I guess the thing that really irks me about the current state of the Audio Industry is the blatent lack of song writers/singers.
I know song writers have always been behind the scenes, but at least then I
thought the singer was actually singing something special. But now reading through articles and watching shows that show stuff like "Heres So and So, responsible for Norah Jones latest platinum selling hit, as well as Britneys Spears last 25 chart topping hits"...so to me its like the music looses any meaning knowing that the "singers" are just that.
And then we have American Idol, which blatently says "These poeple know nothing about music, but their gonna sell albums anyways". I mean I listen to Clay Aiken and that other guys songs on Amazon.com and you can just hear the lack of emotion. I mean there dynamic and sound good, but its like a sales guy reciting the info in the product literature rather than almost drooling all over himself because he's so passionate about the product.
I don't really like remakes or covers, and that basically what I feel the audio industry has reverted to, poeple just singing songs to make money.
Also <popular> music has changed. In the 60's bands discovered that you could make really cool noise with stuff. It was like musicians were like "Hey dude, did you know this stuff makes noise?...Hell ya, check this out" and we start to see creativity of the music. In the 70's artists started experimenting with electronics, but still were able to do some crazy stuff with simple guitar and drums (anyone remember Do You Feel Like We Do, Kashmir, No More Tears??). The music was just as important as the lyrics. In the 80's artists moved heavily towards "new" sounds. The Cure, Depeche Mode, bands like these pioneered fresh sounds, and the music was more important than the lyrics. But bands also progressed with the guitar (Tears For Fears, Rush, Pschycidellic Furs) The 80's was truly creative thinking in my mind. In the 90's simplicity came back with more and more guitar and drum music. But artists still blended the music with the lyrics, even though they had a message, they still took time to write music. But then as the 90's began to near end, its as if the music just faded away. Suddenly anyone and a computer it seemed could make music. "Garage Bands" were all the rave. Artists also started making music that was more based on the lyrics and their ability to be funny or shocking or just plain wacked. Now, listening to music, I just don't hear it. I hear a filler used to connect one set of lyrics to another. Add the previous rant about the the lack of singers/writes, and the constant whinning of the RIAA, and I could just care less about most bands nowadays.
However I still have faith in music, as it has survived for ever. I recently discovered the Polyphonic Spree and they look to be very promising, reflecting the older days of music making. Maybe all the possible music combinations have been done, so theres nothing new left