I was born in the 90’s. As such, I sort of feel regret at not having heard all the great bands of the decades preceding that time period. I don’t listen to enough music from those days gone by. I’ve always liked Black Sabbath (formed in 1968) and Queen (1971), and lately I’ve really taken a shine to Metallica’s albums Ride the Lightning (1984) and Master of Puppets (1986), two of the greatest thrash metal albums to exist, even today – though I do wish from time to time that I’d been around while those bands were still in their infancy, and still climbing the stairway to super-stardom. Experienced the freshness of their ground-breaking sound. Attended their gigs. Watched them rise gradually to the top, like the Brazils in a bowl of nuts, in that way that science doesn’t quite understand.
The internet and its various websites have sure made music distribution and acquisition a whole lot easier (and more illegal, in some cases), so I’m perfectly able to look up any band from times gone by and, wherever possible, sample their work for myself (in the sense of “taste test”, not “rip bits from their songs and claim them as my own”). Yet, despite the fact that their music is undeniably brilliant and utterly timeless, I still get a somewhat jaded listening experience – it often fills me with a kind of “We’ve moved on from this” and “They don’t make it like this any more” gut feeling.
What I’m asking is: Have we peaked?
If I’d listened to these bands back when they were first releasing this material (please suspend your disbelief here, I wasn’t born then, and even if I was, the global music scene was a far cry from what it is now so I would’ve invariably listened to completely different bands now – but just imagine that my tastes insofar as rock and metal remained pretty much the same), my train of thought would most likely have been along the lines of “Wow, is this where music is headed? I like it! I want more!”. I mean, it was pretty clear at the time that acts like Black Sabbath, with their satanic lyrics, the unmistakeable haunting sound of Tony Iommi’s guitar tone, and stellar riffs, where going to explode in popularity over the coming years/decades, and I wish I’d been around back then to enjoy it while it lasted.
Fast forward several years… Now that experimentation and brand new innovations in the music production business have made music evolve into something so much more varied, the ability to create unique and endlessly-interesting soundscapes has become easier than falling off a log in zero-gravity. It means that music has so many different possible sounds now, that it’s getting harder and harder to find a formula that works as well as, say, Metallica did at the time.
Most new innovations in style and genre involve taking an existing genre of music, and slowing it down/speeding it up by a few bpm. It’s nowhere near the same.
To say that all music is unoriginal would be a blanket statement and an utterly retarded thing to say. It’s a constantly changing thing, so there will be evolutions and mutations. But while there are certainly many bands out there that do have a lovably unique sound all to their own, I do get the feeling that we won’t be seeing another Black Sabbath or Metallica – a band with a sound so unconventional and freakish that it literally dominates the world and changes the face of music development forever – any time soon.
Which is why I’m sticking with you, Muse.