I think it happened to me in the last year 2 years, and I’m 26.
At uni, and shortly after (93-97) in the UK the biggest scenes were so called “trip-hop” (Portishead, Tricky, Massive Attack et al) and drum’n’bass. (Roni Size, Goldie, Photek etc.). I loved both of these types of music and still do. They have mutated over the interim years but I still love the new stuff being produced by splintered offspring of these genres and the intermarriages between DnB and jazz, or DnB and samba or whatever.
However, the current big scene in the UK for the last year or so (unless I’m really past it and have missed the latest one) is speed garage. Basically Drum and Bass slowed down a bit, but with all the low-end, and a great big cheesy vocal over the top. Does nothing for me at all, but sells by the bucketload and is nigh-on impossible to avoid in clubs.
I look at this and think, well, it’s the same idea as DnB, except its all been done before, and these sort of vocals have been around since the days of Studio 54. Its also purely trying to push your buttons rather than engage your mind. Yes, I know, I’m too old and the music’s too loud, but surely, it’s cack?
The difference is that a good producer can take elements from their own style and combine it with, say, bossa-nova to wonderful effect – Kruder and Dorfmeister, or Thievery Corporation, anyone? I can’t see equal merit in taking that one skippy garage beat and bolting on a worn-out disco/rave vocal and an MC whose sole job is to yell “rewind” and “bo! selecta”
Don’t even get me started on Nu-metal. You’re all a generation older than your fans, I’m not a fan of metal myself so I can’t really judge how well you play, but you certainly can’t rap and if you want to do disaffected angst or paranoia buy a Radiohead or Tricky album and learn. OK, so Linkin Park and a couple of others appear to be rather talented on the evidence of the single, but the rest of it sounds like someone has listened to Napalm Death, Bodycount and Beavis and Butthead and then thought “lowest common denominator”.
I do notice the trend to go more more melodic as I age. You’re now far more likely to hear Jurassic 5 than AmeriKKKa’s most wanted on my stereo, and I definitely listen to Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works more than Come to Daddy. Jazz is the fastest growing bit of my record collection and that tends to be from the 50s rather than the latest avant-gardista who has advanced beyond the conventions of tone, harmony and rhythm.
Re-reading this post, I realise that whilst it all makes perfect sense to me and I know that I’m right, I also know I’m not one of the kids anymore. I shall buy a pipe and slippers, secure in the knowledge that if an infant, sat on my knee the better to play with my aged white whiskers asks me “old man, what does rinsing mean?” I can reply, “well, back in my day…….”
Christ I’m an old git.