My Love Affair With Music

I love music, good music anyway. There's a lot that gets passed off as these days that is harmful to both my ears and my sanity. There's a lot of garbage that becomes extremely successful and profitable for music executives and the sheep they parade in front of us claiming to be artists. They sugarcoat the lyrics, pop up the tune with catchy beats, and bombard the general public, especially those languishing in their awkward and impressionable tween and teen phases, with catchy marketing and strategic peer pressure.

I've loved good music my entire life. It's been one of the driving forces in my life for as long as I've had memories. I wanted to be a rock star from the time I was old enough to sing coherent words on my own. I was given the prenatal treat of attending my dad's band practices when I was still in my mother's womb. In my childhood, I was weened on the great Classic Rock tunes of the 1960's and 70's that my dad played all the time, both on his stereo and on his guitar. the last year or two of the 70's, I was old enough to pick out a few favorite songs to sing along to myself.

Growing up as a kid in the wonderful decade of the 80's, I was introduced to the FM Radio Pop Music of the time, as most young people are, before they really find a musical identity of their own. Fortunately for me, a lot of the popular music of the early 1980's was different than the "Pop" of the decades to follow. New Wave was in full swing, and at very least the most Pop-friendly bands of this exciting new genre, such as The Cars and The Police, could be heard on any Top 40 station in the US. These were the types of songs that would be buried on obscure "Alternative" radio and video programs in the late 80's and early 90's, being shunned from popular culture in favor of R&B, Rap, and Hair Rock.

And MTV really was "Music Television" in the 1980's, a rebellious, youth oriented cable network, where adolescents could tune in and be guaranteed to see music videos from bands we liked, a variety of bands, rather than the Reality TV nonsense and five artist rotations aired on that now corporately puppeteered network today.

As the musical culture of America began to change for the worse, away from the pure Rock & Roll of my youth, and the sophistication of New Wave in my early adolescence, towards mass produced corporate bubblegum Pop Rock, and gimmick filled Rap and Rock acts, preconceived in stuffy offices rather than smokey garages, my musical tastes gravitated away from the mainstream, and towards Indie Rock, and the unfortunately but aptly named "Alternative Rock". But not the MTV bred, prefab "Alternative Rock" that became commercially successful and overly trendy in the mid to late 90's, but REAL music, by real bands, bands that balked at corporate cookie cutter formats, and held true to their musical integrity.

The late 90's and the 2000's were not good times for music, at least not the music most people were able to hear. There were a few bright spots out there, but Rap, R&B, and Pop infected the airwaves. The few Rock bands still out there became overshadowed by the scourge that is Emo, a sad perversion of Goth, Punk, and New Wave, perpetrated by kids who weren't even alive during the heydays of the bands they're now so poorly imitating. I found myself forgoing current artists in favor of 70's-early 90's Punk, Ska, and "Alternative".

As we begin our journey into the unsure times of 2010, not knowing what the musical culture of this generation will be like, my outlook is not hopeful. There are a few bright spots out there, such as Rise Against, The Briggs, Avenged Sevenfold, Five Finger Death Punch, and Against Me, and some holdovers like Pennywise, NOFX, Bouncing Souls, and Dropkick Murphys, but mainstream America would rather have their ears tickled by the intolerable din of Lady GaGa, Katy Perry, Rihanna, and The Black Eyed Peas. FM is a joke, MTV has no music, and even satellite radio has become almost unbearable. Thank God for iPods! Thank God those of us who still remember how great music can be can still cue up The Cure, The Smiths, The Ramones, and The Clash 24/7, to preserve our own sanity.

Copyright 2010 Denim McDemus