Helping Music Change The World | Teen Ink

Helping Music Change The World

August 13, 2019
By Roxanna_Foxe SILVER, Anonymous, North Carolina
Roxanna_Foxe SILVER, Anonymous, North Carolina
8 articles 0 photos 25 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." - Mark Twain


Let me be clear here: music, nowadays, is generated noise that comes from the lack of simple songwriting skills.

This lack of talent we are experiencing is nothing more than the abuse of computerization used to make extra money for artists around the world. This is frightening. Why? As a listener of anything, from The Beatles to Calpurnia to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole to NF, I've heard a million songs. Some good, some bad. Here are 5 reasons why I am afraid for and of today's musical world.

 

#5: Heartfelt Music < More Money

Somehow, music has lost all connection with the heartfelt lyrics they once had. Artists have traded in creative cuts in music for more money. Shocking, right? Not really. We live in a corporate world, and with so many manipulative producers, music just doesn't have the same tone it used to.

 

#4: Producers Doing More, Artists Doing Less

This one isn't as big as a deal as some down the list yet it's still pretty big. Music producers have been writing songs with (or sometimes for) artists for decades. As time went on, a singer's only point in being a singer is... singing. No more songwriting, no more instrument work, nothing. It took 6 writers and 4 producers to create Beyonce’s “Run the World (Girls)”; “Bohemian Rhapsody” took Freddie Mercury to do it all. A group of writers wrote Britney Spears’ “Toxic"; meanwhile, Rivers Cuomo has been composing his band Weezer’s music for over 20 years.

 

 #3: The Three Ingredients

I call this The Three Ingredients. These three compounds are what modern music industries crave for. It's what sells. The first ingredient is the most popular of them all: sex. If a song has sex, it must sell. The second ingredient: drugs and alcohol. Songs that glorify drugs and alcohol are a must-have in the industry. I mean, look how far "Tequila" by Dan + Shay has come. The third ingredient: language. Language is HUGE in modern music. It's a common myth that to be a rapper or pop star, you have to cuss outrageously in your music.

 

   #2: Sappy Love Songs

Now, I'm not against a good love song. I just can't listen to them all. What it seems is that music today has to be about love, no matter what. This is devastating to me. Off the top of my head, I can list fifteen oldie songs that aren't about love. Guess what? They all made it great, too!

 

#1: Declining IQ Means More Generated Lyrics

 It is a scientific fact that human brains are actually devolving. This may sound shocking or not but it is true. Less IQ means more generated lyrics. No more creativity will go into our songs if we keep singing repeated phrases over and over. If you pay close attention, any modern song on the radio is overwhelmingly repetitive. (Here's to lookin' at you, "Despacito".) The Travelling Wilburys and Beatles singer, George Harrison, once said, "Rap music is just computerized crap. I listen to Top of the Pops and after three songs I feel like killing someone."

 

I don't believe this essay requires a closing. It speaks for itself. BUT, with all that being said, we can change the world! Music is a giant part of modern society. If people start listening to real music once again, we can start on the right path again! Let's start now!



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This article has 2 comments.


on Aug. 28 2021 at 3:36 pm
Roxanna_Foxe SILVER, Anonymous, North Carolina
8 articles 0 photos 25 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." - Mark Twain

@Lydiaq yes! My mom and I both love Jackson Browne. I've never listened to that particular album but I definitely will now :)

Lydiaq ELITE said...
on May. 2 2021 at 7:12 pm
Lydiaq ELITE, Somonauk, Illinois
172 articles 54 photos 1026 comments

Favorite Quote:
The universe must be a teenage girl. So much darkness, so many stars.
--me

I don't listen to the radio; I listen to Jackson Browne's Late for the Sky album all the time, and boy does it have great lyrics.