The Death Of The DJ & Me

I'm being killed by music at the moment, not just hopeful enthusiasm any more. Now there's a case for shear, gormless silence. Dumbstruck, waiting for the sound to end, so life can kick start again. I can't pretend to know their secret. Far beyond my capabilities to suggest any real common value that this current crop, seem to maintain. Other than the unqualified angst that so obviously clouds there thought.

Unqualified angst. An impression of bravado coupled with its own infeasibility. That, quite possibly is where all the love comes from; you want to believe in their star status for your sake and theirs, yet in reality there's the slight nag, suggesting a vulnerability on a level with your own at best. The honesty can't help but stab you. Surely not music for the masses, with such unrelenting punishment, yet to the masses it plays.

My reliance on musical influence can at last be justified.

What more to say? It's always been my religion (name another which adapts so fluidly as the world and its opinions change), leading me to an altering state of mind, good and bad. Yet only now do I feel that we've both reached a level of depth and maturity not present for far too long.

Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, Kings of Leon, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Archie Bronson and his Outfit.

You all win, you have my fullest attention.

So hurrah for this new invasion on the senses, but I cant help but think that suggesting this resurrection of musical integrity goes some way to opposing a cultural (specifically musical) ideal which I truly believe and wish to impose on you as reader/prisoner of this little think piece (and it is a think piece).

I struggle to identify with a thought process which attributes quality and worth to only that which is 'in fashion' (I'm struggling to put it any other way). Perhaps my main gripe is the general inability of a large percentage of the population to explore and find the substance or worth which they so desperately crave, in what can only be described as a catalogue of creative influence available to anyone who actually chooses to look. Instead there is a conscious effort, to be led by a movement so bafflingly bland, so highly influenced by consumerism and corporate wealth that at times, one struggles to separate modern culture from McDonald's manifesto.

How does that work? When did what is cool become only that which is advertised the most? And why is that the case. Have we all been brainwashed into believing that sheep have the right idea. Especially when you consider the limited integrity of this commercialised Shepherd.

The pop charts are cool, right? DJ Cock and MC Dickhead's lyrics mean something yeah?

No.

But they wear baggy clothes and swear on TV, surely that's got to mean something?

No.

So what are you saying? 20p's been shot 50 times; you don't think he deserves his success, deserves a second chance to tell us all how many bitches he's gonna bang?

No, go away

But what about that Irish Boy band? Their harmonies are just magical

I'm getting a headache.

So there's exceptional music and there's absolute drivel being produced all the time, the first step in my plan for world domination relies on our increased attempts to appreciate music for music's sake. Can't we just ignore celebrity exposure as a variable and take the quality of the music as a reasonable gauge for deserved applause? This is just the start of it, being able to rationally judge modern music; the bigger question is perhaps, why modern music should be any more influential than movements of the past.

Isn't it time to propose a more open minded, accessible way of thinking, more of a personal, discovery and an appreciation of only 'that which is good'.

Now that's a thought that's gonna fester.