with few exceptions.

What happened to innovation? What happened to passion? We’re not likely to find it in hip-hop where it seems that every topic has been thoroughly discussed - except the for several stigmatized subjects which I’ve discussed in length in previous blog entries. Similarly, we’re unlikely to find it in rock which is mostly “indie-rock” - a dispassionate, diluted, shallow, and predictable sub-genre of rock so absolutely disconnected that it encourages connection only on a disconnected level - how very sad. Are we only connected through our mutual disconnection? I certainly hope not, and if this is true, it’s not a good thing, and something that should be challenged and hopefully resolved. Hip-hop disconnects at a level where I distrust the rapper, because he/she fails to communicate real emotion in a complete and diverse spectrum of feeling. Rock or indie-rock disconnects because it encourages a disconnect and leaves us hollow and without hope. When was the last time a new rock song came out that made YOU want to get up and jump around? A song that made Your heart beat faster? I haven’t heard one, and if I have, all the other songs by the band disappoint, which consequently cancels the excitement and validates me and my current stance on contemporary rock.

Of course there are exceptions, though I really can’t name very many. I’m sure someone else can. As a side not, a very good friend of mine turned me on to a band called Ween who I saw in live concert a few days ago. I recommend them. Their fearless eclecticism is impressive and completely admirable. Though there is a tinge (sometimes more than a tinge) of irony or parody in their songs, their sincerity is simultaneously never in doubt, which makes for an interesting contrast that I’m totally digging right now. Additionally, Ween has done this for several albums not just one - an important bit of information. I recommend their classic “Chocolate and Cheese” but the albums “The Mollusk” and “Quebec” are also really good and are a solid listen for any eclectic music listener able to appreciate genuine talent and creativity.

Let me know what you think. I encourage comments on my blog page wholeheartedly no matter the opinion you may form from my entries - they also help me with material for my next blog entry. Thanks.