Remember Music?

It seems like a simple question until you turn on the radio and hear, one after another, awful bits of sound all bunched together and then called songs. For the most part these "artists" don't even write music about meaningful things anymore. It's all about strippers, lumps, bringing sexy back, and other topics not far from these. I remember when artists could not fabricate terms like Gwen's "Holla Back Girl" and pretend like people knew what she was talking about. I remember when people like Fergie could not turn their name into a song (Fergalicious) and pretend that this was in some way good music. I remember when weenies like Justin Timberlake were the people that music lovers made fun of because they just couldn't be taken seriously. Apparently America thinks that he can in fact bring sexy back. I didn't realize that it had gone anywhere. I also find it hard to believe that, as the first line of one of his new songs suggests, he could in any way be capable of writing a symphony.
It bothers me that music has come to this point. I realize that there are much bigger problems in this world but to me the state of America's music industry is a commentary on why many of these bigger problems exist. Our nation is told be the industry leaders what to like and like lemmings a great many Americans blindly jump off the cliff. This is something that occurs in many other industries. We follow their lead in clothing, jewelry, food, movies, and even energy. This state of commercialism is most evident during the holidays by which I mean year round since they have managed to stretch every holiday to run into the next. All you have to do is walk into a store to figure out which major money making holiday is a month or so around the bend. As Americans we complain about the gross waste of resources perpetrated by our government every year on seemingly rediculous things. The honest truth is that we seem to have little room for complaint. We are showing them by our example what we would do with the extra money.
But I digress. The music scene is what started this. There are still good artists that manage, against all odds, to make it in an industry that seems to try to shut them out. What brought me to actually write about it was the Grammys. Thats right, the American award given to the "best artists" for each category in a given year. It's almost sickening to know who won them this year. Artists like Gnarls Barkley and Mary J Blige took home awards while people with real talent such as Natalie Cole were among those who handed them out. The Dixie Chicks seemed to sweep the night and while I can admit they have talent I also believe it is the scandal they created that won them those awards. I guess the point is that to win a grammy what you really seem to need is to be the most controversial. In other words you need to make the least intelligent music possible. The less thought necessary, the better.
However, amidst all the trash that polutes the airwaves there are still the occasional new talents. Once Carrie Underwood gets out from under the corrupting influence of American Idol and is set loose with her phenomenal voice she stands a real chance of making good country music. I have not decided about Corinne Bailey Rae yet, but I think she's got potential. At the very least she's got the voice. The industry is in a bad state and I'm secretly hoping that through the internet which they hate and through their own failure to produce good music they will cause themselves to implode. Then it will be like the old days when you had to have real talent, not physically but musically, to get on the radio.