Fit To Print

I Can’t Quit You Baby

December 21st, 2007

A little over a week ago, Led Zeppelin reunited in London for their first performance in 30 years. Filling in on drums for the late John Bonham was his son, Jason. Zeppelin was the hands down favorite group of many of my friends in high school, and I have probably spent more time listening to them than I have any other band, save the Beatles. My introduction to Zeppelin preceded my introduction to marijuana by a good couple years, but listening to “In the Light” for the first time high - via a nice pair of headphones - is still a standout musical memory for me. Anyway, it reminded me of a frequent high school lament that we could never experience a lot of our favorite bands live. Boo hoo, I know.

The grander point that I think is pertinent is that there just isn’t enough quality music today. There are some exceptions to this, brief eras of creative subcultures; grunge rock in the early nineties, indie rock later in the decade, and then a few impressive years of vibrant underground hip hop that has tailed off in the last year or two. But we don’t have anything equivalent to the tremendous creative output of the 60s that was penetrating the mainstream. In fact, penetration of the mainstream has often been the death knell for many promising musical movements. Many say that this is an inevitability, but I feel that is too simplistic an argument.

Hip hop is the most disappointing example of this. Eloquent discontent became popular enough that many trendsetting artists cashed in on hip rebellion to star in bad movies (see Mos Def in Italian Job) and commercials (Common does Gap ads?), or fell to the wayside, reiterating angry diatribes against the system, album after album, offering little in the way of worthwhile solutions (see Fit To Print).

This isn’t to say music must be revolutionary to be worthwhile. Led Zep didn’t have any strong message other than “look at our huge crotches and loud guitars!”. In fact, preaching often kills potentially good stuff. But when a genre’s success, and in fact, very existence, is predicated on a growing unrest at social inequality (read: underground hh), selfishness by the artist takes on added significance. I would much rather listen to insightful artists who make no pretense of being above looking for a big payday (like Jay-Z, Kanye and Eminem to an extent) than hypocrites.

My “colleague” recently wrote an article about voting with your pocketbook, and I think that is a good suggestion here. You could spend a lifetime listening to good music and watching good movies from the past, or more recent innovative shows on the tele; there is no reason to pay for new entertainment unless it is worth the money.

Entry Filed under: Food and Drink