Where Did All The Great Music Go?

A few plaintive notes on harmonica, a tinkling piano, then that voice, “screen door slams, Mary’s dress waves. Just like that I knew “Thunder Road” was destined to be a classic. I’m sure most music fans have had that experience with a song regularly. Lately, however, I have noticed that euphoric feeling of discovery doesn’t seem to happen any more.

I started looking back at what I considered my all time favorite classic songs. I realized that all of the songs on my personal best of list were written before 1990. So have there really been no great songs, written in the past two decades? Has music changed that much? Or is it because as I grew older, music played a smaller part in my life?

From the day I bought my first good stereo system in the late 70’s through the 80’s where I spent most weekends as a wedding disc jockey, music was an important part of my life. I bought way too many records, then too many CD’s. Listening to music is what I did in my free time.

Much of the music I consider classic came from that time. Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, The Police, The Cars, U2 & Prince, all releasing album after album with many classic cuts. Maybe that was just an exceptional era of music. Perhaps, that is the explanation.

It was not just the music of that era, however, that resonated with me. I started to discover music, from earlier eras, rock songs that I had been to young to appreciate the first time around. Great soul music, Motown, blues and jazz all were finding a place in my heart and mind.

So if it wasn’t just that era of music being exceptional and dynamic, there must be another reason. Does time and place, essentially make the difference in what impact music has on you?


In our twenties, the road of life lies wide open ahead. Everything is new and exciting with different possibilities around every corner. As we get older, life settles into place. Other obligations and responsibilities grow and the opportunity to spend hours listening to music slips away. Changes happen less frequently and for many that is a good and natural thing.

As I listen again to classics, like “Born to Run”, The Cars first album, The Police, or Prince, memories rush my mind. I realize these memories are not so much of the music, but rather of lost youth. Of friends that shared the discoveries with you, of drinking too much and dancing into the night. Of spending days at Sam’s Jams, going through the cutout record bin in search of a bargain find. Hours spent reading liner notes and memorizing lyrics. From the perch of middle age these songs in many ways are a sound track to my life.

I know I start to sound like my Dad, as I wax nostalgic, with the “they don’t make music like that anymore” rant. That is not the case. There are many artists making good music today. From big bands like Coldplay, to artists in need of more airtime, such as Neko Case, there is good music. It is true that rap and hip-hop have pretty much destroyed R&B, but that is for another post.

That tingle, the goose bumps you get when a song just grabs you are just fewer and farther between. Maybe it is because you just can’t go back. Perhaps that is part of the disappointment with Springsteen’s last couple of albums. It seems he too is reaching back for some of his “glory days”. Yet instead of regaining the power and vitality of that era it seems more a pale imitation. Something we have all heard before.

I hope Bruce still has some great music in him. More importantly, I hope I still have the capacity to recognize it and appreciate it when I do hear that next classic track.