Islands in the Stream

Let me just go ahead and get this out of the way: Mainstream Music sucks!

Ok, now I'll back up and say that there are a few gems out there, but they are few and far between. I read an article recently that suggested that as you get older, you can appreciate new music less and less. There's a reason the Oldies station is so beloved by the Oldies, I mean older people. There's a seminal period of music, usually from your teenage years or college where you just relate the music to your identity. For me, that's 80's music. If you looked at my iPod All-Time Favorites playlist, at least 75% of the songs are 80's songs. (Many of these are probably considered Classic Rock now, which just saddens me.)

Fast forward to today's music. If you look at a Billboard Top 100 list, it is dominated by R&B, hip hop, rap. I don't have anything against the genres in themselves, but rather with the modern day take on it. So much of it is self-praising crap with no-talent "singers" and lousy sounding music. (Now let me tell you how I really feel!)
There are some standouts: Rihanna has a great voice and has some groovy music and good dance beats. Lady Gaga, for all the image tripe, is also a really good singer, very talented, with some horribly catchy songs. (Bad Romance, You and I?) She's the modern-day Madonna. (Sorry.) Jay-Z has some pretty good stuff, too. I like the rap when it's funny or has interesting rhymes. "Somethings" in Paris is just loaded with profanity (the edited version is almost incomprehensible) but has fun turns of phrase. It's going gorillas! (You had to be there.) I even like a Katy Perry song or two. (Yes, fine, I admit it. Last Friday Night is fun.) Rarely, I'll even find a nice country (probably Bluegrass) song in the top 100.

I find a lot of pleasure in indie music. I'm no hipster (obviously) but I feel that I can appreciate new music in small doses. These days, I'm listening to a sampler from the SXSW music festival and keeping the ones I like. Some of these end up being new favorites, some are just passing through. For new music, I've noticed that I have a soft spot for female vocalists with sweet voices and songs that use music from old video games. (This year, there's a song that uses the music from Final Fantasy VII and is ABOUT one of the characters. It's so awesome. Avalanche.)