Music Left Me Behind

I contemplated writing a post about why I like the band Our Lady Peace more than Radiohead (it's always struck me that the lead singer for Radiohead, Thom Yorke, shys away from his voice whereas the lead singer for Our Lady Peace, Raine Maida -- who has a very similar vocal range and style -- more readily embraces his voice, giving one band an ethereal quality while the other is much more "rock"). But I didn't have much past that first point to say, so I'll just branch out and discuss the state of music for me at this point.

I'm a rocker. I got into music through pop music back when I was a wee teen, but switched to rock through Nine Inch Nails. They were my gateway band (a band I've held onto years down the road -- I still make it a point to pick up any release from Trent Reznor no matter what band name he's using at the time). I like music with a strong beat anbd a good hook (which comes from all the time I spent listening to pop before I discovered better music).

Coming to rock in the late '90s meant that I got to experience the whole grunge era through the collection of CDs I was able to scrounge together, all at once. I missed the boat for Nirvana, so I don't listen to their stuff with rose-colored glasses ("Smells Like Teen Spirit" may have been a revelation at the time, rightly so or not, but I much prefer "Heart Shaped Box", and every Nirvana has more crappy filler tracks that winning singles). Pearl Jam was already on their steady decline, Alice in Chains was on permanent hiatus, and Soungarden was about to disband. Stone Temple Pilots hung around for a while after I got into grunge and modern rock, but their output got weird (like Scott Weiland really want the band to be the new Beatles, but couldn't stop doing heroin long enough to figure out how that would actually work).

When it comes to rock, I like a diverse mix of bands, most of which you wouldn't see on a playlist together outside of a college rock station: Nine Inch Nails, Tool, Days of the New, Monster Magnet, Chevelle, Isle of Q, Our Lady Peace, Foo Fighters, CKY, Alice in Chains, A Perfect Circle, Breaking Benjamin, Coheed and Cambria, Tantric... There's a lot of bands I follow, and many of them have many missteps I just can't listen to anymore -- but I still buy all their CDs (Nine Inch Nails is so hit or miss at this point, but as I said, Trent always gets my money).

But my normal "listening playlist" isn't just rock at this point. I've had to branch out into a lot of techno just because of where rock has gotten to. The bands I like I still buy, but it's so hard to find any new rock bands anymore. Most "rock" at this point is emo or alt-light, or something else. Few harder bands hit the mainstream (which means I can't even find them on a streaming station like what Pandora would suggest). Pop has taken back over in the mainstream, which leaves me as one of those "old" people lamenting where all their music went.

Of course, I'm sure the people that are really into techni will be like "what you listen to is barely techno". I'm sure I'm not even using the term right anymore. I honestly can't tell much of a difference from "dance" or "electronica" or "techno" -- it all is electronic and has a good beat, so I like it. Deamau5, Daft Punk, Orbital and the Prodigy hold top spots in my electronic section.

Of course, on top of that I also have a lot of game soundtracks and remixes floating in my collection. Really, my whole play list is this weird mix of rock and electric and soundtracks, all just blending together to give me something I can listen to and zone out with all at the same time.

Still... I need more rock music. There are so few bands coming out now that are worth listening to it just makes me sad. I do feel old. Where did my rock music go?