Attack of 'The'

During a friendly discussion in The Spectrum office, I chatted with an editor about a publicity contact that manages many large bands.

Recent darlings of the music world The Killers came up in conversation. But I heard differently. I heard him say The Kills, a recent band whose raw, stripped-down sound has been getting some considerable media attention.

The conversation humorously progressed with him mishearing me, thinking I was talking about The Stills, a hot new Montreal export.

From this little example, we see the lack of innovation that prevails in today's popular music. Even through this overlap of band names may seem superficial, it gives some insight into the musical overlap that occurs in rock music today.

The late-70s and early-80s sound is in, in a big way. Dark, brooding lyrics and synthesizer keyboards have become the platform for our generation trying to make its mark on well-worn territory.

Musical innovation has become stifled in favor of mere imitation. With so many musical acts today, the question that is invariably asked is, "Who do they sound like?"

Every decade has a distinct sound attributed to it. When we think of the '60s, '70s or '80s, we can get a vivid picture of the music that dominated the period. Music in these periods reflected the style and concerns of a generation.

In our musical realm, in a world of constant musical and stylistic rehashing, it is unclear to me what our defining sound is-those used in previous generations? We certainly have social issues that need addressing. With only a handful of artists confronting them, I wonder why so many musicians spend time in the past, when people have real concerns that need to be addressed.

We are currently a nation at war, a world recovering from natural disasters that have killed hundreds of thousands of people. Are songs like "Let's Get Retarded" by the Black Eyed Peas the best we can do?

It is scary to think that our current musical era is one lacking musical innovation of any sort. We need to encourage innovation whenever possible in our lives. Societies thrive on vibrant art scenes, and without it, the banality of everyday life dominates.

With the advent of digital storage in the form of MP3s, DVDs, compact disks, etc., we are able to preserve our histories like no other culture or civilization has done in the past. I wonder if our ability to preserve our past has become our undoing for the future. By constantly revisiting our past through recordings, we are bound to it, and it inevitably enters our creative mindset. Previous generations were freed from these constraints and their imagination was able to run free. I often feel like the same isn't true for us. If it was, who knows, maybe our generation could find its own voice.

Recent UB guest Kanye West is an example other artists should follow. One only needs to look at the lyrical content of his newest album "Late Registration," and see an intelligent artist confronting the world in which he lives. West's "Diamonds From Sierra Leone," dissects the "bling" culture in rap music, an unprecedented departure from many artists in his genre of music.

Socially conscious Canadian act The Constantines deal with the working class in songs like "Working Full-Time." They deal with subject matter which may not be glamorous or ironic in any way. But one thing is clear, it is scarcely talked about.

Contemporary music could learn a lot from these artists. Ironically, they could learn just as much from older bands whose styles they imitate. Many former bands that have become a popular musical template, such as Gang of Four or The Sex Pistols, were very much aware of the world around them, and communicated it effectively through their songs.

The sad truth is that it is easy to take a band's sound, melody and style but capturing the soul of the music seems to be nearly impossible.