Music is as subjective as any other type of art. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, just as one man’s Lil Wayne album is another man’s recyclable.
Although not everyone will agree on what good music is, certain aspects of music can always be defined, like the amount of effort put into the writing and production process.
Since the era of electronic music began back in the 80s, there have always been people looking to capitalize on it. Music labels would much rather make a hit record with no more than a singer and producer than go out and find talented artists whom they would have to pay more to. This is the way capitalism works, and music is no exception.
Producers and hired writers can write entire songs themselves in just minutes and make millions off of it. This is why brainless songs such as Trey Songz’s “Say Aah” which features lyrics like “Let me hear you say aah/If you want me say aah” are even made in the first place. Both the instrumentals and lyrics to that song could have been written by a 3-year-old if he had a keyboard and a desire to be a famous rapper.
The most shocking aspect of this musical downgrade is the implementation of computer software such as auto-tune, a program that can take anyone’s voice and shift the pitch of it to sound perfectly on key and even create melodies that the singer did not sing originally.
Artists like Kanye West, Lady Gaga and T-Pain are famous for abusing the widely-used program. Though this is a pressing issue, it is rarely talked about in the media. With auto-tune, basically anybody can do a vocal track, even your 95-year-old grandma. And if T-Pain were to sing one of his songs without auto-tune and enough people heard it, he would probably lose his career altogether.
But nobody cares. The majority of American youth just want to dance to a good beat. They could care less what the lyrics are about. This is why people like Lil Wayne, Kanye West, T-Pain, Pitbull, and LMFAO are famous to begin with.
The radio stations play their songs over and over until they can convince you that there is no other music out there worth listening or dancing to.
However, let’s not mistake the issue. Too often is the fight against idiotic music confused with a fight against hip-hop. I can assure you that hip-hop is not the problem.
Our parents tell us all the time that hip-hop is a disgrace to music and that anybody can do it. The truth is that aside from singing, rappers and songwriters have everything in common. Rapping takes rhythmic and poetic skill.
This is why it is sad to see hip-hop be transformed by this process of “dumbing-down.” We may never see artists like A Tribe Called Quest, Tupac, or Immortal Technique again if we continue to support the talentless artists that currently dominate the airwaves and iPod playlists.
The rock world has been affected as well. Though rock has always been considerably outshined by pop and hip-hop in the mainstream, it has maintained a certain level of dignity. But after KROQ began playing Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl,” I knew all dignity had been lost.
As record companies corrupt hip-hop and exploit rock, they push the dignified musicians further and further away. But there are still bands that have stayed true to themselves and not succumbed to the appeal of having a super-commercial sound, such as Deftones, Common, TV on the Radio, MF Doom, and Radiohead. As this list of musicians gets shorter and shorter, popular music will surely become less enjoyable.
Musicians are not enemies of the state. They are simply casualties of the capitalization of music. Hundreds of thousands of artists across the country struggle for exposure while talentless people with a few connections take their place. If this is not a crime, I don’t know what is.
