Music Over the Years

I finally got to see fireworks. Sure, they were a few weeks late ... it's not exactly July 4th. But in my defense, I was on my way home from my trip to India on the 4th.

This past weekend, however, I finally got to see some of the best fireworks I've ever seen ... in Montreal. These fireworks weren't just fireworks - they were set to music. The Beatles to be exact. Now I come from a Beatles family. I've been brought up to the tunes of Day Tripper and Blackbird. So as I sat there, watching the fireworks, singing along to even the most obscure Beatles' songs (She Came in Through the Bathroom Window anyone?), I tried to compare it to today's music. And this brings me to the main point of this blog. 

What has music come to? We've gone from lyrics like "And these memories lose their meaning/When I think of love as something new" (Beatles' In My Life) to "There's a stranger in my bed, There's a pounding in my head/Glitter all over the room/Pink flamingos in the pool" (Katy Perry's Last Friday Night). Is that really the only meaning a song can have now? The top 5 songs last week for the American Top 40 were: Pitbull's Give Me Everything, LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem, Adele's Rolling in the Deep, Lady Gaga's The Edge of Glory, and Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night". Three out of these five songs all have similar meanings to "Last Friday Night". 

Now I don't mean to say that every single song today sucks. I really don't. Some of these songs are great lyrics and melody-wise. I even admit to having more than a few of these on my iPod. But how many songs with the same pumped up beat, electronic sounds, and auto-tuned voices can there be? 

My dad tells me all these stories behind the Beatles' songs. A lot of the Beatles' later songs were solely about experimentation. Creating, combining, blending regular notes into something totally different and chaotic. Though the Beatles were practically the pioneers in this experimentation, they weren't the only ones. Sure, some of the songs in the past were just plain weird. But it was all about experimenting, creating new styles of music. Even then, songs still had more meaning than partying. 

Not every song is going to be a powerful, meaningful ballad. I get that. But really? How many auto-tuned songs about getting drunk or partying do there need to be? 

In honor of the fireworks: 

Lady Madonna by the Beatles 

In honor of the Beatles fanatics:

Penny Lane by the Beatles, played by John Bayless