11/14/2024
Journal Entry - 11/14/24
I was reading this article online this morning about a promoter responding to backlash that has occurred from his decision to put Sleep Token as a headliner of a festival next year. As is often the case of online backlash, there were a number of trolls upset by this decision for a multitude of reasons, none that really relate to the reality and responsibility of the promoter. The main gist is that they wanted “legacy” artists to headline. Artists like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. The promoter, to his credit, explained that Sleep Token is currently selling out arenas and is immensely popular to a younger group of people who love them. He also mentioned that, at one time, he gave a chance to bands like Slipknot, Bad Omens and Bring Me the Horizon. He says it is Sleep Token’s time. I agree.
But there is a bigger issue here. One that I have been intimately familiar with of late. It is like a bad Gen X joke. The joke goes - Radio in 1975 had awesome acts like Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Journey. Radio in 1985 had awesome acts like Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Journey. Radio in 1995 had . . . Radio in 2005 had . . .
The Boomer stranglehold on “classic” rock and subsequent musical movements adopted by my own generation, Generation X has a literal chokehold on radio, the idea of what constitutes “good music” and this idea of nostalgia over new. After all - all nostalgia was once “new”. Now don’t get me wrong here. I like Fleetwood Mac. Rumours is one of the greatest rock albums of all time. I love Pink Floyd. I have such great memories of listening to The Wall as a teenager. And listening to it last week. It is also one of the greatest rock albums of all time. I listened to so much Black Sabbath, Ozzy and Judas Priest on the bus to school thanks to the stoners and their boombox that I knew all the songs and yet never bought any of the music and, quite frankly, hated it as a youth. I was listening to The Police, The Smiths, The Cure and Depeche Mode. It is all great stuff. Good to listen to. But music did not end in the 90s. Nirvana was not the last great band. I hear my peers - unfortunately meaning those in their 60s, 50s and 40s talking about the “death” of popular music. They despise anything new. They don’t understand it. They don’t listen. They don’t want to know. They are stuck, most of them, in some mythological “golden age of pop” which, for them, is the decade of roughly 1985-1995. Some of us older GenXers love music from 1975-1985.
The “death” of popular music. But upon the death of my dear wife, I was suddenly open to anything and everything to heal the person size wound I had experienced and had no idea that the day’s popular music, yes, music coming out in 2023, was healing me. It was speaking to me. I was relating. I wanted to hear more. And I was thrust into the center of one of the great battles of the “culture wars”. I had friends who looked at my newfound addictions with disgust. As if suddenly buying vinyl from the likes of Melanie Martinez, Jazmin Bean, Charlie XCX, Sleep Token, Bad Omens, Sabrina Carpenter and - God Forbid - Taylor Swift, was akin to falling into a death spiral of fentanyl and black tar he**in addiction. I was left behind. And, to my surprise, happily. I have discovered so much great music and so much creativity and so much “pushing of the envelope” that I can safely say that I believe we are in a pop music renaissance. I have found, in my life experience, that pop culture thrives during episodes of conservatism and far right politics. Not only do we get great music that is a rebellion and resistance to societal established “norms”, but horror movies also thrive. And we are seeing that in real time, right now. 2024 has been the greatest year in the horror / thriller genre in decades. It gives me hope.
So, back to the original thought. Sleep Token is a fantastic band. All the albums and all the songs and all the shows are simply immaculate. Emotional. Authentic. Creative. The whole aesthetic is so detail oriented and so artistically talented that I still can’t believe that in an age of media saturation, we are finding new and exciting things to say and see. But the people still want Journey? I mean, Journey is good. Metallica is good. All the “legacy” bands are good. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to survive this long. But I have seen them. I would love to see them again. But don’t others deserve a chance? A seat at the table? A soap box? And therein lies the real issue here. New Blood. Stagnation. The way of human nature. I saw it in Rockabilly and Punk subculture. You become “established” and then you turn your nose up to “new blood”. Not understanding that culture is to be passed on. New arrivals to the culture are to be nurtured. Loved. Encouraged. Not turned away. Or the culture DIES. What are we going to do? Just watch holograms of Journey and Metallica in the future? I don’t mean to be mean, but have you seen the latest footage of Frankie Valli doing a Las Vegas residency and still singing “Sherry” at the age of 90? He looks positively animatronic. I don’t want to diss him or his fans. If he truly wants to be on stage at 90 singing songs from 1962 and people are still seeing him and enjoying him - Great! But isn’t there room for more artists? More songs? Something new? After all, some of the things coming out now will be “classic” and “legacy” in 30 to 40 years. After I am gone.
If you don’t understand the correlations - let me spell it out. Without new blood, culture dies. You have to have new car builders and people getting into the music to keep Rockabilly vibrant. You have to have new goths and new punks and new emo kids to keep those cultures alive. You have to have immigrants to keep the country strong. Otherwise, it dies. What we are seeing all around us is the death throes of the Boomer Generation. They are not going quietly. Hell, we just elected the oldest one to lead our country in the biggest flop of a reality tv show the world has ever seen - in my opinion. But what happens after they are gone? Do you really expect Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha to simply continue to purchase Dark Side of the Moon without adding their own artists? Their own creativity? Their own take on this “greatest experiment”? The kids are the FUTURE. I am a proponent of their FUTURE. My feeling is that I am here to encourage them and give them some advice from life experience, not strict rules and oppressive directives. The younger generations deserve our best, not our worst. They deserve good music. From the past, present and future. They deserve to find their own way. To discover their own truths. To make their own mistakes.
By the way, Sleep Token is not everyone’s cup of tea. But I love a good dose daily just like my coffee. And I will listen to Dark Side of the Moon on my 1975 turntable and hifi. And I will TikTok about my love for Melanie Martinez and one of the greatest albums that has ever been created - Portals. It all belongs and it all connects. Don’t you get that? It is my opinion that humanity will not evolve until we learn the lesson: We thrive on our differences and unique perspectives - not on some unyielding concept of what constitutes “right”.
