Mark, do you still have your Grumpy old Man hat handy to lend to Savant? I lost mine throwing it at kids on my lawn.
Lol! Yeah, I'm ready for that hat, yo.
Believe me, I want to see the glass as half full, but I work in the music industry, and to say that it is in a decline would be an understatement. Will it recover? I'd like to think so, but...
It seems, for now, that popular culture may have peaked somewhere around the late 60's/early 70's (music, film, art, cars, fashion etc.) and since then, despite all of the wonderful technological advances we have made, things (the arts specifically) have gotten worse, not better.
Craft is not as important as instant, shallow and fleeting fame. It's not this generations fault as much as it is the media and the culture of celebrity that dominates it.
I work with a lot of young musicians, and they are generally very frustrated with the music scene right now. It's like they came to the party too late and the avenues and resources that were once available to foster creative music and fund ambitious projects are just no longer there.
What's funny is, most young people I know that care about music, have their iPods filled with stuff like the Who, Beatles, Hendrix, Zeppelin etc. The music (for shame) of their parents!!!
My girlfriend, who just turned the ripe old age of 22, can talk for hours about obscure Italian prog rock from the 70's or say, Patsy Cline, but has absolutely no interest at all in whatever the latest drivel that is spewed forth by My Chemical Romance or Lady Goo Goo or (insert "popular" band/artist name here). To her and her oh-so-hip friends, that crap is: "Uninspired commercial cheese foisted upon an unsuspecting brainwashed youth..." (actual quote btw. I guess that's why I loves the gal)
So, old IS the new "new"!
Now get off my lawn dammit!
