New song

What happened to the magic of the opening riff? The four chords that would hummed over and over again and practiced endlessly on every two bit guitar. I remember when opening riffs used to raise the tiny hairs on my skinny forearm. Smoke on the water, Paradise City, Around the fur, Nothing else matters, I could go on. But they’re the songs that have the unrivalled ability of hooking you in under 7 seconds. The few, that grab you by your heart and your balls, with equal conviction. These days, I find myself singing along to some idiotic chorus or the other. Or humming to a bridge that’s only half a tick long. Sometimes they’re just random syllables strung together. Lyrics without the decency of offering us fully formed words.

It’s sad that music has been confined to small portions in songs. The rest of the track sounds like it has been made from a master recipe. Predictable, and lacking in every area. I hate to criticise, not being much of a songwriter myself, but it seems like people expect very little from their musicians and settle for whatever it is they get.

And it’s not like there isn’t talent out there, but it seems to me that the wrong kind get more popular by the day. Or, the right kind get popular for all the wrong reasons. The joy of making and sharing music has been replaced by the need to please the most amount of people and the need to make a lot of money. And I can only ask, ‘How long will this survive?’.