NPF: IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE

Posted on | by Ed

Popular music is one of the more common ways to depict generational divides for a good reason. Very little music is timeless; the vast majority has a shelf life of a few years at best and tends to be aimed at whoever happens to be in high school at any given point in time. So nothing is more familiar to the point of being cliched than the image of parents listening to their children's music with a sense of bewilderment about how one could listen to such crap. Indeed, being unable to understand or tolerate what The Kids are listening to these days is one of the first and most reliable indicators that you're getting old.

Currently an alarming number of the teens and tweens are listening to this type of thing:

OK.

I'm 33 years old. This music is not aimed at me or people in my demographic, so it goes without saying that I'm not going to like it. But Jesus Harold Christ the Third, this shit is just unlistenable. Does every generation of old people say that? Of course. Your parents told you that your (Elvis Presley / Chuck Berry / Beatles / Led Zeppelin / Sex Pistols / Devo / Black Flag / Public Enemy / Nirvana) was godawful racket, "just noise", and the definition of headache-inducing unlistenability. It would be ridiculous for people who are old now to say "Well our parents were wrong, but we're right: this crunk / autotune /screamo / electronic shit is not even music" without being both hypocritical and wrong.

Let's say it anyway. I think old people are finally right.

Half of this stuff isn't even music. Now that making music no longer requires being able to play an instrument (ProTools), sing (AutoTune), or even how to program (hundreds of idiotproof software packages for churning out mediocre electronic music), it shouldn't surprise us that the resulting product isn't music. And having grown up on Disney Pop, The Kids These Daystm think that music has always sort of sounded like a Mountain Dew commercial.

See? I'm old now. This both puzzles and horrifies me. Do young people actually pay to see this live? Are high school boys making mixes full of this cacophony for high school girls they have crushes on? What are kids singing along to in the car? What about this music is there to connect with listeners on an emotional or personal level?
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Is "Brokencyde" going to announce a reunion tour in 20 years to joyous applause? Is this going to be on "Oldies" playlists in 2030? Sure, musical fads never age well but there is at least SOME level on which people can still enjoy Disco today (i.e., dancing and enjoying kitsch).

This stuff is popular and, I'm sorry, that's terrifying. I don't mean to go all Andy Rooney or full-on Grandpa here, but these "artists" blow on a level that our parents never had to try to comprehend. Of course not everyone in the current target demographic likes it, but the fact that anyone does is just another reason that I'm terrified for the future.
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Oh, and before you type out your scolding comment, listen to as much of this as you can:

Crunk indeed, folks. Crunk. Indeed.

112 thoughts on “NPF: IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE”

  • oldfatherwilliam says:

    Old!? You think you know old? I got GRANDkids yer age, there, sonny, and etc. and etc. Actually I think the Punkers blew it when they abandoned melody, and their successors have degenerated from there. Symptomatic of the entire human enterprise, natch. We're not evolving fast enough to survive.

  • dave says:

    You are getting old, Ed.

    This stuff is bad, but not uniquely so. And yes, people will listen to it 20 years from now. Because it will remind them of being 18.

    Poison is still touring after 25 years.

  • joel hanes says:

    I'm 60. I was just that much too old for punk, and I find almost all hip-hop repellent — BUT I figure that any sub-adult generation whose popular music doesn't appall their elders has failed one of the essential missions. So I'm doing my part: I'm appalled, as is only right and proper.

    Thank you for doing your get-off-my-lawn part. If we weren't appalled, they'd have to come up with something worse.

  • Zeb says:

    I'm ten years younger than you and I agree wholeheartedly. I don't even know if one could say our generation has a style of music; hip hop would come closest, but even that has transformed dramatically since I was in high school (autotune was still pretty new). Rock, of course, is utterly dead.

    To the point, I can't think of a single popular song from my high school years (2002-2006) that has lasted even these five years.

  • West of the Cascades says:

    I'm 48, was a college radio DJ from 1981 to 1985 and date about 90% of the music I like from the period 1977-1985 (either songs that came out then, or bands that started then and continued to produce reasonable music).

    I was able to listen to 19 seconds of that dreck.

  • The Everlasting Dave says:

    I suspected it was this bad, but now I know for sure. Sweet cuppin' cakes, I think those videos cost me about 20 IQ points. What sort of enjoyment or cultural identity someone can draw from that is beyond me, but hey, I'm 29 and I thought hip-hop was dying when I was in high school. There's still good music being made, but fragmentation of culture, lowest common denominator, race to the bottom etc etc. "Popular" has been divorced from "Good" for about 14 years, by my reckoning.

  • Dirk Gently says:

    I'm 34 and this shit is terrible. Now, that said:

    What is the purpose of the music? I distinctly remember a lot of stuff that I thought was "cool" as a tween/teen that had no redeeming musical value, or at least not much. It was produced specifically, it seemed to me, to create separation between us and our elders. It was chock full of totally derivative shit–which at the time I was barely aware of given that I was too young and ignorant to know the source material (raise your hand if you ever once thought Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now" was an original). It was also sometimes filled with directionless, yet pointed rage: the originators of punk could barely play (and their "style" was just covering for that fact), but that stuff had a verve to it, and at times even a kind of (naive, garbled) MEANING to it.

    In other words: the point of listening to "music" when you're a teen often has very little to do with its quality, it's often purely about finding generational community, becoming swept up in a zeitgeist, trying desperately to fit in while demanding self-determination.

    I guess I'm not really that concerned at the quality or derivativeness (or silliness). I'll roll my eyes and walk on by. What bugs me is the vacuousness which is so often tied to misogynistic violence. I'll take alleged devil worship, deviance, rebellion, etc., over that shit any day.

    Meanwhile, there's also a lot of stuff that's popular right now that will have some staying power, and rightly so. There's a reason that Gen Xers pull out stuff like Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as seminal, and not, say, Snow's "Informer".

  • Jonathan says:

    I'm 36, and I actually really really liked the Attack Attack! track until I heard the Auto-Tune on the lead vox, which quickly and utterly killed it for me. If they and other Auto-Tune users dared to release a non-Auto-Tune mix of each of their songs, or at least a mix without that fucking obnoxious robot glissando effect, I'd probably be on Bandcamp or Amazon MP3 Store blowing next month's paycheck, because that blend of Pantera death metal and melodic power pop really rocks my world.

