People often ask me why I listen to older music, or why I don’t listen to mainstream modern music. The answer to this question is very simple; I don’t like it, its terrible. Pretty much the entirety of modern “musicians” can be segregated into the several archetypes, which itself shows a lack of originality, that I will be discussing bellow.

First of all we have the One Direction, Justin Beiber style “musicians” the main demographic of which seems to be 9 year-old girls. I could end the paragraph here, but I’ll explain further why I have a problem with these “artists”. Firstly, Who produces the instrumentals? Not them. In fact the majority of the work on songs by “artists” like this is not done by the “artist”. Some have even gone so far as to have others write their (somewhat mediocre) lyrics for them. It’s not even them who presses the auto tune button in the studio. The people in bands like these are really just a facade used to market, in an alarmingly sexual manner, someone else’s music to young girls. I think it is moraly wrong that the vast majority of credit and monetary gain goes to the very people who put the least work into producing the end product.

The next type of music I will be investigating is the modern electronic genre; namely dubstep. My problem is not with the electronic genre as a whole, but rather with what it has become; a seemingly futile competition to see who can put the most random noises and lowest/loudest bass/synth “drop”over a drum machine loop. Dubstep lacks the subtlety’s and meaningfulness that, for example, classical music harnesses so well. Dubstep lacks the feeling that makes it seem as though every note was put there for a reason. It really is sad to see the electronic medium be used to create something so mindless.

Next, another sub-genre that has expanded massively in recent years is a relatively new breed of rap, which many of my peers seem to enjoy so much. South London rap. The deeper meaning of which doesn’t seem to go beyond selling cannabis, and seriously injuring one another with kitchen utensils. I have to admit rap requires skill and can be quite clever, witty, and in some cases funny. The problem I have with rap, especially south London rap, is that I struggle to consider it music at all. To me any south London rap would have the same value if the lyrics alone were written on paper. After all, the main focus of all rap is the lyrics. This leads me to consider south London rap as poetry rather than music.

Now for one of my most hated modern artist archetypes, the faces I mentioned earlier which serve no other purpose than to sell repetitive rubbish with sex. Artists such as Beyonce, Miley Cyrus and Niki Minaj, to name a few. Firstly I would like to point out that the vast majority, if not all, are solely singers. The reason for this is simple: anyone can say words. This makes it remarkably easy for the producers to find someone who is sexually appealing to the masses, and use them to sell simple-minded, meaningless music.

In conclusion, I think music has been killed. For the most part, by the egocentric greed and therefore lack of passion and originality of the artists. The industry has become more about marketing and profit than the music itself. This has lead to the huge influx of emotionless, simple, uninteresting arrangements of sound, accompanied by sexual marketing schemes which are referred to as “artists”. Music really has gone downhill from the 70’s/80’s and onwards. Whether you attribute this to the reduction in use of substances that perturb brain chemistry amongst musicians or the increase in technological advances, and the use of technological equipment in music, or to the idea that the good ideas are simply running out. To me, one thing is clear, mainstream modern music is terrible.