Where has all the music gone?

My pop, my pop, why hast thou forsaken me? For the past two months, very little by way of new disposable music has caught my ear. Maybe this is what happens when you invest so much in music that's churned out by an industry that, so often, amounts to just a mass-producing factory (or maybe a recycling plant?). You consume and consume and consume and, sooner or later, the act of consuming becomes more important than what's being consumed. You work so fast with no regard to what's being served that you burn your aural taste buds repeatedly, eventually rendering them useless (though, if you're investing in pop music, many would deem them useless from the start).

So maybe I'm burned out. You know, I hate when people bitch about a certain medium or form's current sad state. Hip-hop isn't dead; you just aren't looking in the right place if you think so. Same with, say, dance music: dig deeper, lazy. However, I'm not sure that you can dig deeper for gripping pop music, as it's inherently an extroverted genre. It comes to you. This is to say that I think my problem with pop music (and as usual, I mean any popular form of music, though my focus tends to be on R&B and hip-hop, of course) goes beyond me. It's an industry thing. From the fall to the Christmas season, the music industry shot its load, heaping release upon release so that even the most avid consumers had a hard time keeping up. I know I did -- I can't remember the last time I saw so much of potential interest released in such a short window. I listened to most everything that I wanted to, but I didn't get to cover it in this space (and we're talking stuff that I pretty much love like the second Fantasia and Young Jeezy albums). And then after the impossible task of keeping up with all of this stuff, the record industry gave us another impossible task: staying fixated on that stuff while virtually nothing was released. After being fed so heartily (even if it was junk food, there was a lot of it), it's jarring to be starved. It was no surprise to me when the first few weeks of 2007 were met with the lowest-selling No. 1 album in Soundscan history. An oft-repeated explanation of music piracy goes something like, "If music were better, people would buy it." I don't really buy into that kids-these-days sentimentalism, but I think everyone can agree that people can't buy something that isn't available, or that isn't being presented in the timeliness that our current, bloggy culture that demands ("New new new now now now!").

Bereft, I find myself counting down the days until the Lloyd album drops. Everything I've heard from it has been totally competent R&B, constructed to sound utterly current and utterly nondescript. It's supposed to appeal to fans of the genre in the most base way. As a fan of R&B, anticipating that album is like a carb enthusiast anticipating the plate of white rice that's coming his way -- it's at once a no-brainer and mind-numbingly bland. I'm excited for the Marques Houston album, because I know that the pictures inside the book will be hot (I mean, the dude wouldn't have a career if he weren't beautiful, but I'm so taken by his beauty that I support anything that keeps him posing). Shit, I'm even excited about the 50 Cent album, as it'll give me something to "OMG!" about, laugh over and dissect for stupidity.

But until then, it's kind of dire when it comes to pop listening for me. Even fringe pop like Tracey Thorn's solo album, Out of the Woods, has disappointed me. Regarding Woods: I hate to pigeonhole, but I pretty much only like Tracey Thorn when floor-filling dance music is swirling around her dour ass. She's the best musical party pooper I've ever heard and I think that persona is enthralling enough that she needn't deviate from it. At least when she does, I get bored. For this reason, I like maybe about three out of Woods' 11 tracks. I had such hope for that record after hearing the first single, "It's All True," too. I'm tearing up just thinking about what could have been.

This isn't to say that my life has been without music. My love for Italo disco grows and grows and grows, thanks in no small part to the annual CBS 100. I never got around to posting about this year's countdown like I did last year, which is a missed opportunity because I wanted to do, like, my Top 10 of the Top 100. Whatever, I guess my Top 3 new discoveries of this year's countdown are:

- Neon's "Skydiver" - It's lame and lite rock, but more importantly, it made me associate skydiving with homosexuality for the first time in my life. And isn't expanding the realm of human understanding what art's all about?

- Number One Ensemble's "Back to Heaven" - I imagine a choir of blonde women in really ugly puke brown and green macrame outfits singing this. The way the bass line gets going in the chorus really kills me and makes me want to learn how to fly. I wish this song were three times as long as it is.

- Big Ben Tribe's "Tarzan Loves the Summer Nights" - I like to slow dance with Winston to this in my living room. It is very sensuous. Mostly, I think, I just like songs about Tarzan.

Another thing that's put a vice on my heart is the Field's upcoming album, From Here We Go to Sublime. The tracks tend to start out bare and/or quiet and, invariably, will make good on the album's title over their course via gorgeous repetition. It's not exactly ravey or sci-fi obsessed or 909-fetishizing, but it's techno for the soul and for that it totally takes me back to golden-era Detroit.