  • mclaren says:

    Call me the spawn of Satan, but I like no. 2 and no. 3. Fun stuff. It's basically death metal mixed with AutoTuning, and works well. You get some "Napalm Death" style metal, then some AutoTuned stuff in the choruses. Nice contrast.

    No. 1 ain't my cup 'o tea, but it's not noticeably less competent than, say, X or Black Flag, or the Sex Pistols before 'em.

    You want bad? The Captain and Tenille. That sh*t was bad. Crunk is worlds better than that. And if you want to plumb the extreme mind-boggling uttermost depths of "bad," listen to the top 10 of, say, 1950. "Tennessee Waltz" by Tennessee Ernie Ford. Ye gods, you will learn a new definition of pain and suffering as "Tennessee Waltz" slowly digests your brain. Or "How Much Is That Doggie In the Window?" from 1952.

    I'd rather stick a hot soldering iron in my eye than listen to that shite. Crunk is Beethoven compared to Patti Page yodeling that swill in 1952. And I'm older than you are, buckaroo.

  • Bonn says:

    Ah, but you see, this is a language problem. We must endeavor to call 'expressions of stupidity' just that. It's not music because music is art, an expression of the inner workings of the mind and emotions of the world around them. An artist, by implication, has a considerable amount of intellect. Stupidity, by definition, is the opposite of that. A parellel example would be what Nashville cranks out – odes to stupidity. Ya see, the word and concept that gets everyone confused is 'expression'. Art is expressed just as stupidity is expressed. And so people lazily equate the two whereas there is no connection at all. It blows my mind how people miss this. Whatever. I call a spade a spade as I call art art and I call expressions of stupidity … stupidity.

  • Celynne says:

    Oh my dear Ed, me thinks you think to much. And in this case it seems to have led you to miss the forest for the trees. Most music isn't meant to be timeless, it's meant to be timely.

    These "artists" are simply using the tools of their age to express the angst they're sure they are the first to experience. I find none of the content the slightest bit original, only the manner in which it's generated.

    The first could be the sound track to any number of video games these kids waste their brain cells on, the second, which I actually liked, is kinda grunge meets death metal, and the third is a cheesy rip off of my generation – the psychedelic sixties.

    I agree with Joel Hanes' assessment that one of the essential missions is to appal elders, actually I think it's to seperate themselves from the elders and begin to define themselves as individuals and a collective. Cause for concern about the future? Nah. Every generation has it's growing pains. After all, you appear to have listened to Disco in your youth, and you seem to have turned out all right. But I'm sure if kids like these were even aware that blogs like yours existed, they'd thank you for the platform.

    But what do I know? I'm just a dedicated atheist who can't wait to see
    Joyful Noise this weekend, I love southern gospel music.

    Oh, and note to Rock-is-Dead Zeb:
    highest grossing bands of 2010 (couldn't find the stats for 2011, Gene probably isn't done counting his money yet):
    1. Bon Jovi
    2. AC/DC
    3. U2
    Saw both AC/DC and U2 myself that year, so KISS this Granny's rocks sweetie! (just kidding ;) )

  • ptx says:

    Crunkcore isn't completely new. I remember vomiting into my mouth after hearing one of those goofy Brokencyde tracks a couple of years ago.

    I did just imagine a massive Brokencyde poster adorning a building as Spider Jerusalem slouches by with a two-faced cat, cigarette hanging from mouth. Isn't this crap the kind of stuff we could imagine being in a Gibson novel, or Ellis comic? Christian-Screamo-Crunk, or Postpunk-Emo-Dubstep, or Latino-Morissey-Switchblade-New Wave? With all music in history at our fingertips online, kids these days can pick and choose whatever they believe to be pop/rock/punk and do with it as they please. Most of the time it is not good (see above), but sometimes it's awesome (see Yuck – Get Away on Youtube). We're beginning to see a massive blurring of cultural lines when it comes to entertainment. With the good of that will come the side-effects. Also, can someone hold every one of these kids down and forcibly cut their hair?

  • Mark says:

    Ok, I don't like this music either, but I can't believe you just played the "anybody can make music now because of computers" card. You, sir, have never tried to make music, with or without a computer.

  • duck-billed placelot says:

    WHY has this not turned into a linkfest of "terrible" music through the ages? Commentariat, I'm disappointed in you.

    I offer up: Sonic Youth's "Silver Rocket" for the fiddly, atonal, kinda-not-music bit in the middle, and, for a more direct forerunner of Crunkcore, the Norwegian black metal band Emperor's "I Am the Black Wizards". I mean, really, the aesthetic lineage is clear from that 1994 track. I always wondered about metal vocalists (and now crunk singers), how do they expect to have any kind of a long-term career? Hell on the vocal chords, all the screaming.

  • Renee says:

    You know, they were just as unlistenable as I found my own generation's super-angsty music: Pantera, Anathema, Black Sabbath, etc (I did like KMFDM, if I was drunk). It's just as bad as the next generation's angsty music: Marilyn Manson, etc. And pretty much everything written between 1979 – 1991. Ugh, Styx.

    (I'm 31, by the way.)

  • eau says:

    Nice. Couple of posts ago we're stringing up Hitchens and Menken, and yet we're all "Aw, 'taint that bad. You gotta look at the context!" about this shit?

    Fuck that.

    I grew up on metal, punk and thrash. Pantera is not death metal, nothing here sounds anything like Napalm Death, 'metal' and 'autotune' do not belong in the same sentence, and the people who made the tracks above deserve nothing more or less than summary execution.

  • Ben says:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YriPIujLtsA

    Fuck if Jimmy Osmond doesn't have a striking resemblance to Brokencyde, as far as artistic merit goes. Or at least Justin Bieber. Isn't most of everything that becomes popular supposed to be shit, at any time period? Ed ragged on Coachella the other day, sure lots of bands there and most of the people probably suck, but Justice (among others) is fucking awesome. The 17-year-old Madeon uses Ableton Live (I believe) and a mixer to turn a whole host of mediocre pop swill into something different, fascinating, and fun. Lots of The Kids suck, some don't. Maybe I sound like an elitist. So it goes.

  • furioso ateo says:

    Sturgeon's Law, Ed. 90% of this generation's music is crap, just like 90% of my generation's music is crap, just like 90% of your generation's music was crap. I think the point at which you have to worry is when the 10% no longer exists. Popular music will (almost) always be junk geared towards the lowest common denominator, but as long as there are people making, and appreciating! the good stuff I think we're alright. And for the most part there was tons of good stuff to be had these first 12 years of our young century. I'm 25 by the way.

