Sounds Across Borders

I l ooked forward to giving my honest views about the concept of the music industry and how much it has evolved. I’m not a professional musician. I don’t think I could ever thrive at that. But one thing I’ve always known like a part of me is music. Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. When I’m eating, or reading, or writing. Just about anything, I have music jammed into my ears. It may be unhealthy. But like I said, I’ve been doing it since forever, so I can’t exactly stop if I wanted to. Mainly because I don’t how.

With that said, I’d just like to point out just the kind of music I listen to. I can’t heartily say that a particular genre of music is what I listen to strictly. I’m a girl whose favourite music is whatever sounds pleasing to her ears, whatever makes me smile or nod my head. And I’ve noticed that it cuts across a lot of genres. So from Blues, which I can’t do without, to Gospel, Kpop and Jazz. As much as I love them all, it’s all about which of the songs in those genres and beyond, sound pleasant to me.

But if there’s one thing I’m sure of, is the fact that I’ve always been an oldie at heart. It’s not something I decided. But since I became aware of music, I noticed that I had an unprecedented fascination for Old Blues and Jazz. It’s not like I didn’t find modern music nice, but there was something about listening to Blues, Gospel and Jazz from the '80s down to the early 2000s that did it for me. It was like nothing else could meet up to it.

But now, I can’t say I listen to just Oldies anymore. Between some K-pop and a bit of the modern Gospel music I hear now, there’s a lot of potential and a lot for me to look forward to. Now, we move to modern secular music in my country. And while I can’t say I’ve ever been an avid fan of secular music, there was a time I at least found it not so horrific to listen to. I think between the times of 2016 till about 2020, I could name about a dozen secular songs I found super nice and could at least listen to, which I can’t say for songs right now because I’m quite positive that I don’t know names to more than two trending songs.

I trying to understand what exactly went wrong in the music industry or when exactly the narrative flipped but I realized that those who sang about genuine love and emotions and life and hope slowly went under or were no longer listened to, giving way to those who praised vulgarity and decadence, the objectification of women and social vices. I know everyone has their opinions about these things. But I know I would get tired if I had to listen to songs like that over and over again, no matter how nice the rhythm is.

And then I noticed a trend. It was like all musicians were waiting for someone to bring out a particular rhythm or beat and then the rest of the crowd used that exact beat and rhythm in their songs for months on end. And when that one was beginning to die, someone would bring out another tune and the rest would use that. And so, the cycle continues.

I wouldn’t be dishonest, however, to say that there aren’t some really nice songs in the country now. Are most of the lyrics just not up to par, yes. But I heard some over the radio a few days ago and our country musicians. At least some of them, are genuinely giving it their all and they should be applauded for that. It doesn’t mean I’d go fangirling over them anytime soon. But I do appreciate that we are evolving day by day. We are getting better or at least returning to that groovy music stage. And I look forward to having more positive things to say about the country’s music industry in the future.

Have a lovely weekend everyone! _{proceeds to continue jamming K-pop in her ears.}🌺

Jhymi🖤

_{Image is mine.}