The Great Ones

What? I haven't posted in a week? Where have I been? I guess I haven't really been all that busy...it's kind of felt that way, though. That first ninety minutes of my shifts at Target, it takes a lot out of me. It's not that it's super-strenuous, it's just that it's ninety minutes during which you are constantly moving, constantly running with boxes, trying to keep them on the tracks, picking up the ones that fall. It's a marathon, and I was never a long-distance runner, I was more of a sprinter. Then there's that part where it starts before I've been awake for even an hour...it's a hell of a way to wake up at six in the morning, that's for sure. My hand hurts, and I'm not sure why. I don't think I did anything to it...

Here's something I've been meaning to complain about for awhile now, I'm just now getting around to it. The state of modern music is just pathetic, there, I said it. First, let's start with the things that pass for music today. Lady Gaga? Miley Cyrus? Kanye West? These alleged "musicians" give the whole industry a bad name. You are not a musician if you cannot play an instrument. Oh, it can have a beat, and you can sing over it (kind of), but that just makes you an entertainer. And your so-called songs are grating on the ears anyway. Then there are those who actually do play instruments, but do it so poorly that Prince would be rolling over in his grave if he was dead. Jonas Brothers? Nickelback? I know, I pick on Nickelback a lot, but it is very well-deserved. I loathe not only the horrifying songs they churn out, but what they represent, and that is an overwhelming trend towards mediocrity (or worse) in rock music (also known as actual music). Who are the big acts in rock now? Let's see, we've got Kings of Leon, who are actually pretty good from a musical standpoint, but their lyrics are dumbed down almost to the point of incoherence. That actually ends up kind of working, because their vocalist is pretty incoherent in his own right. There's some potential there, but they're only run-of-the-mill right now. Green Day looked like they were back with American Idiot, but then they tried to get even more grandiose and it ended up being extravagantly ordinary. Then there's U2, improbably still going strong, at least in terms of popularity. The actual songs, though, have become much more hit or miss. There are still some good ones sprinkled in, but you can't help but notice that U2 are much more into themselves than anything else these days. These guys are the face of rock these days, but they're not the best the genre has to offer; they're just the most popular. And even they are overwhelmed on the popular music charts by some of the garbage I've mentioned above. That just goes to show what poor taste in music most people have.

Of course, I don't much care what kind of terrible music people listen to in the privacy of their own homes, just like I don't care what drugs they take or what kind of kinky sex they have. What concerns me more is this: where have all the great musicians gone? At one time, we had absolute, unequivocal geniuses like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, to name just a few. Well, Clapton and McCartney are still around, but they're just resting on their laurels these days. Prince and Bob Dylan are still putting out albums, but you don't hear much about them anymore. The only modern guitarist regarded as a great is Jack White. Perhaps it's a case of great artists not being recognized as such until after they are gone? I dunno, seems to me that the sixties and seventies knew greatness when they first saw it in Roger Waters, in Lennon and McCartney, in Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and they certainly saw it when they proclaimed Clapton to be God. No, I don't think that's the problem now. I think that the last decade has produced a previously unseen dearth of true talent. Sure, you've got the likes of Shinedown, Muse, and the Arcade Fire, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains are still kicking copious amounts of ass, but they first burst onto the scene two decades ago, and Metallica preceded even that. So, I ask, not rhetorically, where have all the great ones gone?