Muzeek, Non-Schtop

I'm horribly addicted to music. Honestly, it's the first thing I do when I awake in the morning, and the last thing to grace my mind before I drift asleep every night. Music itself is doing wonderful things these days, for example, Gustavo Dudamel, a 24 year old conductor who can barely speak English was just signed to lead the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra next year. However, accomplishments such as these are starting to become overshadowed by music which, in my opinion, doesn't deserve the appraise that it's audience grants it.

I know my music. Let me say that again. I. Know. My. Music. I've listened to everything under the sun, from Angels & Airwaves to Willie Nelson, to Pavarotti to Pachelbel and back, and I believe that music right now has reached a stale point. This, of course is just a blanket statement, there are many, many bands that do not fall under the reach of this (MGMT, Daft Punk, Sigur Ros), but within the past 10 years most bands have fallen under a single timeline, that is:
1) Evolving boy-band, "emo" with catchy lyrics
-Fall Out Boy, Panic! At the Disco, Motion City Soundtrack
2)Hard, Raging guitar riffs, impossible double bass drums, with violent lyrics inaudible to the human eardrum.
-Chiodos, Killwhitneydead, Mastodon, Evergreen Terrace
3)A complete 180. Soft acoustic guitar, nothing more (possibly light drums), less-than-perfect voice, simple lyrics. Indie.
-Death Cab For Cutie (some), Jack Johnson (some), Moldy Peaches
4)Soaring Guitar soloes, unintellegible lyrics (if any), mainly electronics, techno
-Daft Punk, MGMT, Radiohead(Thom Yorke), Aphex Twin

Don't get me wrong. Some of these bands are outstanding (I LOVE Radiohead and DCFC) and they've all earned my respect just for doing what they do best, but it's about time for a new sound, and what scares me most of all is that there may be nothing left. Thousands of years we've been creating music, and after listening to all I've listened to, I'm standing around, wondering 'what's left?' I mean, this isn't all the time, but this feeling is recurring more and more often. I have my moods, and situations that call for different genres (mad-Slayer, tired-SIgur Ros, excited-Radiohead, drunk-Led Zeppelin), but more and more there's this feeling of unfulfillment regarding all these choices. It's time for a new sound, and there are two breakthroughs I believe are paving the way, being 1) Killwhitneydead's brilliant use of movie clips and quotes in every single song, and 2)Thom Yorke's experimentation with human instrumentation, singing, and techno is looking promising. Also, I've come to appreciate Jay-Z's reformation of the 'gangsta' image from baggy, grungy apparel into a suave, sophisticated, ruthless mafioso of grandeur, and Kanye's winding lyrics that have gained him so much fame.

Well, another concern: the use of actual bands. I'm talking brass, trumpets, french horns, tubas, violins. I live in a rather small little burg, and even the nonstop buzz of the television, radio and internet aren't giving me hope that classical, opera and jazz music will have a place in the world tomorrow. I can't get enough Clifford Brown, or Roy Eldridge, or Pavarotti, and the most depressing thing is that we're losing everything related to them. I'm a major jazz fiend, and we've been stale for awhile. Miles, Dizzy, Maynard, Parker, they're all gone. Soon, everybody who's ever met them, everybody whose ever listened to them, they'll be gone, and all we'll have are codes and numbers transcribed on plastic bits to listen to. But, well, yeah. The music should speak for itself, and, if you're good enough at what you do, it will. But there's nothing you can do to replace a real conversation, or a live handshake, or a real concert. I think I was born in the wrong decade. 1989? Nahh, give me 1929 any day of the week. I would sacrifice Death Cab, or Motion City Soundtrack, or Michael Buble for Miles Davis, or Duke Ellington, or Count Basie. Dave Brubeck's still alive, if that counts for anything.

My life goals? See Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen before I (or, more likely, they) die.

-I realize that there are an infinite amount of bands that are extraordinary that don't get mentioned here, and are still outstanding, and still have original sounds. Say Anything, Angels & Airwaves, Beastie Boys, Beck, they're all amazing, have astoundingly brilliant and complex lyrics, and keep them going for years. I'm referring, in this case, to repetitive, bland musicians who aren't worth as much as these innovators. Cher, Chamillionaire, Chingy, 50 Cent, are, in my opinion, highly overrated, and I don't care for them at all. Oh, and am I the only one who thinks Miley Cyrus is also given too much credit?