I think it may have more to
do with education and literacy in general.
As the public schools continue
to lower their academic standards and substitute political correctness and
self-esteem for critical reasoning and the search for truth and beauty, then literature,
science and art will suffer.
Aristotle described Art as
'that which could be', but the current generation of students are being
spoon-fed a steady diet of doom and gloom. It's no wonder this outlook should
infect the music they create. The dystopia found in much of the contemporary Literature
and Art is the result of their poor education.
The comic book super hero
that has to rely on super-natural (impossible) means of overcoming obstacles,
or the witches and wizards that tap the occult to obtain their power over
others, illustrates the problem facing
literature and art.
The true heroic courage of
man has been abandoned in favor of absurd fantasy. The knight errant is forgotten
or ridiculed in the modern arts.
Creating impossible fictional
heroes will ultimately just create another new generation of cynics and
nihilists.
As for music specifically;
creating a melody is much more difficult to do than strumming a few cords ad
infinitum, or repeating a moronic beat.
Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George
and Ira Gershwin et al created beautiful melodies and lyrics that speak to both
truth and beauty, as do Lennon and McCartney, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel or
Townes Van Zandt.
There's good music being produced
today, but young female singers that flaunt raunchy sexuality and dysfunctional
behavior suck most of the oxygen out of the room. Bed wetters like Justin Bieber
and Ed Sheeran don't contribute much of value either.
When contemporary songwriters
are asked who influenced them they invariably name artists from previous
generations. It's scary to think that future generations will imitate the likes
of a Bieber or a Sheeran.
As we dumb-down our kids, so they
dumb down the culture, including music.
-gb-
