Speed Screed: Pop Stagnation

Music doesn’t seem to have evolved much in the last ten years. Although I hardly started listening to popular music of any kind before 8th grade (I can’t even remember what I used to listen to), once I actually got into the music of the 90’s I realized there were actually many quality bands around. Beck, Rage Against the Machine, Sublime (to an extent), Nine Inch Nails; there were dozens of bands that didn’t suck. They weren’t derivative. They had some talent. In short, they were good.

I now know that death metal was really taking off during those years too, though I only learned that later. And hip-hop? Four words. A Tribe Called Quest. The 90’s were a serious decade as far as popular music went. The end of the millennium brought all the creative people out of the woodwork.

What the hell happened?

Music these days is unbelievably derivative. Other than a sneaking of country influences into the mainstream via cute Southern women singers who can also play acoustic guitar, I have yet to see anything new, or anything old enough to be re-branded as novel. A perfect example are these “Jonas Brothers.” Now there’s a shtick if ever I saw one. Their music is what I kindly term “post-alternative drek,” an amalgam of punk, emo and whining that was exemplified by Blink 182, though any band that uses that formula (including the Jonas Brothers) are still better than they were.

What sells them is that they’re three brothers, with their outfits coordinated. This is marketing designed to shoot right into the hormone-soaked early teenage girl market. They are not without talent or ability, but their music is absolutely nothing new, and it already sounds corporate. And if they’re the “hottest new band” as magazines and TV shows have publicly announced ad nauseum then I think we can draw a pretty good bead on what passes for music in the popular mind these days. The 00’s here are just castoff leftovers from the sound that wasn’t better produced in the 90’s. I mean, new wave was irritating, but at least it was a sound! People were trying! And at least the 60’s and 70’s saw the introduction of rock and even hints of progressive rock.

No wonder I listen to metal.