The day the music died

Thanks Don McLean for the lyric, but your over-played anthem is not one of my favorites, despite it coming from an era of music that will never be matched again.

When exactly was the day the music died? If I had to pick a day, while not specifically a day, it would be sometime in the 1990s. Seems like once grunge hit the scene, a lot of music started to sound the same. Since the 90s, music has gone on a huge downward spiral. And there is no hope in sight.

So with no good, new music to listen to, I've turned to a band that I already know. With the availability of free downloads (torrents and other file sharing programs) it is easy to get the entire discography of a band. So you can sit back, and in a few hours have the entire Deep Purple discography.

I can hear the questions now, though. "Why would you WANT the Deep Purple discography?" Well, I like Deep Purple. I like the songs I have hard by them and figure that at the very least the rest of their music can't be that bad. The good thing about downloading music is that if you don't like it, you can delete it. Not quite the same if you plunked down $20 on a CD. But this is not really about CDs vs. downloads. That's an argument for another time.

I mention Deep Purple because most of their music has a distinct sound, and because it was Deep Purple I was listening to when I started to think about some of the crap that is being played today.

Thanks to Ian Gillan's awesome voice, it's not that hard to pick out a Deep Purple song (unless it's not Ian Gillan, but instead it's David Coverdale, Joe Lynn Turner or Rod Evans)the average person might not recognize Deep Purple from Shallow Pink.

But that works both ways. If I was to turn on the radio or Much Music right now, I'd say there is well over a 50% chance that I would not recognize the artist. I'll check that by saying that MM might give me a bit of an advantage as obviously I can see who is singing/playing. But that's not much of an advantage.

My dislike for the direction that the music business is not limited to new/newer artists. Oh no. It applies to most, if not all of the older bands that I like. One of the best examples of that is Aerosmith. While not one of the first bands I started listening to,(that would be KISS, Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, among others; Bob will remember those days), I did eventually become a huge Aerosmith fan.

I love the 70s Aerosmith output. Hardly a bad song. Even the overplayed songs like "Sweet Emotion", "Walk This Way", and "Dream On". But its the less popular album tracks, like "Bone to Bone (Coney Island Whitefish Boy)", "Three Mile Smile", and "Get the Lead Out" that I prefer. Awesome guitar. Steve Tyler's insane opening ramblings. One of the most solid, but not overly spectacular rhythm sections out there.

Then the 80s and 90s came.

Somewhere, somehow, Aerosmith's guitar-driven rock changed. It changed drastically. And it most certainly changed for the worst.

"Cryin'". "Angel". "Don't Want to Miss a Thing".

Are you serious?

That's only a few of the disasters they've recorded since 1987. The answer as to why their sound changed so much is simple enough.

No more drugs.

As we all know, drugs have taken many young performers, athletes, and everyday people way before their time. The same thing was going to happen to Steven Tyler and Jo Perry if they kept it up. But they didn't. They cleaned up their act. The sad thing is, they lost their sound. Suddenly they were cranking out power ballads that any crappy group was capable of matching.

The day the music died.

When I was talking initially with my boss at Water Werks, she said, "there are no new ideas." I had been asking her about the danger of ripping off another company's ad. As an aspiring writer, that was a little disheartening. On one hand it makes it sound like no matter how good someone is, your ideas are going to sound old and tired. But I know what she means.

She was referring to influences. And as an artist, more specifically, an author, I have my own influences. They range from other authors, to songwriters, to comedians, to my friends and family. It's like a professor of mine once said, "you write what you know".

So how does all this rambling, referencing, and ranting tie in with 'the day the music died'?

When you think about it, it's been 35 years since Aerosmith released their first album. In that time, thousands of groups have come and gone, many I'm sure influenced in one way or another by Aerosmith. (Guns 'N Roses are one notable band that claim Aerosmith as an influence). So, if Aerosmith were one of the reasons you got into the music business, it probably wouldn't be a stretch if your music sounded a bit like Aerosmith would it?

And that's sort of the point of all this, and really is why I find newer music to be bland and boring. It all sounds the same. Maybe if I put in a bit more effort I would be able to tell who is who. But I just don't care enough to try and figure it all out.

I'm content to fire all my songs into a Winamp playlist and take a nap. I've discovered some great songs that way.

Most people would furrow their brows and the sound (and sight) of the songs I listen to. Not only the artists. But the names, lengths and dates of the music I listen to. We've already been through Mr. Zappa's creative song titles. But who else wants to hear a 14 minute version of "Yours Is No Disgrace" by Yes? Bob maybe.

All in all, today's music scene, while probably full of decent artists, holds little interest for me.

If I really want to listen to a band that sounds like Led Zeppelin, I'll just go and listen to the real thing.