Fogey

I bitch and grouse about new music often. I'm pretty sure that makes me an old fogey. But at least I haven't said anything like "Back in my day..." yet.

But here's the thing, it's not that there's not good music out there nowadays, it's that there's too much music. With the nature of the music industry changing from an actual physical medium to downloading, and with the ability to create album quality recordings in your bedroom, record companies seem to have adopted a "throw it out there and see what sticks" mentality. No need to spend money on advertising. Internet, blogs, word of mouth, these are the new advertising for new bands. And the problem there is that with so many options I'm sure that there are so many things I'd like that never see the light of day.

This really is not much different than when I was growing up, except in the sense of longevity. Warhol's 15 minutes of fame was never more relevant. For no longer are artists developed as commodities to be nurtured over time, but merely as hit singles. Oh, what, you have a second hit single in you? Then you get 30 minutes of fame.

The problem, at least to me, with so much music, and so much much of disposable, it seems like it means less. So you miss out on something good? So what? Something else will be along in a few minutes. And I don't have the patience (or time, it seems) to do all the searching for those gems that I know I'll like. I have to rely more and more on that word of mouth and simple, old-fashioned luck.

Back in my day...

But really, when there were less options, it seems like you appreciated those options more. (The irony of this is that "back in my day..." there were still thousands, hundres of thousands, millions? of options.)

This was pretty much all a long-winded intro to the actual point. I don't know if it's a reaction to all that, but it seems like recently a lot of my musical tastes have been going backwards in time rather that forwards. Some stuff that's been blowing my skirt up recently?

The Who - Who's Next. I owned this on cassette in 8th grade but never really appreciated it back then. This is a fantastic album almost entirely from start to finish. In an odd bit of confluence, I was getting into this album anyway, but recently I was watching an episode of Freaks and Geeks where the song, "The Song Is Over" was wonderfully placed in a moment, and it made me run back to that album again.

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours. This is pretty close to a perfect album, as far as I'm concerned. I don't think Lindsey Buckingham doesn't get the credit he deserves as a guitar player. But more than that, impeccable songs.

Billy Joel - Piano Man. No raelly. That's just a damn good album. Never mind the overplayed bar-washed title track, which is still quite good for all that. I originally went and reacquired this album because I wanted to hear "Captain Jack", probably the best song about suburban depression and lonliness, but in doing so, rediscovered a great album.

Motorhead - Ace of Spades. I was never a Motorhead fan when I was younger. Too punkish and raw. I liked my metal differently back then, typically with singers that didn't sound like they had been gargling gravel. But man, this is some good stuff. Great gym album.