I recently came across an interesting article on the musical legacy of our current decade (2000-2009). The article, written by Kris Millet for Culture Magazine, takes a dim view of this century’s musical output. His central thesis is that the technological fragmentation of the last 10 years has destroyed our ability to follow a band for any significant length of time, and that a fragmented music press prefers short-term bandwagons that disrupt the long-term appreciation of a band.
While I sympathize with his viewpoint, I think there are other forces at work, too. The biggest one would be economic. Millet’s discussion of long-term support for U2 is a perfect example. What record label now can afford to support a band for four albums before it hits the big time? Not many, I would think. I know it’s old hat to blame record labels for everything that’s wrong in modern music, but their increasingly obsolete business model does have some upsides: money for promotion, grooming and time to learn.
I also wonder if songwriters are running out of ideas. Could it be that there is a finite number of good melodies? It would be impossible to measure, I guess, but maybe time will tell. Who knows – maybe in 10 years every rock and pop act will only be recording cover tunes. Then modern music will be just like classical music!