  • jgalt says:

    It only surprises me is that this is popular. This music is bearable. Anyone who has listened to punk or speed/death metal understands the attraction. Don't get me started with industrial (early stuff not NIN) or minimalist/glitch.

    @Mark: I agree, even with a computer music is hard to make. In some ways harder because there's so many options, you get lost. I've tried. I always get stuck just fiddling with the filter cutoff or pan controls, looking for The Sound.

  • Graham says:

    Congratulations ed, you've just made every recording executive's day.

    Every ten years or so the recording industry comes up with some new "musical" "style" that is specifically designed to unreasonably irritate every generation prior to the current teenage one. Because someone turns 13 every day.

    And if the recording industry didn't do this then the kids of today would still be enjoying their great grandparent's Bing Crosby records instead of buying brand new revenue raising shit.

  • Z says:

    All of this music is exactly as bad as you say, but what you have to remember is that the vast majority of what previous generations listened to, including ours, was every bit as bad.

    We remember the best music of previous times, because being good its appeal lasts, but we forget that at the time the good music was buried under a tidal wave of shit. Nirvana was sharing MTV in 1991 with the likes of Warrant. Alice in Chains begat Godsmack and Staind. When was the last time you heard either of those names?

    You think the Rolling Stones were filling stadiums when they toured in support of Exile on Main Street in 1971? Bullshit. They were drawing a respectable crowd in indoor venues, nothing more. The stadiums were packed for Maroon 5, by which I mean whoever the hell was playing that role then.

    So don't worry. No one will be putting this stuff on an oldies station in the future any more than "Leader of the Pack" (a huge hit when it was released) is on them now. Only when they need something to mock.

  • Bears Fan says:

    It's true that 90 % of all commercially generated music has always been crap, with very brief periods being exceptions.
    What ya have with some of the stuff you posted is the next evolution of speed /Death metal. A style that has since its inception been completely and utterly putrid. It's not that nobody in the genre has talent, it's just that talent is not required to perform it. But there is definitely a fan base for the drek. And I'm not being hyperbolic when I say I think the hardcore fans of this stuff have either brain damage or serious problems with their cognitive functioning. If it has any redeeming quality, when played live ,with enough bourbon in you, it takes two to three tunes before I have to get away from it. But you have to be seriously twisted to actually listen to it on a regular basis.

  • JMP says:

    Yer all crackers. Once again. You want some original 'heavy metal'? Breakneck fast paced, wordless derivative stuff that's well neigh incomprehensible to better than 90% of the population? Try this on for size: Art Blakey in 1961, Night in Tunisia.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU2pITrtwMs

    What does it mean? They put lyrics to it, but basically, it's all up to the interpreter. But it's tuneful, melodic, has a harmonic line you can follow, and oh yeah, also magnificent Musicianship you can admire. Artists playing music.

    Some of it was (however briefly) popular for a moment of popular culture. This is not to say that whole genres of music are 'bunk', just mostly unlistenable and incomprehensible. It's a mad time and we're due to maddening music. And say what you want about the past, but most of the pop stuff (even 1950's-1980-~90's) IS listenable and (mostly) not only recognizable, but comprehensible and (gasp) pleasant.

    But the 'Oldie's stations and even satellite too are too 'niche' to even give us the 'real' past too. It's all too broken down by marketing nonsense. The 50's was about an explosion of new musics, and we now dimly can recall it. Not much of what we've heard in the last few decades deserves the accolades of 'classic' or even 'memorable'. We're missing most of our history, and most of the decent music too. And BTW? Nashville has been consistently producing both plenty of the best & enough of the worst for generations by now.

    We've always had 'bubble gum pop', most of it was fun & light hearted. This black, depressive stuff, (dating from a decade or more back) is a harbingering of the times. (And yeah, there was plenty of 'death/road songs' in the 1950's-60's, but you know what? Highway fatalities have been coming down ever since [late 1960's say]).

    So no one knows really good music. And even most listeners can not tell the tell tale tone of a real Stradivarius violin. And fewer might be able to comprehend why or who wrote what for the instrument either. Miseducation comes of age, especially for music, but everything else is not far behind.

  • Spiffy McBang says:

    I would rather listen to this than what's on the radio at work, if only because they can't play more than six different songs on the radio.

    Actually, I took the final video challenge, and I got all the way through it because I didn't actually watch the video. When I flipped back to it I thought I was going to have a seizure. But the badness of the music is similar to how bad a lot of hardcore bands have been through the years- making noise and unintelligibly raging. The autotune grates because it's used everywhere now, but if I'd never heard it before I don't think it would bother me here. Mostly I only get all old-man about it because, as you said, it allows talentless hacks to become famous.

    Speaking of which, does it seem to anyone else like being a radio-level "musician" now means, more than anything, being able to dance? I do think our early 30s generation has a right to bitch about modern pop music more so than other generations because, between technological cover-ups and the focus on dance skill/choreography, a sadly high percentage of today's music stars are stars for reasons that have nothing to do with their music. Tiffany and Debbie Gibson may have been FOTM super-bubblegum-pop, but at least their singing was the show.

  • c u n d gulag says:

    Well, I'm 53, and I remember being in HS and going to a "Blue Oyster Cult" concert nearby, and the opening act was a band I had never heard of – "The Ramones."
    Talk about culture shock!
    And then, I came to love Punk Rock. And New Wave. Pretty much all of it!
    I remember hearing Rap for the first time when, as a young adult, I walked into a Manhattan bodega to buy a pack of cigarettes. After a few seconds of 'WTF!" was that(?), I liked that, too – until it got too misogynistic and violent.
    I liked Hip-hop when I first heard it, too.
    I think what I liked best about Punk, New wave, and Rap was the social commentary and criticism in some of the songs. Hip-hop, too.

    Having said all of that, WTF is this shit?!?!?!?!?!?!

    Has our military tired of torturing renditioned alleged-terrorists with 150 dB of oldies?

    Jesus, I'd rat out my Mama as a female Osama bin Laden if you played this shit for more than a few seconds!

    That's what this stuff has to be – audio noise to torture by.
    'Cause it sure ain't "music."
    What's next?
    Car and plane crashe noises with ProTune and AutoTune, lyrics by a 5 year-old with Autism and ADD?

    Hey, you f*cking kids! YEAH YOU! Get the f*ck off my f*cking lawn, you little f*cks!!!