I'm not someone who typically has bad days, because I don't like to hold in resentment or anger or sadness or anything that impedes the mind. "Let it go," would me my mantra if I had a mantra. Nonetheless, I have had some bad days very recently and Sublime has really been key in soothing me, especially this 10-minute monster, "The Deal". I hate to get all Calgon commercial on you. I hate to be so gross as to suggest that I'm finding this techno to be therapeutic, but uh, it has been. I guess mostly that I'm happy to have found something, anything that touches me profoundly. Certainly, with the expanded access to them, I don't bond with albums anymore like I did, say, in college. I have to spread love, as it were. I worry that access yields desensitization. I cherish Sublime -- it proved that I didn't have to hurt myself to see if I still feel, thank god!

Comments

[DJ rp]

Hey, music has saved many lives. You and your blog are things of beauty.

[Ian]

SEIZURE! SEIZURE!

[♥dex]

"I'm tearing up just thinking about what could have been."

Giggle.

P.S. I would like to touch you, Rich. Profoundly. ;)

[11]

Man I was listening to the Lloyd track the other day and was like, "I kinda like this song." Reading that you are looking forward to the album is confirmation that I need to give it a listen.

[♥dex]

Rich--you are the ruling Zeitgeist.

[b_g]

I also recommend The Field's new album. It is a lot of fun.

[shocka]

s'not r&b, but as far as pure pop goes "out of love" by pleasure is rather heavenly. with an uber-cute vid to go along with it. file under "what kylie should be doing."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVcyuf1NfFQ

[Mango]

Thanks for the music post... I was just beginning to get sick of Baby Love

[whateffer]

Ugh! I totally disagree with you on the Tracey Thorn tip. "Grand Canyon" is the type of song I've been waiting to hear for seven years and you can't take that away from me! And LLOYD! Are you serious? I want to punch his smug face! How DARE he recycle Spandau Ballet, he is certainly no PM Dawn. Sick, I'm utterly disappointed, I usually find myself agreeing with you and now I feel offended.

[vince]

i didn't really notice it when it was happening, but damn if the fall wasn't overcrowded with music.

in my attempt to keep up, i didn't find out until the end of December that Monica had a new album out in September.

wtf.

[Susan]

This is kind of unrelated, but have you seen Tyra feeling up the Katherine McPhee?

[Pook]

For a second there I had an LSD flashback.

[M]

have you heard of Just Jack? his new album Overtones is making waves in the UK its a mix of hip hop and house and alternative...its really great i think. might be up your alley. I agree with Thorn...the only song other than the first single I like is Grand Canyon for it's almost Amuka "you dont appreciate me" vibe to it

[sonny]

okay, i've looked for tracy's new album everywhere online (since it isn't released yet) so where did you find it? i'm dying to hear it. sure, she's maudlin but there must be SOME saving grace on the album! i really want to hear how it sounds

[ezra]

and dem dixie bitches won 5 grammys. what's the world coming to. im pretty into this song by this girl mapei called date rape:

http://www.myspace.com/Mapei

[Steve]

Far be it from me to make a "profound" statement in response to this commentary Rich since my taste in music is absolutely different than yours...

As a man who grew up a music refugee of the 80's (i.e. the alleged death of pop music), my mind will always be warped into a 1-direction towards pop. I have been operating a self sustaining eCommerce music business for a good six years now (with a self-imposed hiatus this past year while I take a long needed vacation from life LOL) so certainly I have the exposure to every genre of music, including those I, to this day, refuse to acknowledge its existence. Unfortunately my taste in music causes me to put up blockers to my eyes and ears when it comes to what is actually the current trend in music.

Far be it for me to "pooh-pooh" your taste Rich. I don't doubt your taste nor your judgment. While I might disagree about a lot of things you have to say about almost any topic you touch, you have such a vivid and sharp insight... ne a passion... that if my personal flavor was R&B, hip hop or dance... then at least I could offer up an anecdote, an opinion or anything. Now I'm just left with a six foot question mark over my head as I really can't say anything in response to your post that would feel like optimism.

I used to listen to Casey's top 40 countdown religiously (and thanks to XM Radio's 80's station, I can listen to them AGAIN... and predict the next song that'll be played... that's just disturbing... but that's for therapy to determine HA!), and to me I asked your main question 'Where has all the music gone?" back in the early to mid 90's.

Pop music by nature isn't a fixed genre (mind you, this is just one humble person's opinion), but rather an opportunity for multi-cultural genres to fuse into one... whatever makes the general public feel good can become popular. I still get spooked out when I think about how Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill", Enya's "Orinoco Flow" or Loreena McKennitt's "Mummers' Dance" all became top 40 staples... A sign that there are people in this country with extraordinary taste... or a sign I'd like to believe is there, but rather a sign that there are a few radio stations who just "insisted" this is good stuff regardless of what people would have to say...

