Three years ago I was working in an AMC movie theater when I got the news that our King of Pop, Michael Jackson had passed. It was one of the most odd and bittersweet days of my life. I remember thinking that it was a joke, given how Twitter had, then, loved to kill celebrities every other week, I found it almost impossible to believe that such an iconic figure in American pop-culture be dead, especially at such a young age. That day also left me with the small yet complex idea as to where music industry will wind up, or who could even begin to fill such a man’s shoes? The answer to the second question was evident; NOBODY could ever replace MJ's shoes, especially not the ones he had done so many perfect spins and moonwalks in. But, the answer to the first question is evident as well; music had gotten significantly worse over the past years since Michael Jackson has passed. I'm not referring to the deaths of other music legends such as Whitney Houston, Etta James, Donna Summer, Heavy D, Chuck Brown or Amy Winehouse, but the overall standard of what quality music is had been long deceased and killed over a few hundreds of times. I will not get into any specifics about who is responsible for the lack of quality in this noise that they call music today, but I will start with saying that part of the reason such trash is being so heavily supported and endorsed is because of fans lack of knowledge on what quality music is. I can thoroughly understand that we are all different people with very different tastes in very different types of music. I can clearly hear for myself and understand that some of this music is catchy, but it all lacks one KEY thing, and that is substance. What in the living hell are people talking about these days in their songs?! The songs have lovey-dovey titles, but are in no way, shape, or form a love song; all you hear is a guy trying to buy a woman a drink, some red-bottom heels, or drugs to convince her that she should be with this creep. In my world and according to the law, that's called prostitution...and when you have to get someone drunk to compromise them into having sex, well...that's called rape technically. Of course I don't want anybody to go to jail over saying something in a song that they would never do in real life, or haven't done in real life, (which is the case for most of these suckas society chooses to idolize.)but most of these terrible, terrible artists should be put on trial for lack of substance.
It's quite funny how in a society where people strive to be different, shit that sounds just like the last record of another artist always manages to churn out. If you turn on your local radio station today, you will hear no more than 10 songs at a time that will be on repeat throughout the day that all have this upbeat, Americano-dubstep, techno, pop sound. That's all good and fine to hear when you're out at a party or club, but to have artists who were once legendary, like Usher, in my opinion on this type of music CONFORMING instead of creating is an absolute shame and insult to the very rare and few innovators that we have remaining in the industry today, and even they don't get recognition because they have wisely and truthfully opted out of taking the easy way out. I wonder what Michael Jackson would think of today's noise...I mean music. He, Whitney, Amy, Etta, Heavy, and Chuck Brown are probably up above wondering where it all went wrong instead of reminiscing... the music is THAT BAD! On this day, we take the time to acknowledge the tragic loss of arguably the greatest artist of all -time, but we should also take time to take a look around and wonder how we ever let music underneath the standard of MJ become "good enough" or acceptable. I love oldies, I love new shit too, but I really wish that music could get back to the point where it was about creating and not conforming to what is popular or hot at the time. Catchy is momentary enjoyment, but quality lasts a lifetime when it comes to music. I wish some of our legends were still here, but today we remember an extraordinary artist; Rest in Peace Michael Jackson.
Three years ago I was working in an AMC movie theater when I got the news that our King of Pop, Michael Jackson had passed. It was one of the most odd and bittersweet days of my life. I remember thinking that it was a joke, given how Twitter had, then, loved to kill celebrities every other week, I found it almost impossible to believe that such an iconic figure in American pop-culture be dead, especially at such a young age. That day also left me with the small yet complex idea as to where music industry will wind up, or who could even begin to fill such a man’s shoes? The answer to the second question was evident; NOBODY could ever replace MJ's shoes, especially not the ones he had done so many perfect spins and moonwalks in. But, the answer to the first question is evident as well; music had gotten significantly worse over the past years since Michael Jackson has passed. I'm not referring to the deaths of other music legends such as Whitney Houston, Etta James, Donna Summer, Heavy D, Chuck Brown or Amy Winehouse, but the overall standard of what quality music is had been long deceased and killed over a few hundreds of times. I will not get into any specifics about who is responsible for the lack of quality in this noise that they call music today, but I will start with saying that part of the reason such trash is being so heavily supported and endorsed is because of fans lack of knowledge on what quality music is. I can thoroughly understand that we are all different people with very different tastes in very different types of music. I can clearly hear for myself and understand that some of this music is catchy, but it all lacks one KEY thing, and that is substance. What in the living hell are people talking about these days in their songs?! The songs have lovey-dovey titles, but are in no way, shape, or form a love song; all you hear is a guy trying to buy a woman a drink, some red-bottom heels, or drugs to convince her that she should be with this creep. In my world and according to the law, that's called prostitution...and when you have to get someone drunk to compromise them into having sex, well...that's called rape technically. Of course I don't want anybody to go to jail over saying something in a song that they would never do in real life, or haven't done in real life, (which is the case for most of these suckas society chooses to idolize.)but most of these terrible, terrible artists should be put on trial for lack of substance. 
It's quite funny how in a society where people strive to be different, shit that sounds just like the last record of another artist always manages to churn out. If you turn on your local radio station today, you will hear no more than 10 songs at a time that will be on repeat throughout the day that all have this upbeat, Americano-dubstep, techno, pop sound. That's all good and fine to hear when you're out at a party or club, but to have artists who were once legendary, like Usher, in my opinion on this type of music CONFORMING instead of creating is an absolute shame and insult to the very rare and few innovators that we have remaining in the industry today, and even they don't get recognition because they have wisely and truthfully opted out of taking the easy way out. I wonder what Michael Jackson would think of today's noise...I mean music. He, Whitney, Amy, Etta, Heavy, and Chuck Brown are probably up above wondering where it all went wrong instead of reminiscing... the music is THAT BAD! On this day, we take the time to acknowledge the tragic loss of arguably the greatest artist of all -time, but we should also take time to take a look around and wonder how we ever let music underneath the standard of MJ become "good enough" or acceptable. I love oldies, I love new shit too, but I really wish that music could get back to the point where it was about creating and not conforming to what is popular or hot at the time. Catchy is momentary enjoyment, but quality lasts a lifetime when it comes to music. I wish some of our legends were still here, but today we remember an extraordinary artist; Rest in Peace Michael Jackson.
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