Aural Fixation: Today’s Music Doesn’t Suck. You’re Just Lazy.

Aural Fixation: Today’s Music Doesn’t Suck. You’re Just Lazy.

“Aural Fixation” is a music-themed column I wrote for PopMatters.com from 2011-2013. They are no longer online there, but I have reformatted them here at the DMDB blog with additional videos, photos, and links, such as where to buy referenced albums. I have also used the title “Aural Fixation” for any essays I have written outside of PopMatters.com as well. To see the essays, check out the Dave’s Music Database Aural Fixation page. The essays from PopMatters.com have been gathered in book form as Aural Fixation: Essays from a Music Obsessive. Essays written from 2009 to 2011 have been gathered in the book No One Needs 21 Versions of “Purple Haze”. You can purchase the essays in book format here.

Nothing screams, “I’ve arrived! I’m now irrelevant!” more than the petulant whine that “Today’s music sucks.” It’s almost a litmus test to acquire one’s AARP card or get that ten-percent senior discount on coffee at the local eatery. However, it isn’t just Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) and Generation Xers (born 1965-1980) raising canes and screaming at young whippersnappers to get off their lawns. Some millennials (born 1981-1996) have even acquired “grumpy old men” status. An article in Global News says people start dismissing new music around the age of 33. “They find modern music less relatable than what they were listening to during their crucial coming-of-age musical years (approximately 13 to 23).” GN A study in Music and Science confirms that people “disproportionately recall memories from when they were 10 to 30 years old.” NS When it comes to music, people are more likely to know music from and choose their favorites from this era. NS In other words, regardless of age, people will reminisce more fondly about the music of their youth. The study cited in Global News also explains that those with three decades under their belt are more likely to return to the era of their youth and mine stuff they overlooked the first time around than to explore more recently made music. GN No problem. There’s no mandate to embrace the new. However, if you’ve chanted any of the following mantras, you’ve proclaimed that you’ve given up. Radio never plays anything good anymore. MTV used to play actual music. We didn’t need autotune in my day. Technology has continued to grow even if you haven’t. Guess what? Radio and MTV are not where it’s at anymore. Here’s a revelation for you – music isn’t – and most likely has never been – marketed to your age group. Since the rock and roll era launched in the 1950s, music has been targeted to the youth. That means if you’re over thirty years old, you might have to work a bit harder to find music you like. It isn’t spoon fed to you anymore. The good news is that if you’ll put in a little effort you have more opportunity for new music discovery than ever before. According to an article from Music Business Worldwide, 43 million new tracks will have been uploaded to Spotify and other music streaming services by the end of 2023. MB To dismiss all of today’s music would therefore require listening to 120,000 new songs a day MB and not liking a lick of it. Not one song. One melody. One note. That’s a helluva lot of music to dismiss. You sound pretty stupid to say you don’t like anything from an entire era of music, especially when you’ve barely listened to any of it. Let’s also consider how a proclamation that “today’s music sucks” requires the complete setting aside of irony. After all, didn’t we universally roll our eyes at our parents for telling us our music was crap? How is it different now? Why can we toss aside our kids and grandkids’ taste without cringing even slightly at our hypocrisy? Here’s some truth for you. It’s possible to enjoy your music – from whatever era, whatever genre – without condemning others’ tastes. I know! It sounds unbelievable, but it’s true. Look, I get it. People are very passionate about their music. Music is very personal to people. That, however, is exactly why not to lash out at others’ tastes. I believe music is more connected to one’s soul than any other art form. People care deeply about their music. When you attack another person’s music, you attack their souls. Take it from Plato, the Greek philosopher born 2400 years ago. He said, music “gives a soul to the Universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything.” He also said, “Rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.” Resources and Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: “Aural Fixation essays page” GN GlobalNews.ca (9/3/2023). “At what point does your taste in music officially get old? There’s a study for that” by Alan Cross MB MusicBusinessWorldwide.com (5/25/2023). “There Are Now 120,000 New Tracks Hitting Music Streaming Services Each Day” by Murray Stassen NS Neuroscience News (2/14/2021). “Why We’re Obsessed With Music From Our Youth” First posted 11/3/2023.

Generation X Wants Its MTV, But It’s a VEVO World Now

Originally published in my "Aural Fixation" column on PopMatters.com on August 29, 2012. See original post here.

image from imageshack.us

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Gen X’ers may still want their MTV, but the version they loved is as distant a memory as Valley Girl speak, parachute pants, and leg warmers. Wake up and smell the VEVO.

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In the summer of 1981, I was psyching myself up for the treacherous journey known as high school. With my geek identity already firmly in place, my adolescence would not be marked by dances, football games, and parties. No, I was destined to wile away my teen years in my parents’ basement consumed by television, music, and crushes on unattainable celebrities.

