Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Hollis Brown's avatar

I can say that as a songwriter/producer and musician of the last 25 years, U are correct.

but as U also said, it's not the kids fault. they have inherited a dead culture. stripped away by the homogenous forces of technology and Neoliberalism/progressivism. there is simply nothing left to rebel against. Jane's Addiction came out with their seminal album 'Nothing's Shocking' in 1988 and it was prescient in every aspect(when all boundaries have been destroyed, what then?). the rebellious youth culture that began with Elvis and the birth of Rock N Roll has desintigrated into a lukewarm nihilism. the internet and the ubiquitous nature of smart phones/social media has rapidly turned art into content. for about 50 years, Rock/Pop/Hip Hop served as a giant cultural force that united each new generation in an almost religious manifestation.

there will always be talented, creative types born to every era, but without the cultural paradigm for expression, there is no format available to today's youth. I see parallels to Russian literature during the Soviet Empire. a culture that produced Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pushkin etc found itself bereft during the repressive mandates of Communism. even the great works from that era were written in secret, only to be discovered by the west decades later (Bulgarov, Pasternak,Solzhenitsyn).

the successful artist you mentioned above came to prominence close to 20 years ago! we are no longer able to regenerate new ideas and sounds at the margins, because the margins have now been pushed to the center. If all of the teachers of today are embracing Gender Ideology, how do kids rebel? going trad? going anti-vaxxer? MAGA? haha.

the only way out is through tho. in the long run, Art will survive and have meaning again, but in the short term...it might be awhile...

Expand full comment
Shelley Bourdon's avatar

I confess that I sometimes find myself returning to music from the 70's whenever I'm feeling down. I got my first transistor radio (hand-held, battery operated, with a tiny white plastic ear plug) for Christmas in 1970. I can still remember how thrilled I was, as a nine year-old kid, listening to the Beatles sing "Let It Be." My parents allowed me to listen to my little radio at night after I'd gone to bed (they'd turn it off and take out the ear-plug from my ear before they went to bed). I can still remember the thrill of listening to "Let It Be" in my darkened bedroom before falling asleep. It made my heart feel as if it were soaring. Thank you for prompting that happy memory. : )

Expand full comment
20 more comments...

No posts