Lerman: MTV2 blues: Forget recycled tunes
So-called popular music limits creativity and prevents listeners from trying out new tunes.
By Jake Lerman (Contact)
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008
I’m disillusioned with music today. I know this because of the sinking feeling I get in my stomach when I stumble upon a stream of “popular” music videos. It first hit me when I happened across MTV2 as they were knee deep in a string of videos that reeked of high production costs. Not one of the exorbitant videos struck me as a song worth spending any large sum of money on, but since I’ve never been a fan of MTV or any of its other incarnations, I didn’t expect much better. Still I couldn’t help but question if there was even an audience who call this “their” music. A passing car bumping “Low” by Flo Rida reminded me that I might not be part of the majority.
Who was deciding which songs get the airplay and which don’t? Why do I need to see Akon’s bare platinum draped chest four times before I can turn mute off on my TV?
So there they were, samples of mediocrity gussied up and shoved in front of a camera. I know the quality of music is essentially subjective, but I was sure I had heard songs more deserving of a national highlight blasting out of doorways on Mass. Street.
Either way I still wondered why some songs that seem almost generic get so much publicity and blow up on the charts while so many great artists go their entire career without the amount of attention MTV gives a song in a week?
Who was deciding which songs get the airplay and which don’t? Why do I need to see Akon’s bare platinum draped chest four times before I can turn mute off on my TV? How many times does Soulja Boy have to “crank dat” before we stand up and say, “hey, it’s cranked”? After pondering these eternal questions I came to the realization that, maybe it’s time for us to abandon the archaic system of “Pop” music.
Before you break out the tar and feathers, hear me out. Imagine a time where the music that we listened to was not force fed to us through culture funnels like VH1 or MTV. Where popularity took on a more Darwinist approach where only the strong survive. In this digital age we live in where any song you want is only a click away, there seems to be unnecessary and unfair to limit “success” to only the acts with overt commercial potential. By doing that we are severely limiting the spectrum of creativity we are exposed to, a terrible injustice at best. I think it’s time to cull the herd. Some of the forefathers of this industrial revival have already come, gone and made their mark. Bands like Phish and Dispatch are well know in the minds of music lovers despite the fact that they had minimal exposure on the major media outlets. They achieved all their success through word of mouth, and the music they made. As a result they built audiences that were devout followers who were more than happy to pay for tickets to shows and albums alike. The fact that we all know bands like Umphreys Mcgee even though they never posed next to twenty-twos proves that a grass roots system can work, and maybe even bring a little integrity back to the music industry. So before you go turn on the video countdown and listen to the same recycled tunes remember that there’s a whole world of music out beyond MTV Jams. Go find it.
Discussion
All comments are moderated by Kansan.com staff. For our full user policy, click here.
Jake Lerman's article was smartfully good stuff. He’s right, we can't allow ourselves to be led where we don't want to go, musically, or otherwise. Like lambs led to a bland concert slaughter. However, was there ever a time when the big music corps didn't rule (rue) the day? Dick Clark, Phil Specter, Barry Gordy, the early rock payola scandal, the $$makers$$ have always created vacuous pabulum for the masses.
Lerman’s right, if we’re true to ourselves, if we’re express our real selves through music, music that touches and ignites us, we just gotta “Go find it!”
Share your 2¢
Requires free registration.