Right below this post is another one from MC contributor Bernardo. In it, he talks about the fear that music has for turning the corner and moving into a new frontier. One of the main things that he notes is the music of now is a replay of the past because of future anxiety, or the fear that we have at the rapid rate of technological growth.

While I do think that technology is something that can be fearsome, I also think it’s going to be the savior of music. The ability to so easily access the past of music and what was once there has opened up new generations to sounds and bands that could have been lost to all of time. There are some really creative artists that were working all across the globe that provide new sounds and ideas to the current generation, one that has really few ideas because ideas weren’t encouraged.

The goal for my generation was always to get to the next level, to get a job, to make something of yourself. The music of our generation symbolized that in a lot of ways. Some of it’s creative. Most of it isn’t. This is a point at which I agree with Bernardo on a lot. There haven’t been a lot of new ideas in music in the past decade. A lot of stuff sounds the same. It’s become frustrating in a lot of ways. This is what, I think, spurred a lot of the return to the past: a discontentment with the present.

We’ve hit a new point though. There are only so many more 60s AM pop-style bands that I can listen to or ones that insist on recording everything in the red. Even the bands that became infamous for doing that don’t anymore. Someone has to start pushing forwards. And, this is where the technology comes to play. I don’t think that looking backwards for ideas is bad because there are a lot of really good past ideas that the world just wasn’t ready for when they came.

Kids can find these, but the effort is put back on them to put their own spin on it. I think that they can, but they need to accept the idea that they are going to fail at the beginning. I see more and more kids who don’t know how to fail. This is one of the major things about music: failure. Not every song can be a gem. Not every show will be packed wall-to-wall with people. That’s the world. The sooner you get over it and stick to the goal, the farther you might get if you commit yourself to doing it.

If kids and new musicians are willing to fail, the future can be very promising for music. As Bernardo said, the time for replaying the past is over. Music isn’t over. There are new ideas to be had. If a genre like shoegaze–which has been perpetually shoehorned over time to sound like Loveless even though there were other, more exciting albums to come from this genre (Real Talk)–can show honest progression, any other form of music can too. As long as musicians are willing to stick to their visions, the future can be bright. It’s only when they lose the will to keep their image for their money lust* that the future of music will be truly dire.

*I do not aim to suggest that a musician cannot chase paper. On the contrary, I want to see shoegaze bands playing huge football stadiums. It would be a technical nightmare. So many blown speakers. Anyway, what I mean with this statement is that a band can’t progress if they are willing to bend their sound or their self-expression to the will of others. They must stay resolute with their vision of their band.