    Honey, time to play "our song" – "Push Push In The Bush!" by "Musique."
    Now THAT was music!
    NOT!

    As others above have said, it's supposed to suck to older people – to show how "hip" the kids are, and now "unhip" we are.
    We just don't get it, is all…

  • David says:

    Most music at any given time is crap. Over time the crap music tends to be forgotten while the good is remembered. New music doesn't have this nostalgia filter so we can't help but hear most of it for the crap it is. There is good music still being made today. I grew up in the 80's listening to Depeche Mode, Siouxsie, the Smiths, New Order and Kate Bush. If you like them check out Hurts and White Lies – two new groups with a similar sound.

  • Middle Seaman says:

    The "serious" music world, i.e. classical, always has its punk versions. Starting with Shoenberg, Berg and going on to John Cage and Stockhausen and many more before and after. Most of the classical music is actually Oldies and, in my opinion, boring. It still makes Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma very rich. The punks have left some memorable music as well: Pierrot Lunaire by Schoenberg, Wozzeck by Alban Berg, Radio Music by John Cage, etc.

    Popular music behaves similarly with much larger numbers, reflecting the number of garages in suburbia. A lot is crap and not because it is not music. It is just bad music. Not everything the Beatles wrote and we remember is great. Furthermore, Eleanor Rigby is done better by Ray Charles than Paul and John. There is some great music composed by a 17 year old as we speak.

    Age affects all of us, but a musical genius is born every month and we better listen if we love music. I am 66, if it counts.

  • anotherbozo says:

    McLaren and Middle Seaman have both made good points. After reading your caveats, Ed, I found listening to the vids pretty heartening, good timbral contrast, enjoyable rhythms, etc. not that I'd want to listen to them more than, say, twice.

    Predictably, and speaking of "punk" composers, recent music of the so-called serious sort has been exploring the boundaries of rough and abrasive without the lollypop flavors: visit David Lang's "Cheating, Lying, Stealing" or Michael Gordon's "Trance IV" on YouTube for post-minimalist versions.

  • carrot grower says:

    I blush to think of all the crap I listened to in the 80s that I used to think was good (reo speedwagon–seriously?). Yet, a small percentage of the music I loved is indeed timeless, and still sounds great today. Too much chaff, very little wheat.

  • Xynzee says:

    Ed: even w/o watching the videos I'm not quite sure what you're worried about. Currently, I consider the Biebs to be the worst thing ever, before that anything by Rhiannon — what was Marc thinking letting that happen to Tainted? I'm not sure how you aetheists sleep at night w/o the knowledge that there's a nether region of Hell reserved for ppl who do that to music? Before that it was that horrible "Mmm… Bop" song and something that seemed be an updated preteen version of Romeo Void w/ considerably less talent. There was a real dark spot for music especially MTV between 1986-1991 (particularly after the original VJs were pushed out – how hot was Martha?) it was Offspring that gave me confidence to turn the radio on (when KROQ wasn't available) again, with Whitney et al. Brrr!

    @Ben: I **F$$$in!!! Hate you!!!!** even at 5yo I recognised Jimmy as horrible, pity I tried to use my brother's LP as a frisbee, but hey I was 5, what did I know? ;) He was my first: OMG!! My ears are bleeding! Make it stop please!! moment.

    @jgalt: anyone who uses NIN and industrial in a sentence that doesn't involve Trent being horribly maimed in an industrial accident should have their nuts slammed in a door – but then I draw comfort in knowing that God has a special place reserved for them and Trent in Hell.

    My personal advice is to avoid listening to the radio for long stretches and keep Einstürzende Neubauten handy for whenever this crap tries to take up residence. "Head Cleaner" is well named and and especially apt for doing this job:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd-SpXJ3ops&feature=youtube_gdata_player

    Guaranteed to frighten off any unwanted house guests :)

  • theotherspartan says:

    I'm 23 and think this music is garbage. I've always been a huge fan of 80's electronic music, but I've been able find something I like from every decade and genre of popular music dating back to the 1920's (further if you count 'classical'), but I'm at a loss for the past 5-6 years worth of music.

  • Guy says:

    While this music is still awful, it's been around for a few years and that fad is more or less dead. What's the big thing now? Dubstep. And it is godawful. Give Skrillex, Bassnectar, or Pretty Lights a listen, and try to tell me with a straight face that this is listenable. I've heard it described as "Transformers having sex," and "Listening to a dialup modem," but I honestly think these DJs are just overcompensating for their small dicks by trying to make the biggest, bassiest wub-penis.

  • cackalacka says:

    South Park had an episode last season that tackled this issue.

    Every generation has new musical tools at its disposal, and Zappa thoroughly explained (decades ago) the corporate practice of least-common-denominator marketing almost all released music towards pubescent girls tastes.

    Nothing has changed in that trend since family/barroom sing-alongs were replaced with the 78/45/33/8-track/cassette/CD/MP3…

    …nothing has changed, save for two items: 1) folks can now record digital-quality performances on home equipment that costs a fraction of a fraction of the resources studio time required 15 years ago. 2) We're in the process of trading a hierarchical industry built on control/exploitation of performers and audience alike for something more direct.

    Both trends result in a higher quantity of all kinds of music, crap or not. I'm of the opinion that music quality has ebbed and flowed, but Homer Simpson/1974 aside, music/composition has never and will never peak, save for those too disinterested in experiencing new things.

    And no, I will not open those two youtube links. You can't judge a book by it's cover, but you can certainly judge a web clip by its thumbnail.

  • JMG says:

    I wouldn't worry about it. At every period in popular music history, there has been excellent work and also a large amount of crap that sold exceedingly well. The Archies were making a bundle at the same time Jimi Hendrix was working, fer instance. When guys like Miles Davis and Coltrane were making great jazz, Steve & Eydie were selling out shows in Vegas. Great periods in music are when the artists are actually recognized for their art and achieve a large audience. They are rate, and this isn't one of them.

  • Mark H says:

    Okay, that wasn't fair.

    I'm old. I've got three daughters in college, but I like to think of myself as relatively enlightened. I have favorite music ranging thru all genres from pre-50's through current music. Classical through punk.

    But this shit is god-awful. We did a family weekend at Lollapalooza the past two summers in Chicago and spent some time in the electro-dance-DJ tents, and some of it wasn't too bad, although the purist in me resents the fact that a lot of these artists are just sampling the crap out of other artists.

    But again, some of this stuff is truly bad.

