Opinion Piece- 2014: The year music lost me
This post is going to make me sound like the oldest person in the Universe, but here goes anyway: I think I officially don't get music anymore. I've been feeling music's grip on me slipping for a while but this year, when all the videos looking back at the year in music came out, I found it sad. I was listening to all the songs from this year and just thinking "What happened to music?". And I'm not sure if it's just that music is changing too much for me or I'm changing too much for music.
This realisation all started in the summer when I visited Ibiza. The place was lovely, as was the company, however it was full of house music. Whether I was in the city or hanging out with my house music loving Godfather, house music was everywhere. And even back home, all it takes is for you to turn the radio on and pretty soon, your ears will be flooded with the mess of sound that is house music. Basically, house music and other similar forms of music are hugely popular. And every time I hear it, I actively listen to see if I might like it this time. And every time I hear it, I hate it with a passion. How can anyone enjoy it? Yet somehow, millions do. In fact, millions love it. And millions are made by it.
Moving away from house music, it just feels like music in general has declined. If we look back at the year, what has it given us? Sure, there was George Ezra but that's pretty much where the good music stops. Let's not forget, this year gave us such beautiful (s)hits as Turn Down for What, #SELFIE and Anaconda. Now try arguing that this year was good for music. If you were to take a look at my Spotify playlist, you would find that (other than the aforementioned George Ezra) there is nothing from 2014 on there. It's just a smorgasbord of songs from 2013 (Bastille, Call Me Maybe and Imagine Dragons), cheesy one-hit wonders (Right Round Like A Record, What is Love and other quality ditties) and the entire works of Marvin Gaye. There aren't songs from 2014 on here because I didn't enjoy any this year. Even artists whose previous work I've really enjoyed had worse songs this year like Calvin Harris or Example. In fact, I bought one album this year. It was the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack. That says a lot about 2014's music.
Basically, mainstream music is collapsing. I assume it's just me as people are buying these songs more than ever but I hope others see this torrent of shit pouring into our ears. I'd be a fool to outright say that there have been no good songs or albums this year. There have been. But this year, more than any year since, the bad are seriously outweighing the good. It doesn't look bright. In fact, I'll make a little prediction here. The biggest hit of 2015 is going to involve fart sound effects. It couldn't make them any worse or anymore laughable. Or so I hope.
This realisation all started in the summer when I visited Ibiza. The place was lovely, as was the company, however it was full of house music. Whether I was in the city or hanging out with my house music loving Godfather, house music was everywhere. And even back home, all it takes is for you to turn the radio on and pretty soon, your ears will be flooded with the mess of sound that is house music. Basically, house music and other similar forms of music are hugely popular. And every time I hear it, I actively listen to see if I might like it this time. And every time I hear it, I hate it with a passion. How can anyone enjoy it? Yet somehow, millions do. In fact, millions love it. And millions are made by it.
Moving away from house music, it just feels like music in general has declined. If we look back at the year, what has it given us? Sure, there was George Ezra but that's pretty much where the good music stops. Let's not forget, this year gave us such beautiful (s)hits as Turn Down for What, #SELFIE and Anaconda. Now try arguing that this year was good for music. If you were to take a look at my Spotify playlist, you would find that (other than the aforementioned George Ezra) there is nothing from 2014 on there. It's just a smorgasbord of songs from 2013 (Bastille, Call Me Maybe and Imagine Dragons), cheesy one-hit wonders (Right Round Like A Record, What is Love and other quality ditties) and the entire works of Marvin Gaye. There aren't songs from 2014 on here because I didn't enjoy any this year. Even artists whose previous work I've really enjoyed had worse songs this year like Calvin Harris or Example. In fact, I bought one album this year. It was the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack. That says a lot about 2014's music.
Basically, mainstream music is collapsing. I assume it's just me as people are buying these songs more than ever but I hope others see this torrent of shit pouring into our ears. I'd be a fool to outright say that there have been no good songs or albums this year. There have been. But this year, more than any year since, the bad are seriously outweighing the good. It doesn't look bright. In fact, I'll make a little prediction here. The biggest hit of 2015 is going to involve fart sound effects. It couldn't make them any worse or anymore laughable. Or so I hope.
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