Music has changed dramatically over the past decade; we can see the change even within the last couple of years as every genre of music is accessible through our phones and we can play it within seconds. Social media, the easy access to music, and its ever-changing likeness have greatly influenced the top artists of our world. More and more people prefer to listen to whatever is trending and fewer people are going back to appreciate the classic artists that kickstarted the music world.
The sounds of our world have changed from the soulful sounds of the 40s-90s with Queen, Buddy Holly, Elton John and Bob Marley to a world with music at its fingertips. Today’s modern music uses fewer instruments, making it sound simpler. However, it focuses more on emotion, and a wide audience can spring from that idea alone.
“Music has gotten horrible, it sounds synthetic,” history teacher Alexander Fields said. “I don’t feel like in 30 years I will listen to any music from now. I feel like the music now doesn’t have soul, it’s business music.”
Growing up listening to the artists of today and the last 20 years we don’t realize the ‘synthetic’ noise it has, and many younger audiences don’t even consider classic music or confuse it with the classical sounds of those like Mozart and Beethoven with no lyrics and just instruments rather than that of Elvis or Janis Joplin.
“I would say modern music is better,” senior Ridley Austin said.“the songs are longer and the sound quality is a lot better. The lyrics of modern music allow for more expression than classical music without lyrics.”
The way people experience music is also different. Some just listen to it for fun or, again, listen to whoever is popular. Others, however, feel that music is more for them and plays a much bigger role in their lives because of how special it is.
“It feels unique to me. I don’t like music that I feel like everyone else has heard.” senior Devin Hoshaw said.“I feel like it belongs to them and I like music that only I know because it feels special to me.”
The way we listen to it is also very different, we can access music from any time and genre on our phones in seconds. There are multiple apps to use like Spotify or Amazon Music and because of that very few people are using CDs or vinyl records.
“I think that because of the rise of digital music people can listen to music at anytime anywhere,” Hoshaw said. “I feel like that makes it less special, I think you should take time out of your day to listen to music. I think that’s why classic music is so important because people would have to sit down, turn on the record player, and choose the music.”
The music of today is a lot different than that of the 40s or the 80s but that doesn’t make it bad as people’s opinions and lives have also changed and today’s music appeals to them more because of that. With the sound of classic music leaving us the world is bringing in the sounds of those like Taylor Swift and bringing to light the new sounds of our world.
