There’s one thing I hear artists say all the time that immediately raises red flags.
Well, there are actually a few things artists could say that’d raise red flags, but this is perhaps the most common one:
“No one is writing good music these days.”
Or any variant of “I don’t listen to new music.”
That’s ridiculous. Did all the talent dry up in 1972? Or 1984? Or 2001?
I get not having TIME to listen to a lot of new music. My daughter is 4 years old, and I’m just now feeling like I have the mental space to explore new releases again. But I never once fooled myself into thinking that there’s nothing of merit being created these days.
I heard yet another artist say the other day that all modern music is garbage. Hmmm, have you ever heard anyone else say something like that? Maybe your grandparents when you were falling in love with swing, or rock n roll, or hip hop, or EDM? Sure, not everything is for everyone. But there’s something new out there for you — and if you don’t believe it, well, that just tells me your own music is probably crusty and irrelevant.
Harsh? Maybe. But I’m far from alone. Hell, you don’t even have to incorporate the influence of new sounds in your own music. I’m not expecting you to be as wowed as you were when you were 16 and the whole world waited up ahead. Just don’t be so self-satisfied in your close-mindedness. Acknowledge that maybe, just maybe good stuff is happening today that’s every bit as thrilling as your favorites from the the past. It’s a small request.
What do you think?
Why do some musicians have such a hard time admitting (or recognizing) that quality didn’t go extinct when they turned 30? When you hear someone talk trash about something as vague as “new music,” do you immediately write off their own music? Do you actually think all new music is terrible? Let me know in the comments.
[For a somewhat different take on this topic, check out “Now THAT was music: Why do your musical tastes get frozen over in your late twenties?“]
Chris Robley is an acclaimed singer-songwriter and award-winning poet from Maine.
His Beatlesque indie-pop and milltown Americana songs have been praised by The Associated Press, No Depression, KCRW, The LA Times, Boston Globe, NPR, American Songwriter, and others.
His poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, and more.
Robley has received a Maine Literary Award in Poetry, Boulevard’s Emerging Writers Prize for Poetry, and in 2016 was selected by former US-poet laureate Robert Pinsky as a finalist for the Dorset Prize.