Turn on the radio nowadays, and you are guaranteed a few things: first, an artist that no one knew about a few years ago and might as well be dead to us in a few years time; second, the bass kicked way up and overpowering the rest of the song; three, voices that are probably so electronically altered that they sound absolutely nothing like the original artist: and fourth, beats and sounds that are computer-generated rather than made by real instruments.

In past generations, there have been artists that defined the entire era: in the ’60s it was Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan. In the ’70s it was Aerosmith, The Who, and Elton John. In the ’80s there was Michael Jackson, AC/DC, Whitney Houston, and Prince. In the ’90s, Radiohead, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and Rage Against The Machine dominated the radio, and these bands are still resonating into the better music of today. But what does our generation have? We’re stuck with Lil’ Wayne, LMFAO, Flo Rida, Rihanna, Ke$ha, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, and countless other artists that all sound pretty similar.

This phenomenon of music turned terrible hasn’t been present in the past few eras of music. I doubt very many people would agree with you if you were to say that “The King of Rock n’ Roll” was a terrible artist, and many people would probably start arguing with you right then and there. If you said the Beatles were a

bad band and unoriginal, you’d be hearing some major opposition from most people.

However, if you were to say that T-Pain was a terrible artist who overuses Auto-Tune, I doubt you’d hear too many people oppose you outright.

I’ve seen this happen plenty of times. For example, when I hear a song on the radio, I’ll ask whoever is around me who the song is by, or if they know the name of the song, and more often than not the answer is “Uhh… I don’t know,” then they’ll go back to singing it. Then I wonder, “why don’t you learn the artist and song if you seem to like it so much?” I’ve noticed that the radio usually picks one song by an artist and plays and plays and plays it until no one wants to hear it anymore. Then they find another song by that artist and do the same. With some bands or artists, it seems that it’s their better music that isn’t played on the radio. For example, I used to think that Muse’s best song was “Uprising” because that’s the one I’d heard on the radio. Now, having listened to their entire album, I’ve realized that, while “Uprising” is still a good song, they have better songs.

What I find really appalling is that the artists who are making this music seem to know that they can get away with making meaningless music that sounds so similar to everything else. In “N***** in Paris,” Jay-Z borrows from the movie Blades Of Glory with the lines

“Nobody knows what it means it’s provocative… gets the people going!” What does this suggest about what he feels about his music? It means that he can get by with a “career” based solely on “music” that will illicit some kind of crazy, high-energy reaction from listening.

Am I saying that music shouldn’t illicit some kind of reaction? An emotional response of some kind? Not at all. Music should make you feel something. But is wanting to jump up and down, or grind, or fist pump really an emotional reaction? Think about it this way: could you listen to this song alone in a room and extract some deep meaning from it? No, you couldn’t.

Music nowadays doesn’t really have much meaning like it used to. More often than not, music is channeled straight for our need for some excuse to party. We no longer have music which makes us feel something other than hyper. Occasionally, however, we do hear a popular artists on the radio that do have some deeper meaning, like Adele or The Fray, but these artists are few and far between. Despite this, the radio will still find that one song to beat within an inch of its life (“Rolling in the Deep” or “How To Save A Life”). The radio just doesn’t give you the full feel for an artist. It will give you a piece, and usually not the best piece. In a nutshell, music doesn’t give what it used to: heartfelt lyrics, musical talent, and artists that know how to put feeling into their music.