Luckily, a source for satisfying all three of those needs entered the world that same summer. MTV, born on the 1st of August in 1981, soundtracked not just my youth, but an entire generation. Kids finally saw what some of their favorite artists looked like and were exposed to new music absent from radio playlists. The channel’s programming was dominated by three-to-four minute music promos designed to steer kids directly to the latest mall to unload their allowances at Musicland, Sam Goody, and Camelot.

Martha Quinn, Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, J.J. Jackson, and Alan Hunter served as navigators and heartthrobs, ushering in a new era where the jockeys who plugged the hits didn’t just have to sound good, but look good. They became stars as big as the musicians they touted.

Fast forward 30 years and the music video’s homeland has shifted from television to the Internet. The territory once staked by MTV has been snatched up by YouTube – with a huge caveat. Much to the dismay of record companies, the Web belongs to everyone. The dawn of the digital age put illegal downloads in the hard drives of anyone with a browser. YouTube allows any owner of a smart phone to post content which may or may not be copyrighted.

Along came VEVO to serve as the delivery system for “official” videos. To pat themselves on the back, they introduced certified awards this past summer. The awards, modeled after gold and platinum records for albums and singles, recognizes VEVO videos seen by more than 100 million pairs of eyeballs.

Being a list addict, I lapped it up. However, the average Gen X’er might be more inclined to throw up. This isn’t a list populated by early classics like Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” or Def Leppard’s “Photograph”. In today’s YouTube world, Justin Bieber’s “Baby” and Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” rule the roost.

Justin Bieber's "Baby", #1 on the VEVO list

In fact, as of mid-August, 79 of the 100 videos on the VEVO list are from 2009 on. Only two videos date back to the 20th century: Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” (1983) and Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain” (1992).

Those two videos could bookend what Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum call the “Golden Age” of MTV (1981-1992) in their book, I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution (Dutton, 2011). On my Dave’s Music Database blog, I aggregated more than 50 sources into a post on the Top 100 Videos of All Time. It serves as a vivid walk down memory lane for anyone who spent the Golden Age plopped in front of the tube. More than half the videos stem from that era and a mere 13 hail from the 21st century. The newest song on the list, Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” from 2008, is ancient by VEVO standards.

Why such a drastic change? Among Marks and Tannenbaum’s rationale for capping the Golden Age at 1992 was the birth of reality programming. That year’s show The Real World signified a move away from music videos which, in the minds of Gen X’ers, destroyed MTV.

Check out the comments section on YouTube videos for MTV ads and promos of yesteryear. The scathing attacks start with the observation that the “M” used to stand for music. A mix of resentment and reminiscing follows – it reads like someone recalling good times with an ex before things went sour. A colorful array of profanities generally spices up the bitter diatribes.

It may seem unfathomable that the station once renowned for cutting edge videos like Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” and Aha’s “Take on Me” now champions reality-TV stars like Snooki and The Situation. However, here’s something my fellow 40-somethings forget: you aren’t 14, anymore.

It’s okay to fondly remember vegging out to music videos for hours at a time or hanging out at the mall and buying the latest cassettes by Journey and Styx. However, even if MTV, malls, and cassettes were still pillars of modern society, they wouldn’t be central to your life anymore. As soon as marriage, mortgages, and mini-versions of yourself (aka children) entered the picture, MTV was jettisoned. It’s hard to make a priority of seeing a Madonna world premiere video when Junior is screeching at the top of his lungs for his bottle.

You outgrew MTV’s demographic 15-20 years ago. Whereas they haven’t aged in that they maintain an ever-vigilant pursuit of the youth market. Ehow.com says today’s MTV is targeted toward ages 12 to 25 (“What Are the Demographics of MTV Viewers?”, 17 May 2009). When the kids started turning to other sources for music, MTV had to overhaul its programming to stay relevant and profitable. Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes is quoted in I Want My MTV as saying “at some point the ‘M’ in MTV changed from ‘Music’ to ‘Money.’” Network executives aren’t going to alienate their teen and twentysomething base just because Generation X feels nostalgic.

Once upon a time you may have huddled around the lockers in high school halls to profess Tawny Kitaen’s hotness in Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again”. Today’s adolescent whips out a smart phone to show off her homemade video of her singing Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.” with her BFF. Meanwhile ,you now gather around the water cooler with co-workers to spout lines like, “Here we go again” when someone asks which political party you’re backing in the USA’s Presidential election.

Even if MTV had never strayed from music, Katy Perry’s “Firework” and LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” would rule the roost these days, not Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. As proclaimed in the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star”, the first video to air on MTV, “We can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far / Pictures came and broke your heart.”

It’s time to let go, Generation X – and get your VEVO on.