I’m a 90’s baby. I remember all the slow R&B jams on the radio and the Hip Hop tracks we’d hear on Jam’n 94.5 on the carpool to school, the Baltazar and Pebbles morning show never got old, lol. I can remember the music my Mom would play while she cleaned the house on Saturdays: Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, Roberta Flack, Stevie Wonder…. When I got older I got into more classic forms of music. I started listening to Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, and old Motown tracks on repeat. By the time I was knee-deep in my college career, I was all about opera; La Stupenda, Joan Sutherland, being a favorite…..
Flash Forward leaving the Classical era, speeding through the 30’s and 40’s, past the Motown phase and Cameo days, and even beyond Queen, Aerosmith, Biggie, and Destiny….what on earth is going on with music Today?!?!?!?!?!?!
I love music. I listen to all different genres and rarely discriminate. That being said, I don’t get where music is going these days. I
don’t mean to offend, but it seems to me that the popular music of this decade completely lacks any real artistry, originality, and emotion. I realize music changes as time goes on and often times people reject the unfamiliar. How many times have our parents complained about what we listen to? And how many times have we heard that our grandparents complained about what our parents listened to?…..But I’m not a parent and I’m not even close to middle-aged. I’m young and this music is still a part of my generation, unfortunately, but for some reason I just can’t connect with it. I turn on the radio in the morning and I hear what sounds like different versions of the same song over and over again; Rihanna or Jessie J’s vocals over a seizure inducing track of some kind of electronica mumbo jumbo with Nicki Minaj on the bridge. Now, I can get into those kinds of songs on a Friday night when I’m on the dance floor at a club with a few drinks in my system….but 24/7??
Thankfully it’s not all bad. When Kanye West came out with “Otis” it was a pleasant breath of fresh air for me. Adele has also been a Godsend during these troubling times. Her album was constantly booming through the earphones of my iPod. Luckily music goes through phases. It changes all the time. I’m just hoping (praying really) that this is a VERY short and regrettable phase in the history of music.
GOD, BRING BACK THE ARTISTS
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RISA LLANAH 