Quote:
Originally Posted by RoxyRollah
I am not so sure that it is music itself becoming more tame, as I think that in general, the youth today, neither has a clear definable voice, nor has any grasp on the issues are at hand.
With era of Lennon, you had a time of massive social unrest and upheaval. The air at the time, pretty much became so filled with volatile vibrations, that I am almost certain were impossible not to pick up on them in some remote way. There are a couple things that were happening at that time, that simply are not happening now. A groundbreaking hallucinogen was becoming accepted as a way to get to the stairway of enlightenment, race had gotten to a boiling over point, and you had three or assassinations happen.
These are things that this generation will never experience, because it was a right time right place deal.
The major problem in my never to be humble opinion, is the lack of comradery, and what's best for group as a whole . This generation is set up for I, me, mine. And that is reflected in the music you hear.You won't hear songs like power to the people anymore, because 'the people' haven't got a clue, about what's best for themselves, let alone the world outside their four walls.
I am going to disagree with you on the Manson. Because he didn't do anything, that Alice Cooper, or Ozzy hadn't done before him, and they did it when it was actually new.
You have to ask yourself, what is popular now a days man. Sign of the times, it is no longer a rebellious culture as a matter of fact it's so same it hurts. Yes the artists you see in or on mainstream media, seem to value vulgarity, sex, money, and power. And to obtain those things one mostly needs to conform to the unholy music industry. And there is nothing wrong with all those things, I dig them, but I don't hold my mainstream artists to the same standards as I would hold, the mainstream artists of the past. I would not, no.
If you are looking for something that speaks in volumes, you should really look into the indie scene. And even there you won't find protest songs, or whatever is you are looking for all the time. But there certainly be more depth then the garbage that's out there now.
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I agree with what Urban said about the whole stranglehold that the modern music industry has on the "mainstream". I'd also like to point out that the stranglehold that it has is possible because of all of the money they made from those same fifties/sixties/seventies bands that people are always harping on about.
Back then the music industry wasn't nearly so big. Kids didn't have much money and adults were too busy working to be worrying about music all the damn time. Then America wins the second world war and has an economic boom and all of a sudden we have a massive middle class with millions of middle class kids who have more money than their parents ever had and more free time on their hands seeing as how they didn't have to go work in a factory at the age of thirteen. This was when the entire concept of the teenager came about.
And since they had all this time and money on their hands they spent it on music in a way that no demographic ever had before. Hence why so many mainstream artists were so much more daring and creative than they are these days: because the music industry wasn't yet the soulless, all-consuming, multi-national juggernaut that it is today. And with this new boom came more and more money and soon you have disco, and Duran Duran, and hair metal, and post-grunge, and all of this orchestrated using money they'd made from the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Hendrix, etc, etc, etc.
So part of the blame can actually be laid at the feet of the very bands you're comparing these modern artists with.