Old School Jams Take Permanent Vacation
Electronic music is invading our lives. There are many dimensions of why this is happening.
There are people dancing to the heavy rhythm of the music all around the world. Girls and boys jumping up and down, almost numb caused by the bass. The computer-made songs drag them to the already crowded dance floors. It feels fun, like there is no tomorrow but this scenario brings up an issue.
Sure, electronic music is cool and loved by many of us as I observe; but does anyone remember the good old jams? How people used to match their souls with the song and perhaps complete it with the lyrics, can never be forgotten. But it seems like nowadays the society started to fade the old school, replacing it with house music. People used to enjoy those genres; but when it comes to today no one seems to remember it.
House music originated from Chicago and in a short time period spread to the world in the 80s. First presenters as MARRS and S’Express displayed house music genre as a dance music. So basically, house meant dancing only. People didn’t listen to it to find themselves and feel strong emotions, they listened it to move their bodies to have fun. Then, popular artists like Madonna and Janet Jackson started using house music in their works. And in no time major record labels fell in deals over deals with this genre. In time new sub-genres emerged from house such as techno, deep house etc. and almost everyone listens to it today. It is likely to come across Raving George’s You’re Mine, Feder’s Lordly in any time of our lives. Maybe at the mall, when you open any popular radio channel or simply on every music TV channel to be honest. As the house getting big everyday, record labels need to keep the pace with the changing age. Which causes the decline in other genres’ popularity.
As with most cultural trends, musical trends are also consumed and tossed away faster than before. One moment there’s huge trend and in the blink of an eye there’s completely different another one. Recently Adele rocked the world with her new album, 25. But who knows what will happen soon, after the mainstream? To keep up with the house trend almost all of the ‘‘popular’’ singers produce electronic songs. Justin Bieber’s new album Purpose or Taylor Swift’s genre turn over in 1989 sums up the situation.
One of the genres that is repeatedly loosing audience to house is pop punk. Even in UK, where pop punk originated and once enjoyed immense popularity, people are turning to house.
A music fan of both oldies and new genres, Sude Küçükdeveci from UK, Newcastle University, Business Administrations pressed a finger on the issue as ‘‘House music is uniform, cool to listen to it at the clubs. What punk has on the other hand cannot be replaced: the soul. I think every genre is unique. We should cherish them all. It’s not necessary to forget one another.’’
Koç University, MAVA freshman Yağmur Demirpehlivan who is interested in many branches of arts, thinks that there’s a serious decline in old genres and this is caused by the electronic music. She thinks that house music is for getting away from the realities of the life and escaping the moment. She adds ‘‘I prefer to listen house music when I’m out with my friends because I love the sounds and the harmony. It makes me feel better. Sometimes the lyrics are meaningful also, not always but the lyrics makes sense. I mean it’s the new trend. What can you do, people want house, money talks in that sense.’’
Record labels’ major aim is to make as much as money in the way possible. To make money is to bank on a popular trend. In recent years, boybands had too over the music world, taking a big chunk from the record sales. Pop came to tops with the British boyband One Direction in 2010. Their albums sold around 17,000,000 copies worldwide and their latest album Made in the AM sold 475,000 copies in its first week. They went platinum in many countries and gold in the UK. What they started is taken over by Australian pop punk band 5 Seconds of Summer since 2014. They sold over 1,000,000 only in the USA. They also went silver, platinum and gold in several regions. The good thing is that these guys are actually trying to keep old school alive because they practically grew up on it. Although they are trying hard, on iTunes charts most of the time, those bands face a fall under house songs although they have a huge mass of fans.
Fans Turn Away From Old School Jam
Fans defined what old jams were. They grew with the energy of the fans. When their affection skipped to the house music automatically the other genres lost its effect. It’s a little shame that what once was an interpreter to our thoughts, was the way to criticize the world, the life and to transport to the ideal dimensions, is all face to be forgotten today.
A strong fan of music from İstanbul University, Translation and Interpreting, Naz Özcan says ‘‘Today’s youth are living everything faster than they should. Because of all those drinking and clubbing, they started to listen things like house music or dubstep. But that music doesn’t have a soul. They just consist of rhythms. A rhythm that can make you dizzy from head to toe. You don’t try to find comfort in electronic music, you don’t listen to it at home.’’
It will be wrong to say people listen to house much more than pop, rock etc. According to online surveys made by college students like on ‘‘surveymonkey.com’’, people still want pop the most in the 21th century. Of course the percentages got affected from the mainstream. The broke ups of most of the bands, singers starting to appear on news with their personal lives rather than their works changed influenced people’s musical intentions. In addition to that, the people I’ve talked say that now they just want to have something that will get them through the fast pace of the life.
All genres consist of their uniquely arranged sounds. What makes old jams different is its organic sounds. The strum of the guitar, the bass of the drums, the resonance of the piano… Here, electronic music creates, tries to create, these sounds on electronic environment. In that environment not all of the organic sounds can possibly be copied. Their scale is narrow in that sense. That’s why most of the time, producers cannot put in extraordinary works.
The lyrics of electronic music may differentiate from song to song, but the melodies are so similar. In fact, most of the house pieces are covers from the old school songs. Nowadays’ popular song for example, Ain’t Nobody (Loves Me Better) is actually one of those covers. How many of you knew that?
On the other hand, by checking the facts and trends, we can all agree that house music is creative because the artists mix the beats and come up with something new. But the beats that they mix are almost never something new. electronic music relies on well-known themes more than other genres. Electronic music producers frequently borrow popular melodies to distinguish their songs. And that is why most of the new songs aren’t creative as back in the day.
‘‘Nowadays, every music genre is influenced by old classics. Almost every electronic and house music songs have a base, based on the old songs. It seems that the musicians ran out of new ideas or inspiration because when you hear a new song, it always like you know, the song before.’’ Özcan also adds.
There’s another issue that maybe because the lifestyles evolved, people’s mechanism did as well. Music reflects life and experience. So if all that changed, genres did too. There’s no one to blame in that case. The cycle of lifestyles cannot be prevented from happening. It must be respected.
The change in age reflects the change in society’s needs and tastes. The era of pop and rock wasn’t just a revolution in music but arts, literature, fashion, dance got affected also. Music is a mirror to people. What they are defines music. In that case, the fast, busy progress in the modern life is what determines the new age music genres as house, electronic etc. As many of the university students implied, the both eras, house and old jams live today but the cycle of trends set the right time to enjoy them. There’s a minority of people who still embrace both. Others go with the popularity. It’s clear that eventually, the kinds will fade and new will be born. The important issue here is that should people completely forget the one that is once burned so bright and changed lives?