Music is suppose to be a release. Sure it started out religiously, but it eventually became something to entertain the masses. To me music is about love and heartache or completely random subjects like beer and animals. Music says something about who was listening to it, or who is listening to it. Music is suppose to speak to the people, lift them out their dreary lives. It's not that I don't appreciate protest songs, or the punk rock movement, it's just thats not what music is suppose to be. Somewhere in the 60's music got twisted around and become this political machine, in some cases at least. Instead of getting people away from the horrors they were seeing on TV, a lot of popular was a reminder of just how sucky the world was. After that the punksters started saying the same thing. Life sucks and then you die. Of course there has always been music that is about love, heartache and random shit. But just how much of that has survived, and not been ridiculed? Not much, not much at all. I mean disco is a perfect example. Supposedly all disco is crap. I think not! Disco is a release, and to me thats the point of music.
I suppose I could never be a punk-rocker. I'm more of pop-rock/rock person. I just don't want to be constantly reminded of how sucky life is. The only exception I can think of are The Kinks, but they appeal more to my cynical side than my depressive side. Music for me is an escape from deadlines, tests, practice, and my lack-there-of, of a social life. Why then would I want to listen to Green Day bitch and moan about the current state of the populous? Sure I understand the need for their kind of music, but I don't have to listen to it right? Someone (in the case of Green Day lots of people) will listen to them and appreciate what they have to say. I own American Idiot. I've listened to it a couple of times, I have some favorites. But now I won't listen to it all the way through. I would rather just listen to the couple of songs that really don't say anything political, that are about (you fill in the blank, I believe in you.)
Of course when I say heartache and I don't mean bitching. Because honestly hearing another pretty boy complaining about his recent break up from the "love of my life" makes me sick. No when I think of heartbreak and heartache I think of the Motown hits from the early 60's, R&B greats, that sort of thing. Mmm Motown.
Anyway, I think I've considerably expanded my view on music. Hell I'm listening to Hem right now. Damn fine. Just remember kids: Music is a release, an escape. Kinda like trashy TV, but better.