I was raised on music from the 1960’s and ’70’s, and as far as I am concerned, rock and roll reached its peak sometime during the ’70s. The music was more melodic, the lyrics were exponentially more inspired and the band followings were more focused.’ At the risk of sounding like some old curmudgeon, music today ain’t what it used to be.’ I’m not here to complain about the lyrical subject content, because while much of today’s popular music is about drugs and sex, it still doesn’t have anything on the filthiness of the oldies. Anyone who has listened to AC/DC, KISS or Led Zeppelin (and the list goes on) knows sex and drugs was about the only thing on their minds.’ But these bands managed to talk about sex and drugs with at least some subtlety.’ They made their subject matter much more alluring than just straight out saying something along the lines of ‘I want to f*ck you,’ which is the course most bands today take. America underwent a brief rock and roll renaissance during the ’90’s where many popular bands actually tried to have substantial meanings combined with subtle, thought-provoking lyrics. Bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and Soundgarden, among others, played extensively about cheap drugs and cheaper sex, yet the message was hidden, giving some need to listen.’ Now, I would challenge people to be confused by any message in a song on the top song charts. The intellect required to enjoy today’s music just isn’t there, and it pains me. I grew up listening to bands like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and The Doors, so maybe I was just spoiled. But it seems like when I talk to fellow students and friends, everyone else is just as fed up with the way modern music is going.’ Maybe the music of yesterday was simply a product of its environment, and because of the social atmosphere at the time, they had to be more discreet about drugs and sex in music aimed towards young people. Today, the people running things lived during the times of the Beatles, CCR and Zeppelin, so now bands don’t have to hide their motives because ‘the man’ today was the fun-loving hippie yesterday.’ Maybe since a vast amount of music history has been a staple of youth culture for the past 50 years, there is such a build up in the collective mind that music during the ’60s and ’70s was so epic and mind-blowing that there is no need to try and compete with it now. It is a fairly daunting task for someone to try and climb the mountain a band like the Beatles built. Huge feat or not, it is not an excuse for the lack of inspirational music from bands today.’ I have a feeling that what it truly boils down to is that with the utilization of MySpace.com as a band promotion Web site more than anything else, everyone now has a band and tells everyone to check them out on MySpace. Seeing as not everyone was meant to be a rock star, most of the music automatically gets clumped into a big steaming pile of mediocrity, but we settle for it anyway because it is what’s available.’ I know that there is plenty of good, thought-provoking music out there, and I am always looking for more good bands to listen to. The problem with listening to the oldies is many of the people are dead or retired and there is no fresh music from them. Forty to 50 years ago, the most popular music in America was absolutely ground-breaking and revolutionary, yet today it is just tepid, old news. I’m not complaining that no one has truly changed music since the mid-1960’s; in fact I love modern music that pays homage to the oldies. I just hate that pop music is so shallow and almost proud to be anti-intellectual. Forty years ago, Bob Dylan sang, ‘The times, they are a-changing.’ Since then nothing has happened.’ It’s time for another change.