Aesthetic Nihilism (A Polemic)

Quote for the Day:
"When I turn on the radio in 1988, I don't feel anything of the music anymore." - Mike Peters, The Alarm

If this was true in 1988 (and I certainly don't think it was) then twenty years have made this statement much more true, as music has had 20 years of exponential decay. Now, well into the 21st Century, not only is the musicianship itself quite bad, there isn't anything intelligent being said, and further there is nothing to feel. With the visceral element removed, in any aesthetic sense, music has truly become an empty, vacuous experience, with no other result than a mind-numbing daze. In 88, we only had to survive glam metal (which was thankfully killed by Nirvana), but since the atrocity that is hip-hop "music" became dominant in popular music, it has completely killed the possibility of such music ever having substance again. There is simply no longer any standards of excellence. Everything has become just as good as any other thing. Without the virtue of quality, all meaning has been lost or become incomprehensible, and the aesthetic of modern music has become nihilistic. But, as Mike Peters went on to say, "I'm out to fight those songs with every ounce of breath in my body."



Revised 2008.11.24