The State of Music

After a prolonged period of procrastination, I've finally gotten back to updating my iTunes library. I'm making sure that the music that is on there is up to date with the correct album information and cover art. In addition, I've been going through my CD collection and adding music that had previously escaped being put in the library. I have a habit of going away from certain music for a long period of time. For example, I love Van Halen, but I have gone through a bit of a lull with them and haven't listened in a long while, so they weren't on my iTunes. But, that problem has since been corrected.

The second part of this music project was going through a large collection of mixed CDs that I had made when I had access to a radio station's music catalog. This is where I found a lot of songs of artists that I enjoyed, just not enough to buy the entire album. Anyways, as I was uploading one of these CDs, I found myself blanking on the artist time and time again. I could not, for the life of me, remember who some of these guys were. As I started looking them up, almost all of them were from CDs that had come out in 2005, so it's not like these were songs from that long ago. It got me thinking about how disposable music from this decade has been. For example, do you guys even remember the "Lean Back" craze? I had forgotten all about it until I found it on a random CD this weekend.

Another one of the songs on this CD was Simon & Garfunkel doing "Bridge Over Troubled Water" from their concert in Central Park*. Now, that's a song that stands the test of time. If I can't remember who sang songs that came out 4 short years ago, what are the odds that any of this stuff will be memorable over an even longer period? Moreover, do we even have transcendent artist anymore? Could anybody out there today pull off a concert in Central Park, or would the place be woefully empty? I can't think of a single act who could pull of a concert of that size. People say that the reason musical acts come and go is because people today are too plugged in, too hyper and are too quick to look for the next big thing. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced artists would stick around longer if they put out some music that wasn't as pre-packaged and disposable.


*I know what you're thinking: "Tom, are you saying that you had Terror Squad and Simon & Garfunkel on the same CD?" You bet your ass I did. It also featured Guns 'n Roses and Kelly Clarkson. When I make you a mix CD you're about to go on a musical journey - strap in.