Yes, there is good music being made today, and yes there have always been bad music on the charts. But in the past, the young people's music out-sold the music of their parents and grandparents by a huge percentage.

Older generations are always nostalgic about the music they grew up with. But they aren't top40 oriented and have other things that demand their money. They don't need to buy the newest _______ album. (Add a star's name in the blanks.)

I don't think nostalgia about 'our' music is the problem here. On my weekly gig, which is in a restaurant on a public beach in Florida, I meet a number of young people liking the music I play for the Baby-Boomer generation.

When gigging at retirement homes, and they bring their grandchildren to the gig, I see the same thing.

When talking to them, I ask them why, and they say they like it better than today's music.

This surprises me. When I was young, nobody listened to their parent's or grandparent's music and said they like it better.

As a musician, I liked my parent's music a lot, but it wasn't something I would tell in the presence of other young folks my age. But then I like the good songs (re the ones that tickle me) from any generation. I know, I'm weird.

I'm not fond of rap. Music to me has melody, harmony and rhythm. Rap is void of melody and it bores me. However, a good song with a rap verse in the middle is fine with me. Does the loss of melody make the music more disposable and less of something to own?

I hear a lot of new music that has been overly auto-tuned and overly compressed, which sucks the emotion out of it. Analyzing the song, it could be a good song, but the production drained the expression out of it.

Could these factors be the reason?

Or could it just be that for most of the latter 2/3 of the 20th century, the music made for your people was their private world, their escape, their emerging from their parents' generation and their identity.

Young folks always enjoyed the fact that their music was offensive to their parents. It was a safe rebellion. After all it is the child's duty to rebel, if they didn't progress would be slower. We need new thought.

The parent's hated the Beatles' hair and their music. Their parent's hated Elvis and his gyrations, and so on. In an interview, In an interview, Vince (Alice Cooper) said he thought about what would make the parents hate him because that would endear him to his generation. Giving himself a girl's name and at first having the band dress up like females did the trick.

Music was the identity of the generation, and it was their "private club" where their parents weren't welcome.

Today, the constantly changing social media sites, that change as soon as their parents find them, might be their private coming of age world. This could be serving the function that Sinatra, Elvis, and The Beatles did for those generations.

If so, that leaves the music of today still being entertaining, but not nearly as important as it was in the past. The effort that earlier generations put into their music is now being put into the latest social media site for the youthful and not their parents. Could this be it?

Again, just thinking out loud. I really don't know. I'm just pondering.

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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