Music. Many listen to it, many claim they love it, and many create it. At the heart of music (because it definitely has a heart), there is actually more depth, more expression, more creativity and more skill involved. These days music is all about lyrics, so farewell to the guitar riffs and drum solo's. [Warning: Lame Content] Has Synthesised Pop and Lame Lyrics killed the Musician Stars? Let's hope not.
Today music is predominantly the lyrics you sing, it's about reality vs. fantasy, global warming, war and politics, love and hate. Music is an expression, the unravelling of meaning and emotions. It doesn't matter if you play fast or slow, high or low, use bass or cling to single sounding synthesised songs. People don't want to hear a guitar solo, like the legendary "War Pigs" guitar solo by Black Sabbath, they'd much rather hear about Jason Derulo "Ridin' Solo". Not to put down such music styles, but all I'm hearing is "Ridin' Solo" throughout the entire song, there isn't an instrumental section, and where they almost climax to it, you hear yet again "Ridin' Solo", like we all really care that he's Ridin Solo. Of course this is a wide contrast due to genre constraints, that being Rock vs. RnB Pop. Taking a more commonly known rock band, Linkin Park, they are widely adored, but if you analyse their newer music, "Bleed It Out", this song represents reality, and the faults in it (Only in America). This song, supposedly alternative rock, contains a very short lived "guitar solo" as its intro, which is by the way, not a real guitar solo, sure it 'great' for leading up to the lyrics, but it is basic, and demonstrates little to no originality or talent.
Music has lost its artistic form, because pubescent teenagers have 'taken a crack' at fame, pulled a few notes together and screamed words that mean something to them. This has been encouraged by many teens because they want their feelings, their beliefs, their ideas, to be heard. They'll say "This song has such meaning!" and listen to it on repeat all day for a week. Next thing you know, it's makes the Top 100. Disgusting. Disgraceful. Unfortunately I admit, I too like some of these songs, even though they have destroyed the term 'Music'.
Modern music is limited to lyrical usage, the popular songs consist of humourous or meaningful lyrics. Although often told I have bad taste in music, I understand the difference between good music and bad music, between talent and garage bands. What I, like many others today have fallen into, is the lyric trap, we're caught up in the meaning behind the lyrics, and forget that riffs and solo's could actually portray this too. Therefore music has lost its meaning, and now has become merely another form of poetry, where only the words are important.
To appreciate music without lyrics, which is intended to hold strong meaning, I'll look to something like "The Romantic Guitar" by Chopin (Andres Segovia's version of Chopin Op. 28 No. 20. made in A minor instead of C minor). Without lyrics backing it up, it means people can make their own decision in it's meaning or value, even if it's just to relax and drift them off to another level of mind.
Whether we look at Rock, R&B, Classic or Ambient, as some examples, we can see that 30 years ago, music altogether was much better, and although we can still discover unique, skillful artists, the majority of modern popular music, is rubbish. The lyrics are all they have of value, they could *almost* (but not quite) remove all background instruments to achieve the same level of skill required.
NB: Speaking of guitars and skill; I have none. But when I hear someone else.. I still know if it's good or bad.
Poets could be making fortunes just by selling pieces as lyrics (in this day and age).
Music, I mean the real quality music, whether it has lyrics or not, requires hard-work, skill and uniqueness, to create a legendary solo, you will need to put some hard work, and I mean.. really hard work, length, variation (that flows), and a sparking sound that gives it it's own recognition, a good artist/band name can help too.
As for other music, without lyrics, or without a guitar, you require the same qualities, of hard work, length, and variation that flows, however, this should also tell a story in it's own way, like imagery sounds.
But if you are considering becoming someone of worth in the music department, take none of this advice, because it is not intended as advice, and will probably cause you to fall before the start of your musical career.
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