Gone are the golden days of music. The times when music actually meant something, actually carried weight. The times when music influenced, instead of sat on the back burner. The times when playing an instrument used to mean something and if you worked hard at it, your talent was quite impressive. The times when you were either in a band or went to see bands. The times when music was art and not what it seemingly is now: noise.

Now before I get into this, perhaps I should have titled this "The Fading Art of Rock Music" since rock and roll is indeed the music genre out of style today. But I didn't do that, to stress the fact that it's the art in creating music that has escaped us, not the music itself, and rock still offers plenty art.

Rock and Roll contains so many sub-genres, classic musicians, fun beats, and beautiful motifs. It's simply packed with emotion that our generation either can't seem to detect or doesn't care enough to try to understand. It wouldn't surprise me, seeing as since we're living extremely fast paced lives, so we settle for fast, repetitive, "party" songs. But it still makes you wonder, did we really get sick of rock that easily?

Don't get me wrong, not all music today is bad per se. You got your talented musicians sprinkled in among the brainless material. Now when I think of a great band or artist, I look (or rather listen) for three things: masterful instrument experimentation, complex, deep lyrics, and a "wow" factor - something to make the artist stand out among the rest. The Killers are my quintessential example, their "wow" factor: being a rejuvenated 80s sound among a few others. But we seem to have gotten too caught up in "what song can I twerk to?" or "what song should we turn up to?" instead of "what song touches me?" or "what song changes my mood?" or even "what song has shown a technological advancement or sound I've never heard before?" But that is indeed the partial root of the problem: our tendency to seek out and discover new ways of creating music. We've gotten so indulged in finding "the next step" to improve music that we completely forgot what made classic rock so good in the first place.

I have three challenges for you. One: I want you to think of a rap song that has an actual human being drummer in it, not a computer drummer. Two: I want you to think of the last song you partied to that had a guitar solo. Three: I want you to think of the last concert you went to where everyone wasn't screaming, standing up, and jumping to.

If it was hard to think of answers to these questions, congratulations! It probably means you're young. It also probably means that you favor the loud modern day techno/pop/trap/house/hip hop/rap genres. That's cool, I can dig that. The beauty in music is that, as with any art form, there is no right or wrong. That's essentially why I'm all about music and art in general. It's not like a math class, where there's only one answer and you're either correct or incorrect. You're never going to hear someone say, "The Beatles never made any music." If you do, punch that person in the face. The Beatles may have made some songs people find boring or lousy, but that doesn't mean they never made music.

Now, good music is what's subjective. Good music varies from person to person and that will never, nor should it ever, change. Can you imagine how pathetic we would all be if we all liked the same bands? Talk about variety not being the spice of life. There'd be nothing to talk about, nothing to analyze, nothing to share, and nothing that stands out. Some like other artists more than others and as with any passionate interest, it would be wrong to try and alter someone's musical taste. So that's not what I'm doing.

My problem with today's music lies with how little talent goes into creating it, or perhaps, the kind of talent. Where's the craft, the creativity, the emotion, the poetry, the message? I can't tell you how many songs I've heard and had to endure by my college friends that are about sex, violence, revenge, divisiveness, and partying. Those themes requires minimal to zero thinking. The song just serves as the driving force to complement the drinking and dancing at a party. There's hardly anyone out there nowadays who takes the time to sit there and listen to all the components of a song. What's the drum beat like? Does the drummer use interesting fills? How many guitarists do you here? Which one is rhythm and which one is lead? Can you hear the bass? What's the keyboard part like? What is the song about? What's the rhyming scheme like? Is there a bridge? Is it in 4/4 or 6/8? Are there any harmonies? I mean, the things to listen for are abundant.

Culture influences music. If a large portion of our music today revolves around sex, big body parts, violence and whatnot, that says something about what's really prevalent in society. In the 60s you had the Beatles, pop love experts, Joan Baez who blew us away, and Bob Dylan, folk complex lyricist. You had hippies singing about saving the planet and peace. In the 70s there was Zeplin, Queen, and The Who as rock progressed. The 80s featured the synthesizer a lot more, and the music became much more commercialized with the emergence of music videos and MTV. Even the 90s had some good alternative and garage band tunes. Gosh, with contemporary music you're like, "Hmm well let's see...fake/computer drums, extreme vocal effects, a brain dead theme I've heard a thousand times...but I think it's music?" Yes, it is music. It just comes off more as noise when you're not paying attention to the song blasting on your speakers when you're getting drunk with thirty other people. But you know what else is music? Picking up a guitar, playing three chords, and creating art. Hey, Tom Petty did it all the time.

Here we are, glorifying electronic pop when we should be worshipping Jimi Hendrix. Perhaps art is still relevant in today's music, just in a very different way. For example, I get that rap art is all about syncing a beat to rhyming lyrics that flow. And maybe party music gets you excited. But let's give the old school art of music another chance. I predict it won't be long before we incorporate previous musical techniques to save us from our current course.

Now, in the words of Hendrix, please excuse me while I kiss the sky.