2013 was my worst year for new music since 2002. I couldn’t even make a year end best of list because I couldn’t fine ONE song that stood out from the dreck I’d managed to collect in the last twelve months. Everything sounded like car commercials — shiny, happy songs for people to purchase to.
Admittedly, I didn’t try that hard. MP3 is on its way out (supposedly) as a format, and now everyone wants you to stream. As occasional readers of this site know, I hate the cloud.
So what I got was probably second tier stuff, and like I said, it all seemed bland and mediocre, lacking in passion and any spark of originality. Which has forced me more and more into old music, because that’s what’s available at the only record store in town, In The Moment used record store. I’m buying classical, jazz, and old pop that I missed, but new music, not so much.
The trouble with listening to old music is that it’s old, and in the case of pop, laden with memories and associations. I realized after a week of listening to mostly 80s stuff that it was making me live in the past, my own past of clubs and neighborhoods and old friends. Fun for a while, but I need new music with no baggage to to feel normal. Too much back catalog and I start to get restless.
Of the new songs I heard, the only two that I noticed enough to rate were Long As The Sun by Medicine and Summer 3D by Westkust. Not much of a haul.
I realize that part of my problem with 2013 was me being annoyed at the music industry, so I’ll try a little harder this year to find music that’s less lame. But finding it isn’t as easy as it used to be, and I worry that with the current focus on commercialization of all artistic output there won’t be much to find, or at least not the kind I’m looking for.