Does it feel like that, though? Does music feel like it's changed in the past twenty years?
If you think about the differences between 80s and 90s music, it's very easy to tell. The 80s had hair metal, lots of synth-pop, and rap music used lots of drums. The 90s had G-funk, alternative rock, pop-punk and ska. And with the exception of Nu-Metal, there isn't really a genre of music that is any different than today when you look at the early 2000s. At least it feels that way to me. Especially as far as rock music is concerned. Even new bands are bragging that they sound like early 2000s pop punk. Rock music has stayed largely the same.
For a few weeks I've been wanting to write this post but had trouble putting my thoughts to the keyboard. But I recently watched a video from The Punk Rock MBA that said something that made a lot of sense. He said that rock music has been around for seventy years, so there's nowhere else for rock music to go and still have it be called rock. To quote:
I kinda wonder if the reason that rock hasn't been innovative is the last decade or so is because it's basically all been done. What I mean by that is you can only push the boundaries of rock so far before it stops being rock. Like at some point if you change that formula of bass, drums, guitars, and vocals too much, then at some point it just stops being rock, right? It might be great music and it might be influenced by rock, but it's still not rock.
He's not wrong. We might be seeing the end of rock music.
He also said that a big problem with rock and rap these days is that it's not offending people. And that doesn't mean that it's bad that they're not being bigots. It's that during 50s-90s, music was offending old people and establishment types. In the 50s Elvis Presley angered silent generation parents by wiggling his legs. By the 80s rock music was invoking Satan. It had offended people so much that Al Gore forced musicians to testify about their music on the Senate floor (and you should definitely watch Dee Snyder destroy the Senate on YouTube. It's beautiful). In the 90s there were congressional hearings about gangsta rap. Marilyn Manson was protested by evangelicals. But not only is modern music not offending the establishment, it's simply not possible to do it anymore. Would anyone even give a shit if a satanic metal band came out today? Not me. I don't even listen to metal. Why would I have an opinion either way? Really the only way to be offensive these days is to do it politically, and while that does piss off the MAGA types, it's not seen as anything outside of the norm. The establishment loves MAGA as much as it hates it, so it's not really anti-establishment to piss them off, anyway.
At this point the only way rap music is going to piss off the establishment is if they embrace Satanism. I only know that because folks were pissed at Lil Nas X for a few minutes. But even in the world of hip hop, it doesn't seem like things changed much in the past two decades. In Da Club could be a new song now and nobody would think it was retro.
As The Punk Rock MBA noted, the evidence that music hasn't changed much is that teenagers are on TikTok today doing dance videos to songs made twenty years ago. Nu Metal is having what I call "our 90's disco era" in which like disco in my youth, a genre of music that was once hated is now cool again. Teenagers today are into Nu Metal. That was not on my 2024 bingo card.
Hell, my wife got my kids into Simple Plan. Made them total superfans.
I'm not sure what the future holds for music, but I started thinking about this when I realized that even in my 40s, I'm still enjoying new music. My dad didn't. One of my biggest memories of my dad was him being hurt that I hated his music because it was old. And my dad hated alternative rock. He despised Green Day and all the punk and ska I got into when I was in high school. For me, my taste in music was partly to rebel against my father. My kids won't be able to do that. I'll probably be listening to their music, too.
Movies and television haven't changed much, either. The Office was a hilarious single camera mockumentary sitcom and it was the most popular sitcom on television at its peak. Today, Abbot Elementary is a hilarious single camera mockumentary sitcom and it's the most popular sitcom on television. Ten years ago people complained that all movies are sequels or reboots. Today pretty much everything in the theater is a sequel or a reboot. Twenty years ago we were seeing Star Wars and superhero movies in theaters. Now? Same deal. The only difference now is that some jokes made twenty years ago wouldn't be considered funny today.
The only mainstream genre I've seen any change in is anime. No wonder it's gone from a niche nerdy thing for 90s nerdy kids (hello!) to an entertainment medium that pretty much anyone born after 1980 enjoys. And while there's plenty of 90s anime to love, most of the anime of that time was action oriented, and very rarely comedic. Nowadays anime has everything from rom coms to psa's about getting enough exercise (seriously, it's called How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift? and it's fucking weird). I just started rewatching Chainsaw Man with my wife. It's the most original tv show I've seen since The Good Place and it's fucking great.
The only American change to pop culture I've seen is the rise of content creation. And that's probably the only genre where there's a generation gap (while anime is original, everyone in my family is watching it). I absolutely despise any and all content generation aimed at Gen Z. Fucking Christ it's awful. It is the one piece of pop culture that makes me know how my parents and grandparents felt about anything I was into. How in the hell is PrestonPlayz married when he looks like he just started middle school? And every time he makes a video talking about how he spent a fortune on Amazon I just want to scream "YOU WILL NOT SURVIVE THE REVOLUTION, PRESTON!" My kids used to watch Ryan's Toy Review and it drove me insane. Yes, our generation started content creation, but this Gen Z stuff is...well...I don't get it. And I'm smart enough to know that I'm not supposed to. I'm not the demographic for the show.
I hope we get to the point where we will see more scripted shows being made by ordinary people through social media, though. Omeleto is leading the way on showing short movies on YouTube, and it's a great channel. There's also a few low-budget self made sitcoms with their own YouTube channels that are great. On TikTok KallMeKris got a massive following by doing a series of one-woman skits that evolved into a tv show with a continuous story line and everything. She's awesome.
Maybe there's a lesson there. While the corporate world has been giving us the same movies and television to the point where they kill beloved franchises, it'll be the people the come together and make something beautiful.
Anyway, here's The Punk Rock MBA video I cited in the beginning. Enjoy:
