Do you remember the scene of the Guardians of the Galaxy during the opening credits? If you haven’t watched it, that’s fine. I’m going to break it down to you. I will state right now it’s one of the best openings I have watched in movies. So, Star Lord/ Peter Jason Quill (played by the ever wonderful Chris Pratt) puts on his Walkman (little known fact: I too use a walkman except it’s a discman rather) and fits his ears with this giant headphones. While “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone played behind, he grabs a rat and uses it as a microphone. Then, he swing and kicked like he owned the world. You know, like how you sing in the shower. Admit it. You have done it. If you haven’t, you haven’t lived. It was simply beautiful. The song was the first of many 70s songs to be featured in the movie. The playlist of the songs was called the Awesome Mix Vol. 1 which skyrocketted to the top of the iTunes charts. So imagine this, a playlist of the songs which were made more than 30 decades ago became popular, again.

I find it strange and at the same time understand why it became popular again. Anything to break the saturation of negative imagery of songs nowadays feels like a breath fresh air. By fresh air, not fresh minty air breathed out by a person but air from the Niagara Falls fresh. The reason I thought of this was when I was listening to Lite.fm, a local radio station (think Smooth.fm) had a tagline which said, “playing the classic hits from the 70s, 80s, 90s and the best of today”. We are 5 years into the decade of 20s and the best of today somehow encapsulated 15 years which seems as though the 21st century didn’t have a distinct identity of their own to be called 10s.

There’s also the common sayings, “They don’t make them like they use to any more” or screams of “WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR GENERATION OF MUSIC? THEY SUCK. PEOPLE USE TO HAVE MICHAEL JACKSON AND BEATLES BUT WE HAVE PIT BLOODY BULL COW AND NICKI FREAKING ANACONDA MINAJ”. Of course, they are usually more explicit than that. There’s also the opposing shouts of “YOU SHUT UP. DON’T TALK BAD ABOUT OUR MUSIC. LET NICKI MINAJ DO WHAT SHE WANTS AND KANYE WEST IS A GENIUS”. Well, yup. Who is right? What is genius? What is our generation’s music?

I wanted to put a few classics from every decade into this column but the task feels rather impossible because there were so many. However, I will single out a few artists and band. Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Abba, Starships, Eric Clapton, Bee Gees, Earth, Wind & Fire, Cyndi Lauper, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Journey and Queen are some to name. They mostly populated the 70s to 90s area. The 1990s saw the birth of more boy/girl bands like Spice Girls, Westlife, Backstreet Boys, Boyz 2 Men and also teen idols like Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears. The Goo Goo Dolls and Oasis made their stamp here too. I’m not going to bother with 2000s because most of my music comes from that decade. There’s just too many to name.

I think that’s the problem with all these remarks and comments on Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and whathaveyous regarding the great music divide between the past and present. If music from the post 2000s were terrible, then I shouldn’t have trouble naming classics, should I? Of course, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson are a tough act to follow but music is not just about their genre or style. Music appears in everything and breathes through whatever we do. It is an expression of our emotion, thoughts and a capture of that moment in time.

The songs from the 70s, 80s and 90s are called classics because it was simply difficult to get a recording contract and get your name out to hear. The songs were on vinyl and then later on to tapes. They were heard mostly through radio. The distribution and promotion to put it in short, was limited. I have no doubts there were so many aspiring artists in those three to four decades that weren’t heard because no one noticed them. Then, came the rising star of the Internet which created a whole plethora of options to promote an artist and digital media sales were now possible. Boyce Avenue inspired a whole generation of Youtube musicians. Now, we have the ever so wonderful Spotify and other streaming applications like Soundcloud, Pandora and iRadio.

So, I really do not stand by the argument that music got worse. There’s still the damn trash of anaconda. The styles in music certainly has evolved but I think that’s wonderful to see we are ever so capable of mixing so many styles to create a new genre. I like to think that throughout time, music had always two sides to it. The inspiration, funk, love, emotion and groove is one side. The other is the sex, drugs and party. It is sad sometimes to see charts filled with music of the latter because is that all we are about now? At the same time, we can’t use charts and billboards as a measure of the quality of our music because there’s just so many of songs out there now and all anyone has to go on is the radio and what latest thing big recording companies money vampire blood sucking corporations try to push out to the public through Vevo. We are so busy with work and studies that we just take in what we see because it just takes too much effort to find your own gems among everything else. Interestingly, the charts have been filled with better music in the past months. That’s my opinion anyway. The reason why our generation of music doesn’t seem to have an identity is because music evolved so rapidly across the span of a few years that it’s hard to pin it down to just a decade.

I think just don’t take what recording companies try to throw at you willingly. Surely, you have been to a night market or something similar. People are shouting at you to buy their products (slippers that glow in the dark or alarm clocks that wake you up with voice of Benedict Cumberbatch) and you just buy it because it’s visually appealing and it’s the first thing you see. Take some time out and try to look for the music you really relate to and need. Sometimes, maybe reminisce over the past decades as well cause they’re so fun like what Star Lord listens to and I assure you it will be worth your while.

Meanwhile I should get back to Footloose by Kenny Loggins and hold a rat as my microphone.