the music world is in definite trouble

The music world is in serious trouble. I don’t think it takes a great deal of perceptual analysis and in-depth research to figure that out, but I’ll throw some numbers at you anyhow. The Pussycat Dolls have the seventh most popular single with their scintillating” ditty, Buttons. Paris Hilton (yeah, that one) checks in at #34 on the same chart. The Black Eyed Peas reached #18 with a song titled Pump It (very subtle, Peas) and their current album Monkey Business sits in the Top 60 albums in retail sales

Of course, you can quickly summarize the trouble with music right now by realizing that two of the most popular artists right now are the aforementioned Pussycat Dolls and the Black Eyed Peas. With lyrical subtlety rarely seen this side of a Bazooka gum wrapper and the same depth as a drop of spit, these two artists receive an inordinate amount of air time on our nation’s radio airwaves and their videos populate too much of the video rotation on MTV, VH1, etc.

Take the Pussycat Dolls, for example. I don’t own their album (thankfully, because that’s a punishment that should be reserved for only our nation’s most heinous criminals), but the songs from it that I have heard all sound identical. They center on the inevitable theme of “hot girl, wants to hook up with some dude”. What’s worse is that there are six of these poseurs, meaning they take the horra (much like horror, but ratcheted up a notch) of sappy sweet pop music and multiply it six-fold.

Consider lyrical gems from the group, such as: “Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me, Don't cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me (don't cha, don't cha), Don't cha wish your girlfriend was raw like me, Don't cha wish your girlfriend was fun like me,” (from the song Don’tcha), and “But I can't seem to get you over here to help take this off. Baby, can't you see? How these clothes are fitting on me" (from the song Buttons). And yes, these are “hit” songs, hits at least based on the fact that they made it to the upper echelon of the Billboard charts.

The Peas aren't much better, hitting musical home runs with thought provoking ballads like My Humps, Let’s Get It Started and Don’t Phunk with My Heart. Sports franchises and networks latched onto Get It Started, and it became a stadium anthem, meaning there was one less place you could go to get away from it. If repetitive beats, shallow lyrics, choreographed dancing and hideous fashion are your niche, maybe you could listen to this music without reaching for a rusty ice pick to jab into your ear lobes. Otherwise, your response to it has to be staring at a bare spot on the floor, muttering to yourself and ruminating about what has happened to music.

Not every artist can have the guitar wizardry of Hendrix, the pioneering effect of the Beatles, the early rock sound of Bowie, the spit in your face punkness of the Ramones or the gritty, dirty revolutionism of Cobain. Not everyone wants the same genre of music, and that makes sense enough. But it’s not too much to ask that all artists at least do more than regurgitate beats they’ve lifted from the 80’s and 90’s, mix in bad dancing-laden videos, trot out lyrics that your average American teenager could write on the back of their notebooks in study hall and expect us to lap it up.

Sadly, a culture has developed for this musical drivel, and that means it isn’t going away any time soon. Shows like TRL cater to it, and radio stations aren't so much concerned with putting on quality music as they are shoveling the same repackaged crap to their listeners and finding ways to maximize advertising dollars. If you search and dig and scour, you can still find bands out there who don’t follow everyone else over the musical cliff like lemmings.

Death Cab for Cutie, the White Stripes, the Elms, Jack Johnson, Snow Patrol, Rise Against, Interpol…………there are a few, there for you if you bother to look. Just don’t expect to find them on our nation’s most popular radio stations or with their videos on MTV. There, you’ll have to settle for Britney Spears times six (the Dolls), or the group consisting of four foreign Vanilla Ice’s (the Peas). Let’s just hope there’s another music revolution on the horizon, with the next incarnation of the Ramones leading the way just like the 1970s……..