The other day I was talking with a friend of mine about the sad state of music today, how artists aren’t really artist anymore and are only bothered with selling what they have to sell and not create something that will live on long after they do. About how no one makes albums anymore. they just make sure they have one or two “hit” songs in an album and your done. Speaking ofwhich, what is a “hit” song exactly? Something that momentarily, say for a period of a week or so, stays relevant to the entertainment world and that’s it. They make their money on that and they’re happy!! It’s like they’ve washed their hands off it. And in that moment as a passing comment I said music today is like fast food: cheap, momentarily satisfactory and almost never good for you.

That got me thinking; is the pattern of food over the ages is vaguely similar to music? And it seemed to make sense as I pondered upon the thought. Food started out pretty basic in its early days made from what was available at the time and the place. Same case with music, it started off quite basic and simple primarily focused on vocals and simple instruments. It was also largely regional, and it remains so to some extent, just like different regions and countries have different cuisines so too does music have traditionally different styles all over the world.

With the advent of technology the food started to get more processed, in the seventies came the advent of frozen foods and cans and processed food, and lo and behold music also underwent a similar change with digital instruments playing a heavy part of 70s and 80s music. Both started to become more available too across the world thus bridging the gap between cultures (for better or for worse is a matter of one’s own opinion). And as time passed music and food both seemed to deteriorate becoming things of momentary pleasure that appealed more to the masses. In the case of food this happened in the late 90’s with the advent of fast food chains, and for music sadly the time is now. The rise of Hip Hop and drum machines and “2 weeks hits” all seem to be rampant these days.

They say when you go looking for similarities in something vague you more often than not tend to find it, primarily because you tend to inject sense into the littlest most non-sense-ical things and I’ll admit it’s very likely that that’s the case here too. But I for one would like to believe this correlation because it might just have a happy ending.

You see if you look back at that description of mine you will see that music has always lagged behind the advent, if you will, of food. And if you look around today the age of fast food is dying (though slowly, you know what they say a heart attack will only kill you eventually), chic eats and eating healthy are the “in” things today. Food for many has started to become more about the whole package, about the dining experience, rather than fulfilling a craving. Translate that to music and it could well mean the age of good music might be returning, albeit in perhaps a different form. Maybe what is to come is a new age of music, with music to soothe the soul and once again be good for you, musicians might give up their drum pads and auto tuners and synthesizers for more traditional maybe even unconventional instruments to create music, like chefs are giving away the oil and the processed food for more natural fresh ingredients. Maybe… maybe…

In any case all I can do is pray that my mad theory is right and the age of "fast food music" is indeed coming to an end. Amen.

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I've been meaning to write a post for a while now and a number of ideas had popped into my head as to what to write on. But all those were put aside when I heard of the sudden death of Michael Jackson. I cannot call myself a music buff if I didn't write about it, speak about it and make my peace with it.
I heard the sad news from a friend when I was at work, and its funny how people react to it. First almost is a state of shock that creeps in because its a blow that came out of nowhere. And then you think of his music and a small momentary smile comes on your face and at the same time you feel that pull of sadness to know that the man who made them is gone. But then you start thinking of his life and feel a very different kind of sadness to see what this amazingly talented artist has turned into.
Michael Jackson was a legend, he truly was a king. In all my life I haven't come across a music fan, be it a Death Metal fan, be it a hard core rock enthusiast or a even a hip hop fan who ever denied the fact that the man was great. He was one of those people that was blessed with one incredible talent, his voice, its pitch, its smoothness its aggression (when the need came) was all perfect. Add to that the music that in most cases accompanied that voice in such a beautiful way, thanks to great musical minds like Quincy Jones and you think that there isn't a person on this earth who hasn't heard a song of his and thought (may be secretly) in his head that, “Damn that's a good song”.
I haven't even got to the second thing he was blessed with, dance. I mean he inspired a legion of copy cats and inspired so many choreographers in the world. He had so many signature moves and tricks. And don't even get me started on the Moonwalk cause no one EVER did it like him. It was like he was one ice and gliding backwards.
Add those two things together and you get one hell of a performer, the likes of which I don't think have ever graced a live stage since. It is unfortunate that I have never had the opportunity to see the man perform live but every live gig of his I've seen on TV you see it and you think, it would be demeaning to call his concerts merely a concert. It was a show in its own right, huge theatrics, huge stages the big lights, the dance, the music. I'm not surprised so many people faint in them.
He was also the artist in my mind that was responsible to change the way the world thought of a music video. Till then it was merely an artist singing his song so people buy his album. But Michael Jackson changed what you could do with a music video with Thriller. I mean he made a mini movie, sold his song, sold the dance moves, and even made that red jacket the most popular thing on the planet. People would bunk school quit work so they could catch the “premiere” of his music video. The world of music revolved around Michael Jackson at that time, and its sad to say that the end of that era pretty much marked the end of the man we knew as Michael Jackson.
You know how there are always TV shows or movies where the story goes on to say how a man sold his soul to the devil to have the one thing that he wanted most? In my head MJ fit that description perfectly. It was like he was on this planet to do one thing make music and he sold his soul to the devil so he can be the greatest at that. We all know the tumultuous life he had and for the sake of the fans reading this (including me who is writing this) all I'm going to say is the Michael Jackson we all admired was sadly gone a long time ago.
In my mind, and I don't know if I speak for more fans around the world, this final news of his death was merely an affirmation of the fact that the great man had long since passed and sadly that's the thing that hurt the most. And it sad to say the the best way to sum up his life is in the same to words that make up this blog. . . Music and Mayhem.
The Ride is over, from the highest high to the lowest lows, Rest in Peace Michael Jackson. . .

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