Why music is going downhill and how we can help.

Living in the dorms you are subject to hear a lot of different music at different hours in the night. While waiting in the dorm's hallway the other night, someone was blasting Waka Flocka Flame. Now, for those who don't know of him, Flocka is an awful rapper, yet somehow he manages to get attention. Now, I don't have a bias (at least, not a major one) so I can tell when someone is talented and when someone isn't. Flocka is not talented. If you compare him to someone like Lil Wayne, Weezy is obviously better. I'm not a fan of Wayne, but I will admit that he is talented. But recorded music has dramatically gone downhill in the past 100 years.

Let's talk about Robert Johnson. Best known as the man who allegedly sold his soul to the devil in order for his guitar to be tuned. He was considered legendary even back in the 20s and 30s. No doubt was he talented, just listen to Cross Road Blues or Hell Hound on My Trail and you can hear how well he plays guitar. What makes this great is that it's just a man and his acoustic guitar. No autotune, no electric instruments, in fact, no instruments besides his guitar and voice. Now, throw one of his songs up against a Top 40 song today. Half of what you are hearing in the song is computer-made. Drum machines. Autotune. Computer-generated effects. Now, I don't have a problem with echos added, that can sometimes make for a good sound. But when 90% of the sound is made by a computer keyboard instead of instruments, then we have a problem. So let's just try to go back to the time of Robert Johnson, where there were no fancy ways to enhance anything. Let's see one of you Top 40 artists release a song using just plain vocals, guitar, bass, REAL drums, and a REAL keyboard, nothing else. I'm putting my money on the top 40 artists only making okay songs.

So in conclusion, nobody knows good, authentic music anymore. Just compare Top 40 music now to Top 40 music in the 60s. Ke$ha vs. The Beatles. So this is a note to you upcoming musicians: LEARN HOW TO PLAY YOUR OWN INSTRUMENTS. Don't let the computers play instruments for you because you are too lazy. That's all.