Of course we know that "Video Killed The Radio Star"... and frankly I think MTV killed the video star... "music television - what's that?"... - I do not hesitate to say that SoundScan killed the music star... literally. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for modern technology that allows for actual and true point of sales... but since SoundScan was introduced onto the Billboard charts, pop music DIED! Everything to me sounded cookie cutter and I literally tuned the fuck out... In fact, back then my 10+ year love for music took a serious detour and I dwelved (thanks Jade) into the world of movies... only to have fate bitchslap me with my own music company (mind you a very very SMALL one, but one that makes enough money that I can support myself LOL).

I took a hiatus a year ago because I needed a break - working 24/7 for nearly 5 years is enough to send anyone to an early grave (I'm still pissed that I have a goatee that is going very Taylor Hicks and I'm not even 40 yet!). What helped push me into musical exile is my disgust towards music. I would catch a video on TV (in a rare moment) or listen to any of the "popular" titles that were selling (in otherwords rap, R&B and hip-hop) and nothing... NOTHING... seemed exciting, fun or dare I say ORIGINAL! While nothing would please me better to see these genres of music implode and go away, I suspect that isn't happening anytime soon... but I wouldn't be shocked if in 5 years, the latest "it" thing in music will be a new genre that we can't even forsee now...

I truly want to believe that human nature will not allow us to idly sit back and accept anything that is shoved down our throat and believe that is good if it truly is not. Hollywood is testing that boundary now by the constant release of cookie cutter films with very few titles now stretching the lines of originality, and the music industry is hot on its' heels.

So Rich, you may be burned out, and I don't doubt that there are others who feel that way. I hope, for your sake, it's just a lull and in the next few months, there'll be some incredibly strong pieces that will come out that'll put a smile on your face and an orgasm in your ears. If so, I know I'll be carrying more stock I can't stand, but that's my own personal gripe LOL. Meanwhile, as a man of exquisite taste (YOU I'm referring to... I may not agree, but any man as funny as you has taste!), you might want to consider finding that back-up plan. I had the good fortune of discovering "new" genres through my business and will always find good things to listen to (if I look hard enough) and will continue to do so... music is too much of a natural drug to shut it off completely. I wouldn't object to a return of pop music, but I won't hold my breath... until then I'll just pull my own Casey Kasem and create my own utopia of musicdom! Thank god there's an audience out there who has my taste in music both professionally and personally, otherwise I'd have to become a drone and accept what is currently released as quality music

Ridiculously long and off-topic babbling over now ;p

[me,myself and I]

Have you listened to the Lilly Allen CD? I really like her CD it's cute.

[kangsta]

I really hope you like Omarion's Icebox.
If I hear it once, I can't get it out of my head for days.

[M]

Have you listened to Amy Winehouse yet? I am HOOKED on that album which I just bought in the UK. AMAZING and I imagine she will blow up here. By far the best UK import recently so check it out. Soulful pop r&b.....I am guessing you probably know her but if not then check her out!

[pepper]

It would be pretty sweet if you posted that CBS 2006 top 100, Richie my dear.

[Kiki]

To M: you're late Rich talked about Amy Winehouse and he higly recommends her album.

Rich I just wanted to let you know that I'm a nut case and I scan the sales ads on Sundays to see what comes out on Tuesdays and you're right. I haven't seen an album out this year (as far as I can remember) that I wanted to purchase. It was definately music over load during the fall. But I do love the fact that DVD's go on sale for dirt cheap during that holidays season.

[the soviet]

i love love fantasia's second album.

[frigg]

*shame-faced, hang-dog stylee, tail firmly planted betwixt my legs*

Nice post, Rich. Exceptionally nice.

That li'l jammie by The Field is devastating, so back-in-the-day. Stirred my heart, as I guess it did yours.

Loverly funkin' (funk-free) trance for the hedz. Good call.

It filled up my heart.

Thanks, Rich.
--->frigg

[Brian]

I didn't want to leave my e-mail address on the vh1 celebreality site, and although I was originally going to compliment Jus Rhyme on being such an amazing person with a socially concious agenda that isn't over-the-top preachy, I must say I'm impressed by that interview, and all the other ones you've conducted.

I know you once thought of being a poet, so that was a fair segue into blogging, but I wonder if you've ever taken a journalism class.

Keep up the fantastic work Rich, and I apoligize that my comment couldn't have less to do with this particular post.

[Brian]

And speaking of the altruistic hero that is Jus Rhyme, here is a link for M.

http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2007/02/aboveground_buz.html#comments