Is My Music Taste Too Old?

I then came to a harrowing realization —- Are all my favorite artist……… dead?

I was riding in the car with a friend of mine on my way to see Beyonce’s newest concert film Renaissance, and we begin to talk about concerts in general. We started complaining about how expensive they were (well, at least I was) and how current artist, who don’t even come close to being half of the performer that Queen Bey is, have ticket prices that look similar to hers. I then started lamenting about how many concerts I’ve missed out on in recent years and how I was longing to see one of my favorite artist on stage. My friend then asked me, “Well, which artist do you want to see?”

I — immediately got quiet…..

I pulled out my phone and started sorting through my playlist…

“Well there’s, ummm…… hmph…let me see”

As I’m scrolling, I’m seeing artist like the Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye, The Beatles and, well, you get the point!

I then came to a harrowing realization —- Are all my favorite artist……… dead?

Or if not dead, well past their prime? But, how do I explain this to my friend in the car?

Let’s just say I panicked, looked over at her and said “Ummmm….SZA!”

Luckily, we were pulling up to the movies at this point, so I didn’t have enough time to dwell on this. But, this interaction does bring up an interesting point.

Where do old-music lovers like myself fit in the current concert scene?

That’s what makes music so deep! It’s the most precious time machine we have!

The truth is…………… we really don’t.

Like I said, many of the artist we enjoy are either deceased or well past their prime. And there is nothing sadder than watching some of your favorite artists struggling to get through their old hits (Damn, Stevie!)

So, what’s the solution then? What do we do!!!!!!

Well, how about you put that old ass music down, gran—-

I’m kidding lol

My personal advice is to open yourself up to newer talent that have a sound that can be reminiscent of these older artists that you (we) love.

And tbh, there are more of them than you think. These artist are wearing their bootcut jeans, Ed and Sarna vintage eyewear, and carrying around crinkled vinyls they stole from their granny’s closet and (at least some of them) are making damn good music!

For example, I have been listening to a lot of the artist Jungle lately. Their latest album Volcano has kind of been on repeat due to their ability to mesh old school funk/disco and modern pop so well. Their hit single “Back on 74” is a great example of this.

Now, I’m not saying you will get exactly what you are looking for. Classic rock, blues, and northern soul are just difficult to replicate authentically. Sometimes, artist who try to emulate this sound are a bit over-zealous, which can lead to their music sounding like cheap knock-offs of the original thing.

But, there are artist, like Jungle, who are obviously heavily inspired by late 60s-70s music, that do more of incorporating their inspirations rather trying to copy them directly. Because, how DO you copy something that is not reflective of your time period in the slightest?

And that’s the key! Our love for older music can often stem from this epithet: they are products of time periods we glamorize! And because of that, it is a sound that cannot be recreated in a way that feels genuine (not to us anyway). In order to do so, you would have to replicate the world that these songs came from. And our current world is just way to do different. Like, why would that man be leaving you on a midnight train to Georgia when he can just easily go on Delta and buy a ticket to get there in half the time? But this line feels much more authentic in the 70s when train transportation was much more popular and could easily be a piece of the average person’s everyday life.

That’s what makes music so deep! It’s the most precious time machine we have!

Needless to say, there are current artist that take the musicality that made these songs so good and use them in ways that is both honorable and captures the good of our current music state (yes, there is some good!) and modern livelihoods.

And guess what, artist like Jungle are alive and well, in their prime, and touring ……………… only in Europe.

Damn, I can’t win for losing!