Music isn’t appreciated anymore, hence the deterioration of remarkable pieces or bodies of artistry. I would even take it further and say that many modern artists shouldn’t be given a microphone. When I hear the sound of some artists’ voices, it immediately agitates me. And to preface, I don’t speak of all genres, simply because I’m not an avid listener of certain ones, so if you have an opinion on country, rock, folk, etc, this ain’t the article for you.
My relationship with music has always been one of deep emotion, nostalgia, and a longing for life. My mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, but it was benign, so she fought and beat it within a year. But we weren’t as lucky to have the same outcome the second time around.
My mother died in July of 2014, and back in May of that year, my dad said he knew her last days were coming, so as a way for us to push forward, he decided traveling was the best option. I remember my dad having three massive CD cases on these road trips. While he was driving, he recruited me as the CD finder, and I would flip through rows of CDs he had burned, searching for artists like Freddie Jackson, Switch, Michael Jackson, Anita Baker, Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, and The Bee Gees.
These moments were the birthplace of my love for music and also created the nostalgia I feel whenever I hear “Rock with You” by Michael Jackson or “Baby Come Back” by PLAYER randomly in public. Most importantly, these moments grew my love and appreciation for timeless music.
This leads me to the problem: Where has all the good music? I like many artists of our generation, and I find their music catchy and lighthearted. But I can name less than five artists of today’s generation who can genuinely move me to tears or have a long-term impact on my life.
Today, many artists just make music to make music. The music is great at the moment, but then after a certain amount of time, it becomes extremely annoying, and nobody wants to listen to it anymore.
Yeah, obviously, people listen to music but they never really appreciate it anymore simply because they are too focused on the music’s catchy beat or having something they can “turn up” to.
As a capitalist industry, the music industry will give consumers what they want. Instead of signing or putting on a platform artists who are vocalists or truly love making music, they will platform artists like Sexy Redd.
Many people like Sexy Redd. I, too, find her music catchy, perfect for when you’re in an “on, go” setting or just feel like twerking. But outside of that, I will never understand why the music industry gave her a platform.
In addition, little kids listen to her music. A viral video on TikTok shows a group of preschool-age kids singing Sexy Redd and saying that her song is their favorite.
It’s one thing to be a high school student listening to her music, but it’s a whole other thing if you expose young children to the vulgarity of her music or other music like hers. To counter that, you could argue that artists shouldn’t have to limit their form of expression solely to preserve children’s innocence; I would say I fully agree. Still, the problem specifically is that the music industry isn’t platforming artists with child-friendly music simply because most artists’ modern-day music isn’t kid-friendly!
Think about it: How often do you listen to the radio and hear a song but none of the explicit language in the lyrics are changed? And I’m not talking about the Christian radio station, but regular pop music stations. The lack of child-friendly music leaves room for extremely impressionable kids to run around singing about sexual things when they don’t even know what it means.
The other big thing no one talks about is how many “singers” CAN’T SING anymore, and I blame parents. Now, blaming parents may seem like an odd place to put the blame, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense.
If you think about all of the best singers to ever walk this earth, names like Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Beyonce, and Michael Jackson would pop up. No matter how you feel about these people and their music, we simply go off of vocal talent.
Five out of these six people grew up singing in gospel choirs. Gospel music is a central focal point in music today that many people don’t realize. Think about the techniques artists use within their music: Michael Jackson’s cry, Whitney, Mariah, and Aretha’s belting ability, and Beyonce’s extravagant riffs and runs. These singers’ creativity and freedom of expression stem from their foundations in singing gospel.
Over the years, churches have suffered due to a lack of attendance, and one of the primary indicators is the youth attendance rate. When I was younger, I used to sit in church, and the pews would be full of children to the point where we had to sit on our parents’ laps. And now, when I go to church, I only see two or three other families with children in the pews.
The lack of youth attendance at church caused the death of youth choirs, which is evident in today’s music. With the exception of Bruno Mars and Adele, how many artists can you name on the same vocal level as the Holy Trinity: Whitney, Mariah, and Celine?
Many artists tend to hide behind the fact that they have the entire song while they’re PERFORMING instead of just letting their voice speak for itself, and they use cursive singing to suffice for the fact that they can’t actually sing. However, the biggest indicator of a singer’s inability to sing is the absurd amount of autotune used to carry their vocal performance. And the crazy part is that we could spare the public from hearing below-average singers that need heavy amounts of vocal assistance if Hollywood wasn’t so obsessed with looks.
Obviously, they are going to care about people’s appearance simply because everyone knows pretty people are treated better and people prefer to look at pretty people. I’m not saying that the music industry used to be more accepting of people who were deemed conventionally unattractive, but in the past ,they wouldn’t deny talent.
And though, yes, they would still bully artists into working to become more attractive, they wouldn’t outright not give artists a chance to showcase their talent. Today, how many artists do you see on social media that are average-looking individuals who look like they could blend in with the common folk? Or how many artists do you see that don’t have extreme amounts of work done on their bodies? The need for artists to be drop-dead gorgeous is ruining the quality of music we once had. People are way too focused on the face they see rather than the music they hear.
I don’t believe all of today’s music is bad. You just have to go looking because many of the amazing bodies of work are now hidden gems. We shouldn’t have to search high and low and cross all Seven Wonders just to find good music that one day we will look back on and consider timeless.
