Where has American music gone? The radio today is littered with pop hits, meaningless rap, and auto-tuned country 'records.' There's no more heart to its message, just reworked beats, and booty-poppin' lyrics that are sure to skyrocket on iTunes' Top Charts. What happened to The Eagles, John Cougar-Mellencamp, 90s rock and rap, or even Garth Brooks? Their music used to mean something, but then again our society today is completely different from what it was 20 years ago.
Music reflects its audience, the world they belong to, and their beliefs. Just listening to the lyrics, or even a specific genre, can tell you so much about a group or class of people. I mean, we are the consumers. So why is it that today we are buying into partied-up trap remixes and songs that all have the same lyrics 500 different ways? Is it really the producers and artists' fault that music has hit an all time dull, that every song on the radio is basically the same as the next one, or is the audience's fault. Have we as society become as meaningless as our music?
The lyrics to "Pink Houses" actually depicts exactly what is happening in America today -- the American Dream has disappeared. People are content with being discontent, and instead of standing up and doing something about the state of their life, they have chained themselves to handles like Twitter & Facebook where they can create memes about their discontent. Isn't there some saying about laughing through the bad times? Anyway, the problem here is that their discontent isn't even in important issues.
I want the kind of music that meant something back. Something that lights a fire in your soul that can't be put out by day to day life and gets you through the work week, or even that five-year slump. I want bands like Kansas to light up the air-ways again. We haven't just lost rock and roll, but we've buried music as it was and replaced it with artificial auto-tunes and bass lines. Bowling for Soup called it in the 90s with their hit, "1985." Music used to rock, and life's now so average. So yeah, when did Motley Crue become classic rock? And when can we bring back some real music to our radios?