#MusicWasBestWhen
… is trending on Twitter right now. Well, it’s promoted, so “trending” probably isn’t the right word.
Regardless, I think it’s a stupid premise. If you think that the best part of music already happened, why even try? Don’t be a fatalist fish!
Superlatives don’t have to be singularities. You can appreciate the aesthetic of older music while simultaneously enjoying current music, or even writing future music.
It’s ridiculously stupid to assume that the one, best musical period already passed. Music is constantly being re-invented and challenged. We’re not still banging sticks to-gether are we? Well, actually, yeah, we are. But think of all of the innovation that’s occurred along-side that!
You take the older musical inventions and principles and combine them with something new. That’s how music evolves and grows. It’s not static (in more ways that one).
EDIT: You have people saying, “Oh music was better when people actually had a message.” ”Music was best when people wrote lyrics that had more emotion.” ”It was better when it was more about the music than the fame, or the wealth, &c.” Stupid.
I can even take personal offence at that because I write songs. Despite being a very small part of the current musicianship, I still constitute part of it. My songs have messages. My lyrics have emotion. I don’t have fame or wealth, and I’m still doing it, so it has to be something aside from that.
Similarly, it’s like what I see in a lot of YouTube comments on videos of old bands. People say, “Oh they don’t write music like they used to.” Or “This is real music, not the stuff we have now.” And that’s just a fundamental misunderstanding. I still write music like they used to (or at least I hope I do). Other people do too. There is real music now. People are just too lazy to go and look for it and too narrow-minded to realise it’s there if they do find it.
It’s frustrating.
