Musical ruts

I was having similar thoughts about this exact thing just a few days ago.

I listen mostly to a few varieties of electronic dance music, mostly psytrance (psychedelic trance) and drum'n'bass.  I find a good portion of it to be *extremely* spiritually uplifting.  But you never hear anything like it on the radio here, nothing even close.  So much so that very often when someone's riding in the car with me for the first time (like a coworker who I'm giving a lift home or whatever) they not only don't recognize the particular artist or songs I'm playing, they don't even remotely recognize the *genre*.  Granted, it's somewhat "niche" stuff, but it's not so removed that it couldn't feasibly be played on the radio late nights on the weekend or something at least.  But it's not.

And what's so interesting to me is that occasionally I'll get in a discussion with someone about music and they'll make a remark like "all the songs on the radio are the same nowadays, they've been playing the same bullshit for years; nobody's making any really 'new' music anymore.  In previous decades there's always been some major musical innovation, something that totally changes the playing field; why don't we have that anymore?"  And then I respond by mentioning the kind of music I listen to (and note that it's just one example; there are many other genres out there), to make it very clear "there most certainly *is* innovation going on, with people producing sounds unlike anything you've ever heard before... but this innovative music doesn't make you want to make more money or buy more crap, so advertisers don't gain anything from it, so you probably won't ever hear it on the radio in this country."

It usually brings both points home... one, that they're missing out on some really interesting music (even if it turns out not to be their exact taste, it at least points out that new stuff is happening and they weren't being made aware of it), and two, that the choice of songs being played on the radio has nothing to do with playing good music, and everything to do with making money.

I don't even listen to the radio anymore.  !   Back in Florida I worked in this office and had a cubicle mate who always had her radio set to the same light and easy station, eight hours a day, five days a week.   Not only did they endlessly rotate the same playlist, but they played the songs in the same order. Talk about maddening.   This chick didn't mind though.  Beige walls, fluorescent lighting, and the same crappy easy listening songs, in the same near exact order, 40 hours a week.   Week in and week out.   It was like being in hell. 

The same repetitious music serves a variety of purposes.  Comfort and familiarity, for starters.   And interestingly enough, the coworker in question grew up in a very unstable environment with a mom who was basically mentally ill, to where her basic needs weren't always being provided for.  So there was my 20-something coworker, with her comforting pattern of repetitious music always going in the background providing something familiar and secure...and her McDonald's Happy Meal toys all lined up on her desk and on top of her computer monitor, watching Saturday morning cartoons, and so on.  So sometimes "ritual rut" can provide a person with something secure, especially those who are psychologically wounded.  Other times people aren't even consciously aware that they're listening to the same old music every day!  Just a lack of alertness going on.  The same thing that causes them to not notice certain things about this reality causes them to not even notice things about themselves and their immediate surroundings.   Sometimes people seem to be stuck in a certain time period.  If their heydey was the 70's, 80's, 90's, then they'll often be drawn to that music.  Still others adapt an "old fogey" mindset, a concept related to the "heydey" idea.  They think new music sucks and revel in the glory years of their own generation's music, resisting the change of time.

Admittedly, I don't listen to the radio and don't care for pretty much anything going on music-wise right now, so I'm one of those "rut" people you could say, bordering on the "old fogey" mindset.  haha  Recently though I came across new Depeche Mode and Green Day songs that I REALLY liked, and which jumped out at me.  ("Precious" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," respectively.)  But the only reason I even came to discover them was by sheer chance.....in somebody else's car who had their radio on!     So I know not all new music sucks.  But....what's worth noting is that it seems the music industry itself is in a rut.   There really isn't anything new going on in terms of music *style.*  Using the aforementioned songs that I liked as an example:   "Precious" sounds like Depeche Mode at it's early 90's best.  New song, but using their same old familiar style.  "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" to me has elements of Oasis in it.  It's a relatively new song, but recycling an already used sound.   So neither song is "new" or "innovative," bringing some previously unheard sound to the masses.  It's just the same old, same old, rearranged in a different way. 

Anyway, just some ideas.