  • Mark H says:

    One more thing.

    All you need to know about the current state of music is to look at the back page of Rolling Stone and check out the top 50 sellers.

    90-plus % of it is 60-70 year old has-beens, Disney quality, lame country, or hip-hop. There really isn't much new, ground-breaking rock music.

  • BigHank53 says:

    You slacker. I still remember the first time I turned on MTV, watched a music video (that alone should tell you it was far, far in the past) and said to myself, "They listen to this crap?!"

    I was 24.

  • WillyPGuts says:

    You know what makes it worse? Both the Attack Attack and Crazy Crazy Awesome Awesome songs are "We Love Jesus Christ our Savior" songs.

  • stacey-marie says:

    Eh…it's not all that bad. I mean, songs like those you posted absolutely make sense in the Grand Scheme of Music History! What bothers me more is how despite the accessibility of all kinds of music nowadays, it doesn't seem like a lot of listeners are interested in investigating the history and background of music (too old, too lame; too new, too lame; can't relate/understand/etc.). Case in point, and my personal favorite "damn kids!" story: We were playing Bowie's "Man Who Sold the World" in my former place of employment, and a bunch of Hot Topic pre-teens asked, "OMG who's covering this Nirvana song??" *facepalm*

    I didn't really like the pop music happening when I was a pre-teen/teen and I turned to oldies & glam rock before I discovered the "alternative" rock of my generation (I'm 27). & it took me a while before I could hear techno and hip-hop as anything other than noise, but I was still interested and in my case, doing some research about these genres enabled me to understand and respect it a lot more, so presently hip-hop is one of my favorite genres… It's sort of like with art, eg Jackson Pollock IMO was nothing but a drunken manchild making splatter paintings in his barn, but in the context of art history I can still respect/understand why that shit worked at the time.

  • Too old to rock'n'roll, too young to die says:

    "This music" (a mash-up of potentially any/all styles) is popular now because postmodernism has run out of traditions to punk and so is now punking itself. Po-mo art is a rejection of tradition; but po-mo has become an institution itself, so of course we have a rejection of rejection — all things are acceptable, at any time … and preferably all the time. Not because of aesthetic value but because of cultural cache. I wager no one really likes "this music," but they "like" them as one might click a button on FB. And in that sense, "like" is closer to "grok."

    Most new art now, in all mediums, is pastiche. It's all sampling. Never timeless, but very timely, or striving to be. The Age of the Meme. Er, the Moment of the Meme.

    This is why Hot Topic is so popular among tweens: it sells in one tiny store goth, rap, emo, 'net memes, thongs, stilettos, chunky raver boots, 80s kitsch — or references to 80s kitsch, etc. Anything, all of it, all the time. And the music is always Brokencyde x2000. You don't have to and should not ever strive for "authenticity," you'll only come off as real. Much smarter to affect a pose. Because we're all just posing anyway, right?

    It's all so meta. And it's not bad and you, Ed, are not "too old" or whatever. This is evolution. We made this. Kids gotta play. What would you have them do, start up a Fugazi cover band in the garage? That shit's played out, yo. Ima be a DJ. Fuck that, ima be a PRODUCER. They can play anything.

  • bobbyflashpants says:

    I made it all the way through the 3rd video, and found it hilarious and encouraging. Today's 10 year olds will now begin building a musical legacy on the broken, dissected, mashed-up guts of the worst of today's pop genre tropes.They are starting at rock bottom, and they're building something from the musical garbage we as a society have handed them.

  • grendelkhan says:

    I went all the way through the third one, though I didn't know they were Christian awful until I looked up the bits of lyrics I could understand. It is beyond-laughably bad, and I say this as someone who enjoys Skrillex, and, now that someone above mentioned it, KMFDM, and, hell, DragonForce. And those "Symphony of Science" videos where they AutoTune Carl Sagan give me goosebumps.

    But this is kind of fish-in-a-barrel. Any idiot can post videos to Youtube, and every idiot does. Shouldn't you be raging against actually popular music? It can't actually be this bad.

  • Major Kong says:

    I'm 49 and I just can't handle listening to the music I grew up with any more.

    Not that it was bad, but I've heard it so many times over the years between the radio, TV commercials, background music in restaurants etc. that I can't stomach it any more.

    Sorry if they're your favorite band, but I don't think The Eagles were THAT great and I could gladly live the rest of my life without having to hear Hotel California again.

  • jeneria says:

    I'm 35. For me, the 90's were the pinnacle of music with the glorious sounds of Britpop and the cynicism of Grunge and the joys of unfettered drug fueled raves. I don't like Hip Hop, R&B, Country. I tolerate the rest to a point.

    I enjoy Nerdcore and 8 Bit Electric.

    Not only is Crunkcore unpleasant to listen to (I don't like Death Metal or Screamo), but that video is hideous. It's like the worst Soup Dragons video ever meets Nickelodeon.

  • Nate says:

    I'm always annoyed when people sniff that "rock is dead." Yeah, well, the Eagles are all still alive, aren't they? Maybe they'll do another reunion tour. I hear Dylan is still kicking as well.

    Bullshit. Commercial music has almost always sucked, at least in my lifetime. It takes determination to find good rock bands, but they are out there.

    Tomahawk (ex Melvins, Faith No More, Jesus Lizard and Helmet) is coming out with a new album soon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt856_nRxQk

    Prefer good old fashioned four on the floor? Sweden can cure what ails you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M02bAWDFkI

    Opeth's melange of death metal, progressive jazz and Swedish folk is currently touring: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1pi7Dn87mY

    These are just bands I like. Look up your local college radio station or tune into mine: http://radio1190.org.

    The truth of the matter is, thanks to the internet, we live in a golden age of music. Yeah, there's some pastiche stuff that's dogshit (especially compared to landmark Dust Brother albums like Odelay and Paul's Botique), but you always have the option of NOT LISTENING TO IT.

    As the old SST bumper sticker says, "Commercial Rock Still Sucks".

  • HoosierPoli says:

    I've always thought that music from eras gone by always seems to be higher quality because everyone has forgotten about the utter crap that constituted 80 percent of the music at any given point in our culture. If you go back and listen to the top 10 hits from the sixties, there are quite a few great songs by timeless bands, but it's mostly derivative garbage by long-forgotten tools of the record labels.

    Similarly, no one will remember Brokencyde or Attack Attack, but they will remember Refused and Glassjaw. Real art always stands the test of time.

