Music is an integral part of life. Religious services use it to invite reverence into the audience, and at weddings, people choose a special song to express the love they have for each other. We have special songs in our repertoire for birthdays and we blast tunes at social gatherings getting the mood set for a serious good time. As ingrained into our being as it is, it’s no surprise music has been capitalized on.
From the classical era through the modern era, musicians have been able to make a living, some more comfortably than others. One would think affluence of a musician would have a robust, positive correlation with their musical talent. However, as popular music has evolved the success musicians experience in their careers has less to do with their proficiency, but has relied more upon how prominent of a persona they can make for themselves.
It was in the late seventies and early eighties when artists of popular music began tromping down the path of all show and no talent. Leeching off the hard rock style and absurdist showmanship of Kiss and their ilk, eighties metal bands tried to make something supposedly harder, faster and better. Soon they realized being good musicians is difficult but if they blew way out of proportion the rock star persona, people would like them so they could vicariously be just as “cool” as the awesome long-haired rock stars. The success of one led to many. The eighties gave rise to the largest potluck of generic glam rock the world has ever seen.
With bands like Motley Crue , Def Leppard , Scorpion, Whitesnake and Poison, it’s a miracle we have any cows, hairspray, or alcohol left in this world. Even though none of these bands are actually any good, they somehow still manage to have a cult following among the poor souls that grew up on their music.
The eighties is also when the current pop genre really got its claws into our poor ears. The uppity beat and electric infusion eighties pop had has evolved quite a bit since its raspier origins but the style is really no different at its core. And just like the hair bands of the eighties, the pop stars of our generation seem more about appearing cool and glamorous than actually being a good musician. The first offender in my memory of selling themselves instead of music is Brittany Spears.
Who can honestly say that any of her songs are or ever were good? No one can. People liked her music for no other reason than she was an attractive female. Girls wanted to be like her and guys wanted to be with her. The desire to feel linked to the star is what made people listen to her music. It was never about the music, really. Many others capitalized on the idea of selling themselves, Backstreet Boys, N’Sync , Jessica Simpson; none of them were selling music, they were all selling an image.
Once the novelty of being purely attractive wore out, pop artists had to come up with new images to sell to the public since being talented was out of the picture. Something new had to be done but what else was there? The genius conclusion was to be more ridiculous than anyone else and amass a cult following based on that.
Nowadays I learn more about musicians from gossip about something they did rather than them having a good song. The first thing I heard about Lady Gaga was that she wore a dress made out raw meat while accepting an award. I heard about Katy Perry in line at a grocery store from a magazine headline questioning whether she had kissed a girl or not. Who cares.
It’s a shame we have to be subjugated to music in such a sordid manner. The exhibitionism of the top suffocates so many attempts of the smaller, more dedicated bunch. The result is a deluge of generic, unintelligible drivel, which is perpetuated by nothing more than empty characters. What a travesty the music industry has become.
