A Musical Betrayal

2 Pages 558 Words

A Musical Betrayal


In the 60’s it was the Beatles. Then Jimi Hendrix revolutioned the electric guitar. The 70’s stoner music followed, 80’s was heavy metal, the 90’s was rap and alternative, and now were left with groups like the Backstreet Boys and N’sync. What happened to music? As we enter a new millennium, rock, in its purest form, is widely proclaimed dead. It has been replaced by the latest bubble gum pop trend; rock is no longer the art it used to be. It’s old hat, obsolete, over and done with thanks to the artless form of bubble gum pop. Even more depressing is that the critics and audiences confuse to meld the two with the label of “Rock/Pop.”
Unless you are Mozart or Beethoven, lyrics are absolutely crucial to and artist. Music sets the mood, but lyrics make the idea clear. Rock, rap, alternative have depth to their words. It’s true poetry. In cold English sense, they use metaphors and imagery to bring songs to life and make it beautiful, or expose something gruesome, but its all things every day people can relate to. Then you got these new pop artists like Britney Spears singing lyrics like “Oops…I did it again. What is that, the worst part is most new pop artists don’t write their own lyrics. While bands and rock acts nearly always pen their own songs in order to convey whichever message they might be aiming for. Pop acts are far more often than not written by someone else who “knows” what an audience wants. While rock tends to have lyrics with poetry, depth, and meaning, pop tends to have lyrics that are shallow, oversimplified, and so straight forward and without abstraction that there is no room for interpretation.
While lyrics are important, music is music and is meant to be listened to. Rock acts are almost always bands. There are actual instruments involved. Acoustic, electric guitars, bass, drums, and the powerful emotion of a singer that is what makes a band. ...