Generation from generation there is one phrase that is often uttered. That phrase? “This generation's music choices stinks.” Truthfully it is not that the generations music choices suck, it is just that the music often reflects the lives and situations or even feeling of people in that current era. Like the 70’s had to feel good disco music because as an era, the people were getting creative with sounds and movements and they embraced that. It was new, it was hip, and it was very much a fashion oriented funky time and it showed that in the music.
You would hard pressed to find many people even still listening to disco music. The fads go away and ideas and people change. It is not something that we think about but just as humans we are always ever changing and shifting in music. This is why I will go out on a limb and say that music is very much a representation of us and who we are. The changes can be for better or worse, depending on the individuals and era as a whole.
There is the curious case of subgenres and their roles. Subgenres are essentially mixes or two genres that are put together and work well or they are a completely new genre that hasn’t gained much recognition as of yet. The curious case of subgenres is that they are a cross of genres and they also are a breakdown of the regular genre. For an example, let’s take Rock music. Metal used to be a subgenre for a very short period of time but it grew so big that it branched off and made its own genre and now has its own subgenres like death metal, classic metal, doom etc. Two genres coming together to make one brings people and even styles together. Psychedelic Rock brings the hypnotic tone and rough and tumble tone of rock together and it makes pretty smooth sounding music.
We now live in a “Turn Up” age; meaning that we love to party and go out and forget our problems. That is the life that many in this era want to but look the 80’s was very party hardy and when I hear, “All you kids want to do is part”, I laugh and ask what the 80;’s were about. Music sounds have changed but the underlying premise of it all has not. It all repeats, history, as they say, repeats itself and it is evident in them music that we listen to.