5 Things Wrong With Modern Music

Disclaimer: The author is fully aware modern music is in fact very diverse, is not constituted solely by what can be found on the various pop-charts, and that not every characteristic decried in the following post can be observed all the time in the realm of popular modern music. NAMILT.

He is also cognizant of the fact that numerous unfortunate attributes of contemporary music can be found in the music of yesteryear. The point is that so many destructive traits have become characteristics whose subversive effects, outright ridiculousness, and lack of appeal would have been understood only a couple of generations ago.

For many people in the present-day, these things barely register in their minds:

1. Everything Is Perfect

In today’s world of music, when it comes to the recording process, there is no room for error. The engineer or producer is the music industry’s equivalent of a helicopter parent; an individual who micromanages the entire bulk of sonic content in a song. Editing recordings with near surgical precision, they remove the types of idiosyncrasies, nuances, and inexactitudes which often made music of the past interesting.

Like the Ritalin-munching, screen-addicted, over-supervised kid who has been robbed of a genuine childhood, the songs we hear today have been purged of many once celebrated qualities by being forced to adhere to so many rigid parameters, which ultimately stifles the potential for any genuine life in a musical composition.

As an example of this divide I present these two specimens:

The Kingsmen – “Louie Louie”

Iggy Azalea (feat. Charli XCX) – “Fancy”

“Louie Louie” was recorded in one take. I can guarantee you “Fancy” was most certainly not. In “Louie Louie,” if you listen carefully at the 0:54 second mark, you can actually hear the drummer yell “f**k” because he fumbled one of his drumsticks. In “Fancy”, at 2:02, Ms. Azalea intentionally raps the word “f**k”, because that’s just what “edgy” feral broads like her do.

In The Kingsmen song, after the guitar solo the singer comes back in too early, realizes his mistake, and stops abruptly. The drummer then, having observed this blunder, acts instinctually by filling the void with an impromptu drum fill. Brilliant. No such magic happened in the making of “Fancy.”

These particular incidents aside, just sit back and listen to the sheer sonic difference between the two songs. “Louie Louie” is loose, noisy, and amateurish, bordering on outright sloppiness. Iggy Azalea’s song is stiff and pristine to the point of being clinical. In short, The Kingsmen’s sound is that of a group of beer guzzling chick-chasing mischievous fratboys, while Iggy and her ilk have the kind of sound reserved for only the best professional wannabe trouble-makers.

2. Female Exhibitionism

Whores, whores, and more whores. It seems like every other contemporary popstar parades herself with more zeal than a common street hussy.

Any fellow who has “taken the red pill” should know by now that women are naturally prone to exhibitionism. The world of pop music invigorates these tendencies to levels previously unseen, making it the ideal forum for cultivating unrestrained grossly immodest behaviour.

This piece of trailer trash royalty and her musical mating call need no introduction:

Miley Cyrus – “We Can’t Stop”

Ms. Cyrus is the kind of gal who, even if she didn’t have a singing career solely because of her father, would likely still be on a stage somewhere tatted up and twerking. Her birth name  is “Destiny Hope Cyrus” after all.

If such perverted exhibitionism was a self-contained phenomenon (like strip clubs) it might not be so bad. However, the broadcasting of such content via mass media in conjunction with the female proclivity towards herd mentality spawns a toxic synergy. Such a combination ultimately results in debased sexual moral standards for young women and the normalization of slatternly behaviour, in turn sowing the seeds of cultural rot and the decline of our once mighty civilization.

In short, music like this is a vector for the virus of degeneracy. The proper treatment for the ensuing disease is ridicule and shame.

3. Men Don’t Sound Masculine

In the Manosphere there is often talk of “High T” women, but what about “High E” men? Listen to this pansy:

Maroon 5 – “She Will Be Loved”

Every time I hear Adam Levine’s voice an image of a singing ant donned in silver armour with LED lights for eyes comes to mind. Worse yet, he is crooning over a 40+ woman while the twenty-something more attractive daughter takes a backseat in his thoughts—yikes! What a weird guy.

Here’s another shining example:

The Weeknd – “Wicked Games”

Mötley Crüe once said they dressed up like chicks to get chicks; I guess The Weeknd sings like a chick to get chicks (and this is definite chick music btw).

If you suffered through those two examples and feel as if you need an antidote, I recommend this musical pill (be sure to consciously compare and contrast with the above):

Johnny Cash – “Ring of Fire”

For some of you, Johnny Cash may sound too dated, or hokey, or perhaps you disdain country music entirely. That’s fine, we all have our preferences, but one thing which cannot be disputed is the sheer masculinity of this man’s voice, especially in contrast to the present day weasels featured above. Long live testosterone.

4. Everything Is Going To The Beat

Blue jeans, fast food, Walmart, Hollywood, suburbs, and…”sick beats.” These are all emblematic of the colossally hideous Jabba The Hut-like behemoth—known as globalization—currently devouring tradition and genuine cultures.

Aurally probe these three songs, which although stylistically different, utilize the same rhythmic tool (and it is a tool) inherited from disco:

The Black Keys – “Fever”

Luke Bryan – “That’s My Kind of Night”

Pitbull (feat. Ke$ha) – “Timber”

How can genres, which target such differing demographics and also have identifiably distinct idiomatic origins, all be underpinned by, more-or-less, the same rhythm? Music, like everything else, is clearly undergoing rapid convergence culminating in a homogenized mass music culture.

When the fundamental components between songs are so alike, the differences become trivial. The destruction of differences—many of which are rooted in longstanding musical traditions—ultimately generates a world of banality.

5. Overtly Sexual

Modern music is saturated with sex, and a great deal of it tends to be overtly sexual.

Take this charming little ditty for example (NSFW):

Khia – “My Neck, My Back (Lick It)”

Have you ever seen a room full of women in their twenties singing along to filth this shameless, while grandmothers stare catatonically on in horror, parents guffaw and smirk in direction of the floor, and the more “enlightened” boomers laugh delightfully as if the behaviour their daughters are displaying is of no significance at all? I have, and let me tell you, it is weird.

Weird like we’re living in some futuristic sexual dystopia. A dystopia where all things sexual have been reduced to an amoral form of childish amusement, and the segment of the population who have historically been the nurturers and caregivers of a society have decided to shirk the honourable traditions of their forebears and turn feral.

It should be obvious to any discerning observer the deterioration popular music has undergone in recent decades. This phenomenon parallels the decline elsewhere and also feeds it; there is a reciprocal relationship with music and society-at-large.

Music is an immensely powerful force in this world—bearing this in mind, one should always be cognizant of the particular qualities of a given song, and what their potential effects may be.

Read More: How Your Life Changes After You Start Listening To Classical Music