Today's Music Sucks

Who would have thought I would sit down to watch Monday Night Football, the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons, and come away a music critic? In the pre-game show and at halftime U2 and Green Day were the featured performers. The crowd was ecstatic, why I do not know. The musicianship, the songs, and the singers were tried by me and found wanting. The songs were imminently forgettable, the singers were unremarkable, and the band featured pedestrian guitars and drums. The only real animation was provided by one drummer, but the quality of his drumming didn't match his energy level.

By way of contrast and comparison, the TV (ESPN) pre-game show included a black congregation with choir singing "When The Saints Go Marching In," and it was fabulous. Then Irma Thomas and Allen Toussaint performed a first-rate rendition of the National Anthem. Even Hank Williams Jr. sounded really good in comparison to U2 and Green Day. While he and other singers and dancers were doing a high-energy "Are You Ready For Some Football," the flashes of Little Richard pounding the piano and beaming at the camera were much too brief. It looked and sounded like they were all having a lot of fun.

I feel sorry for today's young people. Their music is so poor, so insipid, that it won't even pass over to the Other Side after it dies and become elevator music. It is stillborn.