  • Alan says:

    Every musical generation has to color outside the lines. If they didn't, we'd still be grooving to plainsong. (Those kids and their polyphony – organum is just noise!)

    The good stuff challenges established norms – thus offending adults – and redefines the rules that the next generation will break. The bad stuff just offends adults. And nothing else out there is quite as bad as Brokencyde.

    There's good new music being made these days. It's a tiny fraction of what's out there, but when has that ever not been the case?

  • Major Kong says:

    @HoosierPoli

    Very true. We only remember the good stuff.

    For every Beatles or Rolling Stones there were 10 Strawberry Alarm Clocks and 6 Herman's Hermits.

  • punkdavid says:

    I think the key to understanding generational divides in popular music is to look at music from the perspective of a music nerd/elitist. 99% of popular music is shit, no matter what era we're talking about. The reason the bands that you've named like Nirvana, Public Enemy, Led Zeppelin, etc, were named at all is because they were the rare nexus of popular and GOOD.

    When I was in high school (late 80's -early 90's), popular music was abyssmal. Mariah Carey, hair metal, Vanilla Ice, Janet Jackson, r&b/pop garbage. Those of us who were "into" music were all listening to either older "classic rock", or the "alternative" new wave descendant bands (before "alternative" became applied to all popular rock and roll in the 90's), or the smart edgy rap that was too raw for radio.

    That stuff is the same music that the kids today who know good music listen to. Kids who know good music still listen to the Beatles, and Led Zeppelin, and the Smiths, and Public Enemy, and Nirvana, and they reject what is popular because what is popular is 99% shit, just as it was in the 50s and 60s. And the 70s and 80s.

  • JohnR says:

    Oh, pshaw. Music hasn't been any good since some ninny got the idea that banging rocks together was too simple, and decided to use sticks as well. You kids and your fancy-schmancy "melody" and stuff. Rhythm was good enough for 'Lucy' and it's good enough for me.

  • PWL says:

    Hey look, there'll always be a 'tard faction in any generation's music. That's what those bands are. Frankly I don't hear too many "young people" listening to this. And in our day we had GWAR….

    Also, I think any society has high periods of culture, and low periods of culture. Frankly, I think were in one of the latter periods (how else to explain things like the Kardashians, NASCAR, "Dancing With the Stars," "reality shows" in general, and such delights as "cage fighting"?)

    But of course "The golden age is never the present one." (Yep, music was better in my day." "Yeah, right, Gramps.")

  • ladiesbane says:

    Let's clarify: liking something doesn't mean it's of excellent quality, and hating something doesn't make it bad.

    My friends who are singers listen to stuff that makes me want to hurl, from whiny chick-folk to meandering R&B mush. The instrumentalists are attuned to fingernails on keys and strings, which is entirely shrug-worthy in my opinion. And when I put on Killing Joke or NWA (or Kitty Wells, or my enormous collection of ATCO / Stax / Atlantic discs), they cry. They know better than to call me over for the Jethro Tull / Segovia / Natalie Merchant allnighters, and I know they can't dance and I'd best keep my Pitbull to myself. À chacun son goût.

    What worries me is that music I utterly loathed coming up has been poured into my ears so many times that I'll sing along without noticing if it comes on the radio.

  • bb in GA says:

    Since the 1930s for sure, popular music has always been about $.

    The business model that started and maintained this enterprise has changed over time and many would argue that it is largely broken at present for making big bucks.

    I think we are just about shifted to digital distribution totally and we are back to 'singles' sales. The album era is over (The famous Rolling Stones quote – Jagger I think – '2 hits and ten tracks of sh*t' )

    It doesn't matter what it sounds like to YOU. The demographic is not YOU.

    If we could get cash flow positive by having the artist fart through one of those soccer match horns and put it up on I-tunes – go for it! We'll all be rich-er, if not as rich as Elvis was.

    //bb (almost 66 and seen most tricks)

  • Chicagojon says:

    "Jonathan Says:
    January 13th, 2012 at 1:32 am
    I'm 36, and I actually really really liked the Attack Attack! track until I heard the Auto-Tune on the lead vox, which quickly and utterly killed it for me…"

    How bizzare – my name is Jonathan, I'm 36, and while I won't go as far as saying I like Attack Attack I think it's — perfectly acceptable teenage crap.

    Do you really expect us to believe that this is worse than the Fresh Prince's "summertime" in 1991 that won a Grammy and was 'the song of the summer' when I was 15-16? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summertime_(DJ_Jazzy_Jeff_%26_The_Fresh_Prince_song)

    I hear ya on the autotune and people not being as talented as they used to be, but crap…people didn't used to be that talented anyway – we're talking about popular music!

    Also – that brokencyde track was terrible and music peaked in 1992-1994 (cuz I was away at college and had MTV for the first time of course). Now get off my damn lawn

  • truth=freedom says:

    Ed, yer weak. And you've forgotten the definition of music.

    Just because you don't like it (and, while I made it all the way through the third song, it's largely because I didn't watch all of the video– that nearly gave me seizures!), doesn't make it not-music. It makes it bad, in your estimation (which, frankly, I share).

    Don't like it? Don't listen.

  • Coffeeman says:

    One of my favorite quotes about music came from Ray Charles when asked what kind of music he liked. He said there is only 2 kinds of music…good and bad.

    Good music survives, bad music doesn't.

  • trail says:

    I have a 21 year old daughter and she and her friends are listening to the Beatles and a bunch of retro sounding stuff, so maybe we were right, our music was the best…

  • chautauqua says:

    I'm in the '51 cohort and I like virtually none of the music that I grew up hearing and even less since then. In fact about the only thing I can take any pleasure from these days are ancient Nordic tunes played on a hardingfele (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrCr0yVuNsc), which sounds a little like a recording of a middling Suzuki violin student, only backwards at 2/3 speed.

    Hey! You kids, Get Off My Tundra!

  • lindno says:

    the problem is judging a generation's music by the lowest common denominator. for every nirvana, there were 200 awful grunge bands. i have no crunked enough to know, but surely there must be something redeeming in this genre. many of the young people i know are really into girl talk, which i think makes outstanding use of technology to create musical collages.

  • Mike says:

    So I'm almost 45 years old and my playlist is usually a lot of late 50s-60s jazz (Ornette Coleman, Trane, Miles, Mingus, Alice Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Sun Ra, Andrew Hill) plus a heavy mix of Cocteau Twins, Blonde Redhead, M.I.A., Sonic Youth, the Go! Team, Le Tigre, etc, plus various J-pop.

