I'll preface this entry by granting you that my tastes in music, and perhaps that of people whose paths I cross in New York City, are probably not necessarily typical of the rest of the country, or the world for that matter.
That being said, I dj around town here and there, at least once a week....and not always for the same "types" of people, but, for the most part, for typically younger bar crowds of varying #'s (not clubs - which for some reason seem to exclusively play hip hop and dance music) . But, as always, people will often request songs, which I usually don't mind, as long as people aren't too damn obnoxious about it.
One of the reasons why I like to hear out people's requests is that I'm curious as to what they want to hear....and if you HAVE what they want to hear, you might make a new friend. There's no shame in either of those things, is there? Now, the results I get range from the downright insulting ("NO, I won't play any Good fucking Charlotte, ok? But feel free to try again!") to....the extremely cool ("Sure, I think I might have a Kyuss song for you!").
But more often than not, no matter how old the requester is, and they're often very young (i.e., early- to mid-twenties), they want to hear what is what most consider to be "old school" Rock N' Roll. It boggles my mind how....whether it be a girl who's 21-years-old if she's a day, requesting A-HA's "Take On Me" (ok, that might not be very "Rock N' Roll" but you get my point) or an entire room full of them singing on the top of their lungs with their hands in the air to Bon Jovi's "Livin' On a Prayer"....or whatever. Granted, these were HUGE commercial hits in their time, but most of these people weren't even born yet when these songs were initially popular.
But what really boggles my mind, is that I get WAY more requests for Guns N' Roses and Led Zeppelin, etc, than I ever do for fucking Nickleback or Fall Out Boy, et al. Doesn't that strike you as being a bit strange.
I mean, when I was younger, I was into what was happening at the time and what had become old school. In my experiences, which, again, are limited to New York City in this case, the old school seems to be the rule. I mean, sure, you go out and hear She Wants Revenge and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Kings of Leon, but.....those bands (like my own) are far more reminiscent of....again, old school Rock N' Roll....which, the more time passes, covers a lot more ground and a lot more subgrenres. I think it's awfully interesting.
Is music (or, more accurately, the "music business") killing itself, and rendering itself obsolete? Are people's tastes actually just as good as they always were, and like many of us, do people just look for what they want out of music from the figurative history books? Is it true that there just isn't a standard of quality with music anymore, which causes people to turn a deaf ear to what's going on currently?
Who the hell knows?
What's great about it is this: no matter what's going on in music today, there's always going to be that singer or band that you never heard...whose song is going to cross paths with your ears, and make you say, "Holy SHIT, what the hell IS that? Well, FIND OUT!!!" Ahahahahaha. I mean, case in point, last Summer, I was in a minivan being hauled to the movie set, when I heard something BRILLIANT emitting from the speakers.....and I heard this GREAT guitar lead and I said, "Hey...will you please turn this up?" Then, after about 10 more seconds, I said, "WOW!!!! This is AWESOME!!!! What IS THIS?" Well, it was UFO's "Doctor Doctor" on some satellite radio station. I've loved the band ever since! Like Mick Jones from the Clash once said, "If doesn't matter when you get it, as long as you get it."
My point is that there's always going to be great music out there.....just keep listening for it. And if you find something awesome, let me know!
Take care,
Marty E.
PS-And I hope that somebody somewhere out there gets one of those moments I just described when they hear the Dirty Pearls, ahahahahahaha.....
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the reason many go back to old school bands, the zeppelins and such is the reason bands like that are timeless. music, story, star power and fashion. their music is great and lives thru fads. their story is they came out of 1969, two city guys, two country guys, a reknown studio guitarist in page from the yardbirds. their star power is that you and me and everyone know the name and essence of each player. thats because their playing style and persona is definable. memorable. almost like superhero characters. each have a special power. their fashion is memorable too. close your eyes and you can still see plants painted on bellbottoms, pages velore pant suit with the whiskey bottle. now..fast forward to todays bands. nameless. quick, besides jack white name another front man. musically, a song or two, no essential albums that you would die to hold onto. artwork too. no album covers to stare at. no albums. no hard copies. just downloads and no need to develop a sound or an album when kids download singles on i tunes. thats why there is no story, no link to the band from fan to band emotionally. fashion? whatever. when you have no album, no star power, no story or purposeful existence to sell to the listeneres, whats our dying need to have that attachment that we all do to bands like QUEEN, who have that times a million. tp me the closest thing to the 4 part thing was kings of leon. they came out like creedence and skynyrd, mopdernized in tempo. then they toured with the strokes and got all hipster sounding. lost their soul. my opinion. its sad. i wanna go buy a new album tom to spin at jeromes. a new band i can be proud and say i like who they are, why they are together, and what their songs are about. leave me a message if ya got any ideas. i'm not jaded just being honest.
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