Music then and music now. Can you relate?

Unit1

Uh oh, it's a millennial posting this! What does he know about music ya might ask.

Relax there! I am lucky I know the Beatles, Queen, Pink Floyd, ACϟDC, Bob Marley, ELO, Boney M and some other musicians from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. I've heard them too.

I do want to shift the attention to something in particular however.

We can first start with Hip Hop and Rap.

Back then it wasn't so "infected" with... what shall I call it? Tastelessness. At least not to the same degree. You'll see what I mean in a moment. I recall some of the Hip Hop and Rap being rather of an art than a show off.

Back in 1995 Tupac Shakur released his song Dear Mama

OK, this one is a rather tame example. There was at that time more untamed and dirty Hip Hop & Rap but without the tastelessness. Some call it "What real Hip Hop used to be". Wu-Tang Clan, DMX, Eazy-E, NWA and even Tupac - They're all part of it and the dirty Hip Hop & Rap and these outnumber those, that aren't dirty. The following is Wu Tang Clan’s Method Man "Bring The Pain" from 1994.

OK now what do I mean when I say tastelessness in music now?

That is when rappers show off superficial things in their music videos with money, cars, luxurious properties and half naked gold diggers and boast in their lyrics like they're the apex kill leader. This is 6ix9ine "Gooba" from 2020

That one seems to me more like that rich teenager in high school using more profanity than actual vocabulary in order to feel like an adult.

One more example from little pump and Kanye West "i love it" from 2018

Lyrics are mostly dirty. The clean version of it sounds like only the instrumental version of the song. That's one more example of tastelessness in music.

Fortunately for modern Hip Hop and Rap it's not all doomed with tastelessness. I found examples from Drake, Travis Scott, Juice WRLD and NEFFEX (especially good at it) not infecting at least some of their work with tastelessness.

OK, enough with Hip Hop and Rap. What about Pop?

I found the reverse effect in Pop music. Some are probably gonna hate me for it but one opinion I sort of subscribe to is "The reason our generation is so screwed up is because of the media and pop music (around 2009) glorifying nudity and weirdness like Lady Gaga and her style and the youth absorbs this degeneracy". Reading that it's hard not to chuckle.

This is Lady Gaga "Telephone" from 2010

I mean sure, there were some good artists here and there (Rihanna did OK in my opinion). But the real good stuff I found appeared around somewhere in the 2010-range and onwards. And they appeared in much larger scales compared to the pre-2010 times.

In the modern music era we have plenty of good pop songs now. This is Axwell Λ Ingrosso "More Than You Know" from 2017

We got now lots of catchy songs from Dua Lipa, Fifth Harmony, Kygo, Zedd, Zara Larsson, Chainsmokers & Coldplay and some others.

OK, now what about Jazz?

Surprisingly I found Jazz remained true to it's origin. I mean it's Jazz, it's not like there's going to be too many varieties to it since it's mostly relaxing saxophone and tunes and piano. I found the old Jazz to be as good as the modern Jazz.

This is Dave Brubeck "Take Five" originally released on 1959 but replayed and recorded using modern instruments.


And here we have Nocturnal Spirits "That Second Kiss" from 2018

Of course there are different flavors of Jazz but my point remains - Jazz remained the same.

Rock?

It's fate is similar to Jazz but with some evolution compared to when Queen, Pink Floyd and AC/DC released their songs. Also Sweet Home Alabama!

Now I'm not too big on to Rock but the notable modern times musicians I feel did great are Imagine Dragons, Fall Out Boy and many other musicians released pretty good singles.

Now...

This article is getting somewhat too big to write it all out. I'd like to also mention how Metal was then and is today and also the emergence of new music genres like never before: Electric Drum & Bass, Dubstep and Videogame soundtracks.

If you think about it it's pretty crazy how we went from tribal music with tribal instruments such as flutes, maracas and drums to electric guitars, pianos, saxophones and now we also heavily manipulate tunes using computers and software up to a point, where we can generate sounds, that are not even replayable on any musical instrument.

Music then and music now. Can you relate?
27 Opinion