| Musical Vampires |
Carbon copy bands, poorly written lyrics and the mentality of the music business have robbed something from us of great importance. The true art of music is lost and we have failed to realize it. Image and money are what Popular Music have become. The beauty and passion is gone and has been replaced with unoriginal music and lyrics. It�s time that we rediscover what music should be about. Up until tenth grade the music I listened to was strictly pop/rock. Then one day something inside possessed me to buy the Dixie Chicks �Fly� CD. Country music of all things. It didn�t stop there. Soon I was listening to rap, classical, even my dads old music I thought was out of date. All of it was music I thought I would never listen to. It might have been my musical taste broadened, but it was more than that. I needed a break from listening to the same kind of music. Through the past years I�ve acquired many CD�s to satisfy my musical thirst, but now I�m finding myself in the same predicament after exhausting my resources. I�m constantly searching for original music to fill the want inside of me. But should I be searching? Shouldn�t there be enough originality out in the musical world that I shouldn�t get tired of hearing certain bands? It seems one group becomes popular and then suddenly you hear their carbon copies pop up. To name the obvious sound-a-likes; boy bands like BackStreet Boys, N�Sync, 98 Degrees, and O- town, or how about the pop princesses, Britney Spears, Christiana Aguilera, and Jessica Simpson? Why do these artists want to sound alike? Why would any artist want to sound alike? I would hope they�d want to bring something fresh to the scene, and achieve a musical goal others haven�t achieved before. Most importantly I would hope they were in the music business for the music and not the business. I believe a true artist would be willing to sacrifice fame and fortune as long as they were allowed to create something of quality. It�s not my place to say there aren�t bands that can�t influence them musically.Without sounding exactly like somebody else they can take those musical taste and make them their own. The lack of musical originality applies to lyrics as well. I become like a little girl on her birthday when a new radio single is played on the air. �What gift will these musicians give me,� I wonder as I turn up the volume. The prospects look promising as the opening music vibrates out the speakers, and I anxiously wait for the lyrics to begin. This could be it, a song above all others. Could it be the song of my life? The song has my undivided attention as I intently listen to the musician begin to sing. Within a few seconds, however, all my dreams for the song vanishes. Who was the person who thought up this song? I�ve already heard ten others use the same metaphor, and please don�t tell me it took them forever to write this, anybody could have written that stuff in fifteen minutes or less. It�s all the same old stuff. For instance, metaphorically, I don�t want to be a bird anymore. I�m sick of flying. Songwriters seem to think I�d get more inspired by the notion of soaring overland after the tenth time. But each flight up into the tranquil blue sky has sent my stomach churning. It must have been all the worms I ate in attempts to be a bird, or maybe I�m just ready to lay my fuzzy feathers to rest. Sorry, R. Kelly (I Believe I can Fly), Nelly Furtado (I�m Like a Bird), and Kelly Clarkson (Break Away) this bird has left her nest. As a songwriter, I tend to be a bit harsh when it comes to lyrics. It bugs me when I actually spend the time to write decent lyrics, and here�s somebody who whips some lyrics together and infects us with the copy cat syndrome once again. I may not have perfected the art of songwriting, but I know that if you want to create something that is of worth you need to be original. The lyrics need help if I can guess what the next line is going to say in a song. It shows the person didn�t put much effort into the writing process. If I can come up with the next line in a song by singing the first thing that pops into my head, chances are it was also the first thing that popped into the songwriters head as well. The art of songwriting isn�t about being able to write lyrics, just about anybody could write something. Amateur poetry writers (writing lyrics is very much like writing poetry) post thousands of poems at poetry websites all the time. While surfing through the poems I tend to find myself stating, �I could have written that in 30 seconds,� or �Oh how original! You told us about your little broken heart and how it�s torn you apart.� Sadly the majority of it is no better then what�s being played on the radio airwaves today. Secondly, the art of songwriting isn�t writing on a topic that hasn�t been written about before. People have been writing songs for ages, and chances are everything that�s worth writing about has been written. The technique is to take an idea and put a unique twist on it. What will grab the peoples attention? Writing good lyrics takes time, and something that has to be worked at. Writing requires engaging the mind. Don�t expect a song to be any better then amateur poetry if it took the songwriter fifteen minutes to write. It doesn�t allow the songwriter time to think through the writing process, and makes them vulnerable to clich�s, like metaphors, rhyming words (heart and apart, hand and understand, etc) or phrases (Please stop referring to your significant other as �baby.� I�m positive they can take care of themselves and aren�t helpless infants). I�ve heard countless musicians claim they wrote dozens of songs for the new album as if it�s supposed to be impressive. If the main point is to write as many songs as possible, then congratulations, they succeeded at their task. But I�d rather have a few good solid songs then 100 that are of no worth. Writing good lyrics takes days, months, and sometimes even years. So how did popular music come to lack originality? I once heard it said �Music Business, little �m� capital �B.�� The record companies are in it for the money. I�ve read a handful of books that say the music business is looking for originality. At least that�s what they�d like to make you think, but I�ve seen enough copy cat bands signed to record labels to prove otherwise. I believe what they�re trying to say is that they are looking for bands that will bring in the money. When a musical fad comes along they recognize it and make the most out of while they can. As Kevin Max (1/3 of the musical group dc talk) once wrote, �It seems everyone wants the same derivative pop 'hook' that finds its way to the same derivative radio station. Even some of the bands and singers that I have looked up to for years are making records to make the companies happy, the suits with no souls, the accountants and record company executives that are like modern day vampires, sucking the lifeblood from the true spirit of creative passion.� These musical vampires have turned popular music into a popularity contest. It�s about the people behind the music and the image they portray. The third season of the reality TV show, �American Idol� attests to this. It absolutely flabbergasted me how the redheaded John Stevens made it as far as he did. In my opinion I don�t believe he should have made it to Hollywood in the first place. Each week I cringed at how horrible he sang. The guy was usually off pitch, and his voice lacked any expression. Stevens monotone voice bored me. But people loved his personality, and one week the three strongest contenders (Fantasia Barrino, La Toya London, and Jennifer Hudson) were voted to the bottom while Stevens remained on top. And how about the female singers who strut around with nothing on their skimpy little bodies except a tiny piece of fabric? I�d hope females would have a little more respect for themselves. For instance, the pioneer singer/songwriter, Jewel dressed modestly until recently. She threw that image away because she wanted people to know you can be smart and sexy at the same time. Her music stands on its own, so why does she have to walk around in fabric the size of a wash cloth? What�s the point? The one reason I can think of is the fact that �sex sells.� As long as you can make a few extra bucks it doesn�t matter what you do. As much as the music scene saddens me I haven�t given up on it entirely. I�ve found some artist of worth, Kevin Max, U2, Sting and the late greats Jeff Buckley and Rich Mullins to name a few. These artist have pushed the musical envelope and have brought refreshing music and lyrics out of the passion of their hearts, not because they wanted to become rich and famous. I only wish there were more musicians out there willing to take risks even if that meant sacrificing fame and fortune, because in the end it�s the music that should count. Everything else is secondary. Unfortunately I don�t know if popular music will ever have a stream of original artists, but until we�ve reached music�s utopia, I�ll keep on saying, let�s get back to beauty, let�s get back to passion, and let�s get back to art. |