Music makes the world go 'round. We all know this. It fills the void when there would be nothing but dead silence. But even then, there would be noise, or music. Everything in life has a rhythm or pattern, thus, music has always been around us. As far back as anyone can remember, Gregorian Chant was the first known music. It was all vocal, but humming or chanting in modes (if you know what music is, you know what a mode is, otherwise, just know that it's not a complete scale and move on). Basically, what I'm saying is music has always been around us in one way or another.

I wouldn't consider myself a professional musician, since I didn't really make it far, but I consider myself a really great ear for good music. The Wife disagrees with me and thinks I am biased, which might be true, but this blog leaves it up for you to decide.

I am against hip hop and rap. Now, don't get me wrong when I say that, because I do listen to both, in very small amounts. I like select songs and groups, but they are over a decade old, with the exception of 1 or 2 artists. That's besides the point. The point is, music today is suffering from a lack of talent and commercial play. Yes we have hip hop and some alt. rock, but what about true metal and hard rock? What about the pioneers of music? The days of talent is seering at it's end in the radio world, but is it soaring in the underground?

I've always held onto a theory that each decade provides a great artist or band, or several, though each alternating decade is the best, starting with the 50's. In the 50's you had the Everly Brothers, Nat King Cole, Guy Mitchell, Buddy Holly, Pat Boone, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Sinatra, and so on. This is where I believe the heart of American Soul and Rock began. You had some of the best, underrated musicians who went on to help mold todays music and never received credit for it.

The 60's had some great bands too, but I don't feel as though half of them deserve as much credit as they receieved. In the 60's, you had The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Hendrix, The Who, Zeppelin, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, CCR, and a few others who had some singles here and there. A lot of these bands though, however, didn't come around into their prime until the 70's. You also had a lot of one hit wonders, which doesn't say too much because a lot of decades in the past and present have a lot of one hit wonders. How many carried over from the 50's into the 60's? Not many, if any at all. A lot of musicians were crushed by the popularity of the British Invasion.

A lot of American music died in the 60's. Yes, we had some Hendrix, but most of the world cared about the Beatles at the time. Hell, even Elvis didn't have a song in the top 100 in the 60's. The king of Rock n' Roll, not on the list, is sad. Don't confuse that with "Elvis didn't have any hits", he just didn't make it to the top 100. Most of the bands from the 60's really did develop to their potential in the 70's though. Yeah, they had a hit or 2 in the 60's, but how many people realize that most of Zeppelins songs came about in the 70's, as did Pink Floyd, Van Halen, The Eagles, Hendeix, Joppelin, Queen, Kiss, Elton John, Boston, Bob Seger, CCR, Black Sabbath, The Who, Rush, Neil Young, and so many more. These artists and bands set the foundation for rock and metal, and opened the flood gates of the New Wave of British Metal. Actually, a lot of the bands listed above didn't originate in America. More obscure bands populated this country with their hard hitting riffs and lyrics, which led to the 80's.

The 80's had a shit ton of the worst music ever. Paula Abdul anyone? Poison? Ratt? Warrant? Now, in terms of heavy metal, the pioneers of today's metal emerged - Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Motley Crue, just to name a few. Think about it, aside from the worst music of the 80's, can anyone think of the best? The Scorpions, while having some hits, didn't last past the mid 80's, neither did Poison, or any other glam rock band. A lot of eletronic music came into the scene in the 80's, as well as some rap/rock that emerged with bands such as Aerosmith and Run DMC. Could this be the downfall of rock/metal? Who really knows, but I don't blame those guys for it personally.

The 90's brought out some amazing bands. Pearl Jam, Alice n' Chains, Fuel, Creed, Green Day, Rage, Papa Roach, Godsmack, Korn, and so many more. Hell, even in 1997 Limp Bizkit came out and stole the rap/rock scene for a little while. Eminem came out, 2 Pac and Biggie were already at their peaks and were murdered. It was really the turning point in music for everyone. Rock/Metal/Grunge/etc began to slowly fade away from the main scene and hip hop and rap took over. Bands like Shadows Fall, All That Remains, Boy Sets Fire, and so on didn't have a chance to really emerge and take over the rock/metal genres' and show the world that true raw talent still existed. At the end of the 90's, a lot of the rock and metal bands faded away with the emerge of Puff Daddy, Mace, and all of the hip hop. Remember KC & Jojo? So what happened in the 2000's so far?

The 2000's has some good music, don't get me wrong, but music to me is at an all time low. We are over populated with hip hop and rap, and a lot of covers and samples from songs from past generations. It's as if nobody today has any talent. The real talented artists and bands suffer because of this, and there's not a whole lot they can do. We have people in their mid 30's that hit their midlife crisis and wail out to such garbage such as Linkin' Park and Rhianna, thinking that it will make them young again and fit in with the popular crowd, while rock and metal bands from the 80's and 90's are putting out shitty albums. I mean, Metallica, what the fuck is up with St. Anger and even Death Magnetic? Yea, Death Magnetic is better than St. Anger, but it sill falls behind ReLoad, which falls behind Load, which falls behind the Black album, and goes as far back to their first album. Papa Roach went from a nice hardcore rap/rock band to some pussy as music that is all based on love. And what about the punk/emo bands? Who cares about Blink 182 and Travis Barkers drumming to Soldier Boy? Doesn't he have anything better to do? Apparently not. Instead, today we have artists who use Autotune for their vocals, pre-made beats and tunes to "rap" over, a lot of solo artists who have their songs written for them, and yet, they're on top of the world. It's sad that a band that has so much talent can't get the airplay they deserve unless they sell out 100% and have some rap section in their song. It's like we're back in the mid 90's when TLC had to have Left Eye rap in the middle of their songs, which just ruined them in my opinion. Who cares about who see's a rainbow, just get on with the solid beat and melody the rest of the band had before you had to put your 2 cents in. No, I don't care if she died in a car accident. Population Control.

I just hope that 2010 through 2020 brings some better music. Seriously. I don't want to have to succumb to digging through thousands of random albums from across the world to find something that suits my needs, as well as millions of others who don't fucking care about rap or hip hop. It's sad that most places have 4 hip hop stations, 2 country stations, and 1 rock station that barely comes in and yet, the half of the population that actually likes the rap/hip hop gets what they want. People in the music industry wonder why people revert to piracy and underground music, and hopefully they're starting to see why. The record labels only give a damn about the most marketable artist/group, because they can make a profit off of them. We all know we can get a spindle of 100 CD's for $10.00. That's $0.10 per CD. Yes, 10 fucking cents. Why does it cost $19 per CD? Because studios cost $1.2 million to produce the album because everyone has to have a degree from MIT, and to make those highly prestigious colleges worth going to, they have to pay their alumni's a high wage, otherwise what's the real difference between a community college and an Ivy League school? So who pays for the band's studio time? The record label. Who makes the $$ off of the CD sales? The record label. They really control what gets put out there these days. It's sad. They went from taking into consideration the best options for an artist to the best interest in themselves.

Music today blows. Let's hope someone can save it, and let us all hope they can do it soon.