Stumbled on a Facebook Post

Many will blame the hipster era that we are currently living in. The “I knew this song before the radio started playing it” and “oh, but Coldplay got so commercial” times are rolling and rolling. But in my opinion, and this might be due to ignorance, the tendency to prove our taste of music unique existed before the retro glasses and oversized earphones.

So, what is up with this attack on “mainstream” music? Let’s, for a minute, ignore the fact that music is something completely subjective and try to apply our objective arguments against it.

It appeals to the masses, therefore it has nothing particular

This belief that only few can appreciate something good and that you are one of those ‘chosen ones’ either makes you delusional and self-absorbed, worst case scenario, or a pessimist, best case scenario. Yes, majorities have made some “hasty” choices (aka Miley) but so have minorities (Yani!) and both can have an effect on the whole of society. Also, if anything, wide appeal shows an efficiency of this type of music; something must be pleasing to the ear (advertising can only do so much). If Atticus and the other three members of “Stinky Basement: quality music society” are the only ones who appreciate an artist, well I would be less likely to join them for their unconventional concert.

The lyrics are sooo shallow

Lyrics are an important part of music, that is true.  “Sometime Around Midnight – Airborne Toxic Event” does indeed charm the listeners, fills them with melancholy. But I haven’t really had any existential crisis while listening to “Back in Black – AC/DC” or “Around the World – Daft Punk”. I’d like to see someone trash AC/DC as bad musicians. Careful choice of words there; musicians not poets! As in LYRICS DO NOT HAVE TO BE DEEP ALL THE TIME! Some tracks don’t even have lyrics and they are awesome.

Mainstream music is unoriginal and repetitive

I will borrow the words of the one and only, Tom Morello, “my music is affected by DJ’s as they have made the most original music throughout the 90’s” or something like that. DJ’s!! Not Cobain or Petrucci. Of course he might have been talking about some underground DJ’s but as this is something I do not know, all I can safely assume he was not talking about Oasis. Club music sounds repetitive to me too; Red Hot Chili Peppers (kind of mainstream?) do not. But the other day, a friend of mine came up and told me that she can’t really tell apart “By the Way” and “Can’t Stop”. Shocking! Yet she can name all house tracks from the first second they go on. Could it just be about exposure?

The whole dancing thing

Apparently, dance music is the devil’s intrusion to our auditory experience. You see, music is only appropriate with whiskey and cigars, on a leather armchair with a blank canvas in front waiting for inspiration to kick in. No! Some music is for dancing and some would be god-awful to dance to. Different occasions call for different genres and I’m not just referring to Nicki Minaj for dancing. “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor – Arctic Monkeys” is great to dance to. And while we are on the subject, if the artist dances in the video clip that does not constitute him (or her, let’s not be sexist) a tramp! Adele is too sophisticated to dance, for example, she never does. You know who does dance though? Thom Yorke (from Radiohead) in “Lotus Flower”, in cliché black and white picture. It is one of the best video clips I’ve ever seen. Now this may just be an exception to the rule so I will also mention Michael Stype, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger and Elvis!

I too want to cut my ears off when Justin Bieber is playing, but all I’m trying to say is do not trash something because it is mainstream. Treat it as shit because YOU don’t like it, not because everyone else does. You are listening with your ears, not the rest of the room’s. And lastly, do you know what was quite mainstream in the 60’s? Beatles! 70’s? The Rolling Stones! 80’s? AC/DC! 90’s? Nirvana! And the 1800’s: MOZART! So mainstream music must have done something right. I do expect the “back then music was much better” comments now which I will talk about in my next blog entry.