The singers Lemmy said were way too boring: “It kills me how bland this is”
Generational divides are unavoidable when it comes to music. In fact, it’s usually a pretty good sign if a new music artist is pissing off one of our forefathers, for it largely proves that some form of sonic innovation is taking place.
Take a band like Motorhead, for example. In the late 1970s, the concept of metal rock was in its infancy, and its gruff, steely demeanour was a pretty shocking product for otherwise conservative music fans to be confronted with.
The band’s lead singer Lemmy was tapping into something rebellious amongst his peers, galvanising them to innovate in this new sonic space, while sticking a proverbial two fingers up to their parents while doing so. However it’s manifested, that’s the attitude that has always been at the heart of musical evolution.
But in more modern times, contemporary big-name artists have had more of a commercial gloss to them. Our parents and their friends have mistaken the modern scene for the world of bubblegum pop that is being incessantly advertised to them, in this new wildly digital age and have failed to dig deeper, and get to know the artists who are truly tapping into the zeitgeist of the modern era.
That was certainly the case for Lemmy. As he failed to understand that innovation doesn’t have to sound exactly like metal, he lambasted the modern era of music and labelled it as a dreary landscape of pastiche. But rather than leaving it at just the music, Lemmy went one further and claimed that the growing trend of health consciousness within music, was symptomatic of the fall in standards.
“It kills me how bland this period is” he claimed. “You go backstage these days and you see 20 bottles of Perrier and a bag of nuts. What’s wrong with this fucking picture? Everything is so healthy today and it’s terrible. I don’t get it. What the fuck is it about John Mayer? Someone should explain him to me. And the same goes for Justin Bieber. They’re all such boring people. They’re so fucking serious. I’m not interested in people as boring as that. It’s a shame these people are popular entertainers.”
It sounds as though Lemmy didn’t quite get the memo that while the era of sex drugs and rock and roll was seemingly romantic, the reality for people in the shadows of his stardom was very different. For every rampant alcoholic musician was a societal victim, be it in the realms of sexual assault, drug overdoses or wild inequality.
As for music, well yeah sure, Justin Bieber and John Mayer might just represent a decline in mainstream standards. But the music Lemmy so desperately craved still exists, just in the shadows of subcultures and DIY communities.
The echoes of Motorhead’s influence can be heard amongst rock subcultures all over the world, as can that of blues, psychedelic and punk rock. But the times have undergone necessary change and no longer do we need reckless rockstars growling into the mainstream microphones. We need them to represent the contemporary scene in a more acute way.
