Nothing's On

“The radio makes hideous sounds.”

They say Bob Dylan said that. And I can relate. Though some would accuse Dylan of hypocrisy because they don’t like his voice.

Finding a radio station playing music that is interesting is hard. And I do mean interesting. There’s lots of stuff on the radio that sounds okay – good even – from a sonic standpoint. Some of it’s pretty catchy, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s all become so predictable and people seem to want it that way. Nothing new about that either. And I’m not saying I could do any better – probably not – but, still, sometimes you hunger for something a little more . . . interesting.

There is even a predictability in the unpredictable. You kind of know where some off beat band is going to take the music because you know where they aren’t going to go. They’re just too hip to move in certain directions, which limits how they might surprise you.

When it comes to music, I like predictable too sometimes. I like a good pop song. And when someone does something retro effectively it can be great as well. But it’s all a bit done already and it wears thin fast.

I can just see record industry producers scratching their heads, saying, “Where do we go from here?” Is Justin Bieber the future of pop music? What if he is?

Thing is, when was the last time you were really pleasantly surprised by some music? When was the last time you heard something that sounded truly special in some way, like you just knew it was going to be a classic? Or unique, but not for the sake of being unique? Or just good because it was creative and well done and had something thoughtful to say without being overly pretentious or cryptic?

The music world is becoming like cable TV. A million channels and nothing’s on.





Psalm 33:3
Peace to you.



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