What's next? Is there any hope for music?
I heard someone the other day talking about Emo being the next Grunge. That it has the potential to be
a new original sound, a movement. My feelings we're this person was a little predated because where I'm from the Emo/ Screamo stuff is already bellied up. What is it that's original about it. Just bad pop punk with horribly depressing lyrics. How kids find energy in this music to hold their attention. Cutting themselves, of course this has went on since the beginning of time. Bloodletting as a ritual. As far as musician busting hemselves up onstage it goes back to Iggy Pop. Sid Vicious, and The Mad Man Rocker G.G. Allin. Of course G.G. wasn't hiding in the bedroom of his suburban home scratching at his arm with a damn Lady Bic razor.
Metal has a stronghold on music and it's not going anywhere but up. It gets harder, it gets faster, and estimably it progressively gets more intricate musically. Also, the diversity metal offers is nearly infinite.
metal has more sub-genre's then any other music today. Death Metal, death Core, Black Metal, Funeral Metal, Scream-Core, Progressive, Glam, Murder Core, even Christian Metal is making a huge comeback. Those are just the sub-genre's off my head, they're more I assure you.
Pop music is at a stalemate so to speak. With the virtual death of underground Gangsta Rap Hip Hop has taken a dive too. Which is exceptionally tragic as Hip Hop is one element of the Pop music
industry that has soul and roots, a foundation. Other than hip hop, some Crybaby Emo and watered down Pop Punk (that conformed enough to pass through the barriers set by the almighty dollar.) Pop music, in my humble opinion, is at an all time low. I am not in the know of what's hitting right now as I don't watch MTV, if I listen to the radio I'm listening to talk Radio, all my online stations are Genre' specific, other than that CD's are my friends.
My question is what's next. Seems everything imaginable has had it's run in the spotlight.
What's next? SKA, Reggie, Jazz based Rock. I thought there was absolutely no way for anyone to create a new sound. I have been content just listening to Bands that put their own signature on music that's been there. There are some great bands out there that still get me high. So what if they're not breaking new ground, there are still many kick ass bands and what they're doing is new to them. If they approach their music with intensity and fervor it is fresh. It is new.
So when Hip Hop and Gansta Rap hit for real in the 80's I was blown off my feat. I new about Rap with L.L. Cool J and The Beastie Boys who started out Hardcore Punk. I had also heard old Dub Reggie that was intense and I was drawn to it. Then N.W.A., ICE TEA, O.C.I, PUBLIC ENEMY, soon every one and their brother was rapping. It was like an Atomic Bomb hitting the underground. Starting in the urban areas of inner cities it wasn't long before the suburban white kids were not only listening to Gangsta Rap but emulating the lifestyles of their heroes. Parents were once again appalled, Just as thet we're in the 60's with their children growing their hair, smoking weed and preaching free love. To the 70's Punk Rock movement, which was the opposite, to the other extreme, yea Punk was new and it rattled the cages, kids became violent and perhaps for the first time the music encouraged this violence and the band members practiced what they preached. Many would be notable Punk Rock Bands we're ended by death and jail sentences. However, Parent's weren't ready for the Rap Youth. White kids immediately changed
the way they dressed, their friends, their entire demeanor was affected. Probably the most humorous was their speech, upper class white kids that had never set foot in a black neighborhood were talking as if they were raised in Compton. What's not so funny is kids started packing guns and joining gangs. As I said emulating the Big Boys.
Kurt Cobain is given a great deal of credit for the Grunge scene, much of this praise well deserved because Nirvana ran it up the charts. However the concept of grunge music has been around a long time.
bands like Green River and Mud honey we're flying just below the publicity radar. then came along Pearl Jam and Nirvana and a new Genre' of music was born. Grunge was the hottest thing around for a minute.
For a very brief period kids dawned converse and flannel, jean jackets. Thrift shopping was cool again. It killed the Glam metal scene. Rat, Quiet Riot, Poison and Cinderella disappeared, went back to their
For lower in come families this grunge thing was Heaven sent. Music that didn't require their children spent every available sent on leather Jackets or $300 Gym Shoes. It wasn't particularly profane or violent.
Then the death of Kurt Cobain shocked the music world and a few years later the grunge scene just sort of faded away. The Bands that still make this type of sound fall into the garage genre' now.
Is there anything out there that's remotely original. I can't fathom what it could be. But before Gangsta Rap I could have never imagined that sound. I'm sure punk rock was a Punch in the stomach to the people who grew up on Elvis. It's hard to imagine something new and shocking in this day. Nothing original has came along. Even movies are remakes these days. Why try to come up with something new as
long as people are paying for washed up retread of music from 30 years ago. Your guess is