revelation

Ive been doing alot of thinking lately about music and how its lost its...luster so to speak. And then Geoff Rickly of Thursday wrote on headbangers blog. He wrote about the lack of meaning in music today, which of course, is what I have been thinking about lately, quoting Marshall McLuhan, "At the empirical level of consciousness, the medium is the message, whereas at the intelligent and rational levels of consciousness, the content is the message.” An interesting quote to say the least, but it definitely applies here. Music, is the medium...the lyrics, its message.

Somewhere bands have forgotten this because it seems like more and more bands care about the money, and the fame, and the internet popularity more than the music itself. Its almost as if they are thinking, heck...we may SOUND like someone else, but they are pretty popular, why wouldnt we reach the same fame as them.

But its not the publics fault, places like mtv, vh1, the internet, the radio...they are all giving into this trend...by continually playing these bands over and over again...and helping all of the same crap reach fame repeatedly.

I then began to wonder where this all started...15 years ago was a rather rich time for music, with the crazed Alternative trend that hit beginning and ending with the decade of the 90s. It was here when bands were making it big more than ever, and yet, it was also here where the one-hit-wonder was almost the staple of good music. Not too many bands that had big hits ever came back and had others. (now, im not saying there werent any bands that made it, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Incubus to name a few) what I am saying is, that you can list off all those big hits of the 90s, yet, have no idea who the artist was in some cases. My local radio station, live105, used to have 90s at noon every weekday. And they were always welcome to people calling in, requesting songs. It seemed like 75% of the time people were calling in, they either had no idea who the artist was, or sometimes, they werent even able to name the song...merely some of the lyrics. The point I am getting at is, music has lost something over the years.

I may seem crazy when saying this, but its almost as if the 90s alternative lead to the demise of REAL music, music with actual purpose, lyrics, meaning...