When I was growing up, and first became aware of music, dance music was coming into its own. The first number one which I actually remember watching on TOTP (before that national institution was dropped by the BBC...) was d:ream's "Things Can Only Get Better. It was in the first few months of 1994 and I was 12. I actually thought it was quite good at the time...
Anyhow, as I grew up I realised that actually, that song wasn't that great... In fact the whole chart system was fundamentally flawed as it was now no longer run by artists who could play instruments and create individual music, but by "music moguls" who could churn out carbon copy artists to sing songs written in the key of G to please the masses... Where had the talet gone?
At my school of over 500 people, there were only 5 of us who played guitar. That's 1% of the population of my school... That was rubbish. How was any new talent going to emerge into the world if all people were listening to was either computer generated dance music or boy band ballads written by songwriters who either couldn't sing or simply did not have the required physical attributes to be on TV...
Don't get me wrong though, every now and again a band or artist would break into the charts and show a flair of individuality; bands like Radiohead, Muse and even groups that I didn't like so much such as Beautiful South. But they were not the norm. The "artists" in the charts were singing songs aimed at 8 year old kids who, unfortunately grew up. And when they did, the artists were shelved, there later claims to fame being simple appearances in celebrity big brother or worse, Celebrity Scissorhands!
When we hit the year 2000 with the advent of The Strokes and the White Stripes I thought that maybe finally real music would return to the charts. And it did. For a while. Those bands were individual, with a new sound. They played guitar and suddenly hundreds of people everywhere started learning to play guitar and now 6 short years later, instead of there being a plethora of bands all playing individual music, the charts are full of bands that sound like each other.
The Futureheads sound like Razorlight who sound like Franz Ferdinand who sound like The Bravery who sound like The Kaiser Chiefs who all at the end of the day sound like variants on The Strokes.
If you are really after some truly exciting new bands, my suggestion would be that you check out some of the following sites:
www.dweebmusic.co.uk; www.muse.mu; www.benfolds.com; www.eelstheband.com; and finally, if you are willing to venture outside the world of english language, check out www.qui2nous2.com and www.skank.com.br
I'm not blaming the bands involved. I'm blaming the individuals who run the charts. The individuals who crush individuality by making original music so hard to find...
And to all you people out there who do play an instrument or want to be in a band, all you songwriters, ponder this:
In ten years time, when music tastes have changed again, who will still be here? Will it be the carbon copy bands I've mentioned or the originals who may not have the same degree of chart success, but definitely stand out from the crowd?
Think of Radiohead. Think of Muse. Think of U2, Green Day, or even the Rolling Stones (The ultimate example of a long lasting band!) What they all have in common is that they do not follow the flock and as a result have outlasted many of their contemporaries!
Be yourself!
Alex
PS: Please note that I can't guarantee the content of the websites mentioned above. Musically they are all very original though!
No comments:
Post a Comment