    But what I remember from my youth was that most of the music was really awful. God, how much I hated U2, Flock of Seagulls, Culture Club, Men Without Hats … it all sounds even worse in retrospect. On the other hand, the 80s produced Pet Shop Boys, Public Enemy, Big Black, Sonic Youth, Gang of Four… So the decade wasn't all bad.

    That said — the ones you linked weren't so bad, I was expecting worse. I actually kind of like the mix of rap, metal, synth pop, and auto-tune. Too repetitive, but then a steady diet of jazz makes most pop music seem repetitive. It's definitely aimed at the tweens (listen to the vocals) but I think a kid could listen to this stuff and still grow up to have good taste in music.

  • Mike says:

    And "classic" rock and roll? Personally, the only classic rock albums that I can still listen to are Revolver, the White Album, Exile on Main Street, Radio Ethiopia (that one may be stretching the definition of "classic" rock), and Led Zep I and II. All the rest of it has not aged well for me.

  • Mike says:

    (OK, last comment, then I'll stop…)

    Xynzee: Thanks for the Neubauten link. I saw them play c 1987, they played an amazing show. They had a big assemblage of hub cabs and springs and sheet metal for the percussion. I pogoed for the entire show and it cured my flu.

    duck-billed placelot: Oh man, S.Y. look so young in that video.

    Ringo Shiina covering the Beatles:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO5rTPl5IGI

    Vijay Iyer covering M.I.A.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOBhrnOzwXw

  • eau says:

    To those getting on the "the good stuff survives" train – that'd be nice, but you are kidding yourselves.

    Last night the douchebags across the road from my place were blasting "The Macarena" long into the wee hours. The Venga Boys are touring Australia at the moment. I saw a poster for NKOTBSB the other day (an acronymanteau that stands for New Kids On The Block & Backstreet Boys – Together at last!). I hear a Spice Girls song about every second week at a store or something. In 2070, we're still going to be hearing Nickleback on commercial radio.

    But, you know, whatever you need to tell yourself to get through the next Katie Perry album is OK by me…

  • J Wahl says:

    Christ on a stick. I'm 35 and I like to think of myself open-minded when it comes to music, but I couldn't listen to more than 20s of any of the three songs. I think the third one was about to give me a seizure.

    My dad and I were trying to find some decent driving music in the middle of Washington, but only found crap and more crap. We were looking for a classic rock station because those songs are still listenable even 25-30 years later. My dad asked if anyone 25-30 years from now is going to be asking to hear any rap.

    If the intent of today's music is to piss off people in my age range… mission accomplished. I think I would be acquitted of justifiable homicide if I were to "get crunk" on those "musicians" who put out the crap you have linked.

  • JazzBumpa says:

    There are multiple issues in play here.

    1) When you get right down to it, 90% of everything is crap. Sure the Tennesee Waltz is crap – i mean, it's about fucking Tennessee, see?!? Which takes me to

    2) the crappy Tennesse Waltz has melody, harmony and rhythm. The simple obvious fact that they are banal and insipid is irrelevant. Those things that Ed posted might be perceived as having rhythm. They cannot be perceived as having melody or harmony.

    3) Pop "music" is of a specific place and time. This shit is of a place and time when everything is gong to hell. Youth oriented pop always has some element of rebellion, and pissing off both Ed, who is several years younger than my children, and me at the same time is an epic win.

    4) It often has an element of intellectual nihilism. This can be expressed in a variety of ways – bubble gum pop from around 1960, which is an embarrassment to my generation, to whatever the hell this stuff is supposed to be.

    5) The fact that my dad said all this same stuff to me – with mixed validity – in 1959 does not mean that Ed is wrong for saying it in 2012.

    Stay strong, kids.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM5eYVlztJc

    Cheers!
    JzB

  • JazzBumpa says:

    Now that I've read through some of the comments, as an actual performing (amateur) musician, I have to say that giving a credible performance of even mediocre music requires quite a bit of skill and effort. Even simple music aint simple.

    Setting personal preference aside, there are standards of quality in music. Tennessee Ernie Ford and Toni Tennille had actual talent. You might not like their music, but they could sing (without fucking autotune,) and their performances were musical.

    Spend a little time listening to Bach or Basie or Nat Cole. Get a perspective on what timeless music is.

    If the kids in these vids had any talent, they disguised it very well. And it's quite possible that they do and they did. There's really no way to tell.

    The line between music and noise might be broad and fuzzy, but there is a reality on either side of it.

    Cheers!
    JzB

  • Mike says:

    I've been enjoying everyone's links to allegedly good or awful music.

    @Xynzee: Thanks for that Neubauten clip. I saw them perform c. 1987. They did an amazing live show. The percussion was some kind of contraption made out of hub caps and big metal springs. Also a metal shopping cart.

    Here is a clip of Vijay Iyer Trio playing a cover of M.I.A.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOBhrnOzwXw&feature=related

  • A Babe of the Boom says:

    Thirty-nine seconds is how long I lasted on that last video. Who do they think they are, Rob Zombie?

  • satrap says:

    The crunkcore, crabcore boats have both sailed. If it contains neon clothing, auto tune, crab stance guitars, and shutter shades, it's been dying since it peaked in 2008. Bands like Attack Attack! Are trying to "mature". If I remember right, one of the dudes from AA! Told an interviewer that they had been listening to a lot of prog rock as inspiration for their next album, and they were really drawing from that style…though he said shortly after that, that they hadn't actually written any material yet (lol). So no, Ed, there really aren't that many teens and tween listening to this these days, and the ones that did are all making really awkward transitions from scene, to hipster.

  • Nom de Plume says:

    What is the cutoff age for listening to contemporary music? There seems to be general agreement that it's sometime in the early-mid twenties. That was certainly the case with me. The last time I could listen to the radio and not hate everything I heard was when I was about 25 or thereabouts. By around 30 I didn't just dislike what I heard, I didn't understand it. I don't want to over-generalize, but this seems to be a common experience.

  • Comrade PhysioProf says:

    [T]he originators of punk could barely play (and their "style" was just covering for that fact)[.]

    Also total unmitigated bullshitte. While there were certainly those who couldn't play–like Sid Vicious–many of the originators of punk were outstanding musicians.

  • Marcus says:

    In your article you seem to think you're self-aware, but actually, no. But why bother giving you ideas about what that self-awareness is, when they will just mislead in various subjective directions. Self-awareness is.

