Over at Slate.com, Jack Hamilton offers an assessment of the state of music, circa 2017, and notes…

2017 was a year of acute star fatigue

Mr. Hamilton’s thesis is that in 2017 some of the biggest stars in the music biz released albums that were met with a big “ho hum” for many.

Now, its been a hell of a long time since I was plugged into current popular music trends (it’ll happen to you, too, one day!) but even so, I was fascinated with the article nonetheless.

Mr. Hamilton notes that even though 2017 saw the release of new music by the likes of, among others, U2, Katy Perry, Arcade Fire, Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, etc., most of these new works either elicited a “ho hum” reaction from fans if not outright dislike, even if some of those albums sold extremely well.

As someone whose musical taste falls between releases from the early/mid 1960’s to roughly the very early 2000’s (like, 2001 or so), I’ve enjoyed plenty of music and plenty of musical styles that have seen its rise and fall.

There’s rock, art rock, heavy metal, glam rock, metal, new wave, punk, alternative, grunge, etc. etc. that are in my stuffed to the gills hard drive.

I’ve enjoyed the early Beatles but really love the mid to late Beatles period.  I love me some Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Rush.  I love David Bowie, Queen, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Velvet Underground.  I love Aimee Mann, The Smashing Pumpkins.  I really dig artists whose biggest days were in the 1980’s like The Smiths, The Motels, The Thompson Twins, The Go-Gos.  I really love some of the metal music also released during the time from the likes of Megadeth, Anthrax (and their side group, Stormtroopers of Death), and Metallica.

Yes, I like quite a big of music.

And yet in the very early 2000’s, tastes in music took a turn and, suddenly, I simply didn’t like what I was hearing anymore.

I’ve often pointed out a very amusing thing rocker/actor/writer/etc. Henry Rollins once said about music (and I’m paraphrasing here):

He noted how when he was young and he’d bring new albums into his household and play them, his father would shake his head and say the new music is terrible.  Mr. Rollins noted how “out of touch” his father was in his opinion, that the new music was so damn good and only those people who were indeed out of touch would not like it.  Then Mr. Rollins noted that as the years passed and new music styles emerged, he found himself liking new music less and less.  He concluded the story by saying something along the lines of: “I never thought it would happen, but I’ve turned into my old man!”

The point is, music, like so many artistic things, goes through its waves.  What is popular today (or in the 1980’s, 90’s, 00’s, 10’s) is not necessarily going to be popular with the next generation and the generation after that.

New artists will rise and, for some, the rise will be quick as will be the fall.  Others may find more lasting success, and are able to release many successful albums and stay in the public’s eye/ear for years, perhaps even a decade or two.

But inevitably, whatever is the rage today will recede when something new and intriguing catches the public’s attention.

For many years now, the musicians mentioned above by Mr. Hamilton have been in the public eye.  They’ve been very successful with their new releases and, as he notes (and this is obviously his opinion, though perhaps shared by many others), these “old” artists have found 2017 a harsher year for their music.

Maybe audiences have indeed reached a point where those styles are no longer as intriguing and new and fresh as before, and these audiences, younger each year, are looking for something else.  Something different.

This is nothing that hasn’t happened over and over again since music first became popular some, oh, few thousand years ago.

And so it goes.