A Pop Music Lover’s Lament
“Music is probably the only real magic I have encountered in my life. There’s not some trick involved with it. It’s pure and it’s real. It moves, it heals, it communicates and does all these incredible things.”
Tom Petty
I was sitting here listening to music tonight as I was working when Red Rain by Peter Gabriel came up on my playlist. I stopped to listen without distraction and just immersed myself in the rich composition, the haunting melody lines, and the emotion-filled vocal performance. I was moved to tears and then wondered, what happened to pop music? It seems there was a time when there was plenty of exquisite pop music that defined a moment; it was melodic poetry. But today it seems the musician no longer attempts to romance the listeners, the radio waves are now filled with sinister seductresses that only long to get their claws in your wallet by any means necessary. Repetitive hooks, vapid sentiments and sexy attire need only apply.
In despair at the current musical landscape I ask myself, what happened? Did the love of most grow cold until there was no longer a demand for soul-stirring ballads or did the industry simply kill the public’s appetite for it by withholding it from them so long? Do we no longer remember what we’re missing? But surely there must still be a desire in the heart of man for something that goes beyond the booty shaking club music you see on display at the Grammy’s every year (a once prestigious award reserved only for the best of the best).
Perhaps it is still found in the music of decades past. Or perhaps it is still found in the dark recesses of YouTube, Spotify and Pandora. And despite the major record companies’ desire to kill all beauty in the very thing they claim to represent, perhaps it is still shared between friends, like a secret password used to enter the gate to an unknown world. That’s where I choose to spend my days. 