    Second, those things are *not* easy to put together, software is *not* idiot proof. I suggest you try making of video of comparable quality to any of those three before going too far on that particular high horse.

    Third: I don't like this music, that is a matter of taste. I didn't like it when I was 13, 15, 19, 23, 35, or now at 39. I think you're a little too focused on age.

    More importantly than those, look closer. Video three has prominent critique of hipsters. Video two is the Disneyfied version of punk. I didn't bother with video one, looked boring. Keyword, boring. But hey, they were all skillfully made.

    Why is it that people think that there's really any expectation that what people like at 13 years old is going to apply at 33 years old? lol, kinda dumb

  • zeroreference says:

    The fragmentation of how music gets distributed now and the overwhelming quantity of it means, I think, that unless you're friends with or know people who expend serious effort in keeping up with music, or you're one of those people yourself, that the chances of you stumbling onto the more interesting strains of contemporary music are slim. And, judging by the fact that I believe I'm the first person to mention 'Pitchfork' (google it) here, it seems that this is true of many commentators here.

    Many, if not most people who are serious about new music depend on the web, blogs, and word of mouth. Pitchfork Media has its problems, but its a decent starting point if you don't have any others.

  • Steve says:

    I made it to 2:25 of the last video, mostly because it was train-wreckishly hard to stop gawking at it, at least for 2 minutes and 25 seconds, at which point I felt such a strong need to bludgeon those two children with a hammer that I decided to abort.

    That said, I don't care whether makers of music know how to play instruments or not. I love The Chemical Brothers, and I think Dr. Dre is a genius, though I don't know whether he knows how to play any instruments.

    When I first heard hip-hop (back in the 80s, when I was a teenager), I hated it and protested that it shouldn't even count as music. I later did a complete about-face and decided that lots of hip-hop was awesome. Perhaps that bit of "waffling" is what leads me to think that "good music" is the shit that people like. Sorry to get all aesthetically relativist on you.

  • bill says:

    And, by the way, Aphex Twin is generally BRILLIANT. That little clip is totally out of context. And that particular track is 10 years old by now, at least.

  • blahedo says:

    See, I don't like any of those you posted, but I don't see any of them as stylistically new; I had classmates in high school that were listening to music that had strong family resemblance to all of these. It's a bit more mainstream now than it was in the 90s, but it's not "new" and my dislike of it has very little to do with my age (also 33).

    …not that I have standard musical tastes. But still.

  • Don says:

    33 and already at get off my lawn, huh? I guess we do all have to speed up before the end of the world. We live in what seems like an exceptionally imitative and referential era, and all these videos you posted are fine examples of that; they

  • Don says:

    33 and already at get off my lawn, huh? I guess we do all have to speed up before the end of the world. We live in what seems like an exceptionally imitative and referential era, and all these videos you posted are fine examples of that; they’re like a game of party-line telephone that started with Bauhaus telling a Buzzcocks story to Blixa Bargeld overheard by Trent Reznor, and in 30+ years a lot of nuance can get lost. (Yes, I actually do find nuance in Einsturzende Neubauten. And Buzzcocks are the Ella Fitzgerald of punk rock. Trent Reznor is when the plot started sounding a bit thin.) Given how much I hated these videos (I lasted 57 sec on that last one) I’m still a little charmed by the last traces of recognition. Even autotune, the single technology responsible for my intolerance of almost everything I accidentally overhear these days, can remind me that I loved O Superman, which used the alienating voice-processing technology of its day.
    I’ve been mumbling “kids these days” ever since that imitative and referential explosion of Nirvamudgardenjamania in the 90’s, and besides that, in a world where Limp Bizkit happened, I can’t get all that shocked at the devolution represented by those silly children in that first video, whose name I’ve already forgotten. Lots of music is primarily attractive to some people because other people loathe it – I have a pal who used to put on Pere Ubu when she wanted her parties to empty out, and it worked except for the few of us jumping up and down and screaming NONALIGNMENTPACTYOUBETTERSIGNIT! in the middle of the night. But then Modern Dance was an awesome record. But then all the music I’ve ever liked is better than all the music anybody else has ever liked.

  • Xynzee says:

    @oldmunni: lmfao seems to have that x-factor. Therefore whatever they're doing works.

    Having succumbed and actually watched some of the links (I hate you Ed), Brokencyde just sucks. The best way to describe them is try hards. The 1st clip is a derivation of "I'm on a Boat". It's as if they're trying to parody several genres — particularly rap w the Olde English, Biatches, are the animal suits a tribute to Love & Rockets? Vanilla Ice —, but wanting to be taken seriously.

    I also have to agree Dirk that what really sucks abt them is their wanna-be frat boy mentality.

  • Justin says:

    HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

    A. Neither of these bands is especially popular in the real sense.

    B. I am the same age as Ed.

    C. This sort of music isn't new. There was stuff that sounded just like Attack! Attack! Attack! in the eighties. The only difference is that the internet allows you to hear it.

    Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTpQOZcNASw

    This is Cannibal Corpse. THEY FORMED IN 1988.

    D. Brokencyde does suck. But I could find a hundred songs released during disco that are just as shit. Or any other era. They've just all been forgotten.

    So in conclusion: No, music isn't worse. You are just getting old.

  • Kaleberg says:

    I don't "get" music, but none of these seemed particularly awful to me. I actually kind of liked the first and third. The second relied too much on the video for its affect, but that might just because I missed something musical. The first actually had some interesting progression going on.

    There's a trend towards a very full sound lately, and not everyone likes it. It seems to go in cycles. Wasn't the phrase "wall of sound" introduced when Tin Pan Alley moved to the Brill Building? These guys seem to start with a wall of sound and are building a brick of it. Hole and Ween used to do this kind of thing, though I remember them as less melodic.

    I think art has always moved in cycles, at least in an open society that encourages new forms and external influence. As the theater owner in Children of Paradise said: novelty is as old as the hills.

    I'm old enough to remember the kids in my high school being either symphony-opera buffs bitching that Deutsche Grammophone recordings lacked soul or dropping acid at the East Village clubs nearby and bitching that the Mothers of Invention were too commercial. Yeah, that old.

  • Matt says:

    I think we'd see an end to this sort of music pretty rapidly if real death-metal groups decided to take it back. The thought of Cannibal Corpse showing up halfway through one of these videos and curb-stomping the emos is truly heartwarming. :)

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