BY JEREMY HAAS
In the history of music, generations have found ways to rebel against the popular opinion and the uniforms to create something beautiful. The 50s meant a birth for rock and roll; crafted from the blues. In the 60s, rock and roll was perfected through groovy rebellion. Then the 70s came around and punk was created. It had all the beauty of rock and roll plus a lot of extra edge. The 80s were a time for punk to revolutionize and heavy metal to be perfected. The 90s built up to grunge rock’s short-lived climax. Then the 2000s showed up and everything went downhill; slowly, rock and roll’s counter culture turned from united passion against image-driven pop culture to an even more image-driven group of subgenres. Now we live in a world where rock and roll bands might as well be dead; and most rebellious music ranges from an infinite list of something-core bands, all more uniformed and passionless as the last.
No longer can a person live in a world where being a part of the underground music scene means you can be yourself. Rather, separating yourself from the sham of popular music means placing yourself into
some insincere subgenre, where you’ll have to do wacky things to your hair and search far and wide for flamboyant clothing. Let’s say you like the sound of an indie rock band; you may find yourself expected to like every “unknown” indie artist, smoke copious cigarettes, and dress in raggedy “vintage” clothing. Don’t get me started on the Hot Topic scene, or the pop punk scene, or the death metal scene, or any other scene for that matter. So many of these groups consist of the same shallow homogeny, it’s sad to think that even with all the options, each lacks any true emotion. Black Veil Brides’ fans feel the need to dress in black and cakey makeup; indie rock fans seem to only listen to stuff you’ve never heard of; fans of the Casualties are more often than not, suburban kids in denial about their financial status. So much of what should be unique is just the struggle to achieve another drawn out image.
Now don’t get me wrong, good music still exists, but it does seem like most any artists that defines themselves by a single, wordy subgenre, create mediocre art.
