In Response

My uncle sent me a video explaining exactly why millennial music is awful. I disagreed with various points of the video and this was my response to his email.

I have a couple of thoughts about that video . . .

The main point of the argument that “modern music is terrible” is based off of what you hear on the radio. In other words, main stream music is terrible, a fact of which very few will deny. The entire world didn’t stop producing “good” music all at once, in fact, they never stopped. There are amazing bands everywhere, you just have to find the ones you like. There’s a rock bagpipe group I love and what makes their music awesome is the blending of cultures and generations with their covers of songs as well as original songs. If you turned on the radio in the 1960’s, you would probably hear terrible music as well. Rolling Stone took a poll and even the Beatles made their list of worst songs of the ’60’s. Every generation has a Beatles and the bad bands sort of fade away.

This video used timbre as a measure of “good music, which is essentially what makes sound different. The timbre of a violin is different than the timbre of an electric guitar, even if they play the same note. Timbre is also the difference between a screech and a correct note. Just because a song is filled with timbre does not make it better. Two different instruments playing wrong notes would have a ton of timbre, but two different instruments playing correct notes sounds better. Nasally chants from Indonesia or Buddhist prayers are filled with varying timbre but we wouldn’t consider this music “bad” because we don’t fully understand its cultural significance nor consider it mainstream.

On the subject of chord progression, the video got a few things wrong. Bach and Mozart are often quoted to be the grandmasters of music, yet they had many works that were 4/4 or 3/4 beats – the same beats that this video called tiresome and repetitive. The same notes that this video claims every song uses is called Diatonic Tuning, and the oldest record of it was written on a bone nearly 45,000 years ago. Diatonic Tuning is how music developed the standard 12 music notes per octave we have today. I have a textbook on music theory if you would like to borrow it. The video also kept referring to polls done by researchers without ever really offering the names of the studies or providing sources for its claims.

Furthermore, a development in the modern music is the rise of minimalism during the 20th century. I had the privilege to watch Phillip Glass’ Koyaanisqatsi; Glass is arguably the most famous and notable minimalist composer of all time. He composed a minimalist score for The Truman Show, a movie that no doubt left a large impact on the public. The power of music undoubtedly changes the mood of a situation; you can believe minimalist music is “bad”, but you can’t deny its power to change perspective – and a change in perspective is seldom a bad thing. Another major change in perspective was the rise of the internet. This allowed many individuals an opportunity to create music on their own and share it with their community. Before the internet, popular songs were professionally recorded and released on a label by those already talented with instruments or their voice. Popular songs nowadays may come from a funny internet video or a viral educational tool and need little to no formal training or professionalism to reach a willing audience. Music can come from a more diverse area and represent more walks of life thanks to the internet. In our society, music has become a way to interact with the world in the same way that Simon and Garfunkel made amazing anti war songs.

Lastly, the video argued the lack of sentimentality and originality of song lyrics. It argued the superficiality and basic-ness that infests every popular song but I have a strong counter. These are the song lyrics to the Twenty One Pilots song Car Radio: