Modern Music

If you ask me, or anyone who fully appreciates music, modern music is atrocious.

"But Shane, dance music isn't about the lyrics it's about the beat.  You're supposed to dance to it and not listen. I love music just as much as you."

That's bullshit.  I want to present an analogy.  I present to you, a sandwich.

Looks good right?  I am enjoying the intricacies of this sandwich.  It may just be a sandwich to some, but this one is carefully laid out, designed to the maker's tastes and desires and perfectly tailored to those who want a meaningful lunch.

This is my taste in sandwiches.

It's bland, it has nothing but filler, it's cheap and easy to make.  This is something you can go and grab right out of your fridge, larder, or even your counter. You enjoy it, oddly, but you praise it to be something incredible.

This is your taste.

You may deny it, but this is true.  Let me take one of my favorite lyrical excerpts from a song by Led Zeppelin, surely I don't need to list the name of the song.

"There Walks a Lady We All Know - Everyone is Familiar with Desire"

Stairway to Heaven is not about a kind old lady who dies, as some may believe.  This is true, this comes from the songwriter Robert Fucking Plant.  Still not convinced?  Here's the quote from "Total Guitar" circa 1998.

"We were working at Headly Grange, in old almshouse, with Ronnie Lanes recording truck. We had been playing all day and Bonzo and Jonsey had gone off to the Speakeasy Club...to 'relax'. Jimmy and I had stayed in, and got the themes and the thread of it right there and then. It was some cynical aside about a woman getting everything she wanted all the time without giving back any thought or consideration. The first line began with that cynical sweep of the hand - 'There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold/And she's buying a stairway to heaven' - and it softened up after that. I think it was the Moroccan dope!"

The message can be labeled onto anyone, as the type of character this woman was, was a narcissist.  Narcissism is a rampaging mentality that too damn many people are afflicted with.  I won't go as far as to say it's a disease, but the stupidity of these people is, in itself, sickening.

The meaning behind the lyrics in Stairway to Heaven, among other songs from artists like Tool, Bob Dylan, Lynard Skynyrd and more, are mostly deep and have meanings behind them.  Most of their songs, if not all, do not go on whining about how a girl left them, or how shitty their lives are, or even how big their dicks are and do not feature "sick beats." This is real music, whether you like it or not.

And for the record, I don't even like Bob Dylan, or much of the artists with the trait I love.  I just don't enjoy their sound enough to listen. But I appreciate them, I admire their heart and soul for music and I recognize them as this.

Will.I.Am, Flo Rida, Lil Wayne, Jay Z, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Whiz Kalifa, Carly Rae Jepson, Miranda Cosgrove, Justin Timberlake, Skrillex, Deadmau5, fun..

What do these people have in common? They're all overrated, near-talentless, uncreative, boring, lyrically unsound and are just down right awful.  This is not a measure of me being jealous, because I'm more jealous of talented and successful artists opposed to talentless and successful.

The idea is this.

I wish I was the person who earned their way to becoming a multimillionaire, opposed to the one who wins the lottery.  At the end of the day, people are going to respect me more because I earned my money.

Listen to what you want to listen to, fuck who you want to fuck, eat what you want to eat, drink what you want to drink and do what you want to do.  But never say that your bread is better than my sandwich.  Good day.