Where Did Music Standards go?

This is an op-ed style document sent for peer review assessment. It was written by Goretti Adebanjo as part of her final project at Ohio University.



During the past few days, while going through a very soothing and pleasant journey revisiting my A-Ha albums, some questions started to pop in my mind. They pertained not only to the poor quality,contemporary music that is being cumbersomely played by the main mass media vehicles but, also, to the music industry and its, most of the time, very questionable standards.
The most important and significant question that stuck and took on me, prompting this article to be written is: where did talent go? Where is it hiding, anyway?
Not only as a musician and songwriter but as a History of Music student and a music lover as well, I have a hard time understanding why this kind of meaningless rubbish that record labels unabashedly throw at us is being called music.
I'm not trying to be mordant. To the contrary, I am, in a generous and dumbfoundedly way asking- since when did it become mandatory to listen to lousy music?
Listening to music, and not this lyric-empty, nonsensical noise disposed at us, has become a proven challenge to the high quality music seeking audience.
Gone are the days when music played massively used to be of distinctively superior order. From the Big Bands and the great Jazz and Rhythm & Blues performers hitting the airwaves in the 1940s and ‘50s, to the advent of Rock’n’Roll roughly in 1955 and its evolution through the ‘60s and ‘70s, which generated many new genres and subgenres; from the Country and Western ( and, yes, they are two different things) to the World Music genre that travels across the globe reaching many different kinds of audiences, we were presented with many beautifully crafted and skillfully executed pieces. No specificity here: what I’m taking into consideration is the music quality despite the genre it belongs.
Poor quality music came into small, soft and innocent waves, shyly making their way into the shore of unconcerned listeners, who inattentively were seduced into the warm waters of low standard music. We are now washed ashore by a tsunami of impoverished lyrics, abusively electronically manipulated voices and stone crusher-like noises, courtesy of the Music Industry Business- or MIB- and its hunger for the century’s newest, best artist that will provide them with, perhaps, a couple of bucks, a couple of hits for a couple of time... or until the next best thing comes, anyway.
But if all this destruction happened, it was partially our fault: we saw the signs of the approaching disastrous wave and did nothing about it. Many listeners fell into a trap comprised of payolas sustained “earworms”.
It’s not only the matter of foul lyrics, endless repetitions, excessive slang usage or the deconfiguration of the language to an extreme point that the lyrics are unintelligible. Many other hazards follow: how can the use of playback on a live concert be possibly acceptable? Have the voice and the harmony become totally obsolete? Are the visual appeal and sensuality more important than music itself?
More than ever, visual appeal is one of the key role players when creating and developing an artist . But it shouldn’t be the only thing to be considered. Will imagery be able to support an artist when talent is missing? Or are the artists supposed to rely only on scandals, fights and DUI bits on the news?
To a crowd of unaware listeners, the sense of immediacy incites them to see first, listen later. But isn’t our audition our most delicate and important sensorial device, that goes unnoticed and uncared for in our daily lives?
In this excerpt from the book The Power Of Music: Pioneering Discoveries In The New Science Of Song by Elena Mannes, she claims:
The conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim believes that our early connection to sound is another reason for its power — one that in today's world we sometimes forget. He thinks that because we live in a very visual society we're more aware of what we see than what we hear. But he reminds us that the latest scientific evidence reveals that the ear, which we now know is active in the womb, has an advantage over the eye. He also says: "The ear has a head start over the eye, which doesn't see anything until it comes out. The eye is also something that one can control more fully. If you don't like the way I look, and you don't want to see me, you close your eyes and I disappear. But if you don't like my voice and you're in the same room, then you cannot shut your ears in a natural way. Sound literally penetrates the human body."

In addition, neuroscientist Seth Horowitz, PhD deepens this argument in his own book The Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes The Mind. The fragment corroborates:
Vision is a relatively fast-acting sense that works slightly faster than our conscious recognition of what we see. Smell and taste are slowpokes, working over the course of seconds or more. Touch, a mechanosensory sense, can work quickly (as in light touch) or slowly (as in pain), but only over a restricted range. By contrast, animals and humans can detect and respond to changes in sound that occur in less than a millionth of a second and to the content of complex sounds over the course of hours. Any detectable vibration represents information, to be used or ignored. And in that dimple concept lies the entire realm of sound and mind.

The hearing is one of the first doors to our brain. The extrasensorial, long lasting bliss provided by the comforting voices and masterly written lyrics sang by the gifted likes of Morten Harket, B.B. King, Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong; the rich guitar riffs and complex creations displayed by KISS, The Beatles, The Police or Dire Straits and the revolutionary songs by Bob Marley and Fela Kuti will go a longer way than any six pack or curvaceous nuisance in today’s music can even imagine. Unlike the abs and buttocks, talent will withstand the inclement test of time.
This plunge into decadence is fueled by the Music Industry’s insatiable thirst for jocks and cheerleaders, molded to be good looking marionettes; while passionate songwriters and musicians are being pushed away from mainstream music. Radio airwaves are now dominated by the easy to digest, disposable music.Nothing substantial or worth of being kept as a true piece of art. Somewhat, we are supporting the decay of good music!
We need to be selective of what we let into our ears and brains! We need powerful and breathtaking waves of positiveness and enrichment!
We need talent back. Soon! Not supporting these fabricated talentless artists would provide record companies and labels a reverberating wake up call. Filthy mouths matched with nasty attitudes and degrading lyrics shouldn’t be rewarded with record-breaking record sales. A concert shouldn’t be sold out because “bootylicious” is going to shake her “thang” all night long. Talent is neither present in suicidal, drug-use endorsing lyrics by some stupid “artist” nor in songs where you are only as good as the amount of money or sex you have as some rappers and pop “musicians” would defend.
Cutting support off would make it clear to the Music Industry Business that we have grown tired of this disgusting scene. Talent makes you ponder, act and strive. It makes you dream and believe. It makes you laugh and cry, it gives you solace. Talent carries you through the good and the bad times, it’s eternal.
Lyrics are meant to make you think, to make you feel. Harmonies are created around them, so they can embrace and convey compelling feelings and ideas.
Until this talent shortage is solved, I’ll resort to my music devices, escaping to good tracks, saving myself from these ghastly noises. Julian Lennon’s CD “Everything Changes” is next on the playlist, with truly magnificent lyrics and melodies. Hopefully, who knows, a change is on the way?



Bibliography
Mannes, Elena. The Power of Music: Pioneering Discoveries in the New Science of Song. New York, NY. Walker & Company, 2011. Print

Horowitz, Seth S. The Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes The Mind. New York, NY. Bloomsbury USA, 2012. Print