According to Google, July 18, 2017 hip-hop was declared the most popular genre. Hip-hop can be fun to listen to, but has it taken away from music that has been near and dear to so many hearts? The 1950-80’s was a crucial time for music. There was The Beatles, The Mamas and Papas, The Rolling Stones, Queen, Journey, The Blondies, and so many more bands that are now regarded as classics. These bands are what all bands want to become. Even if some of these bands are not familiar, it is safe to say everyone knows The Beatles. Every band or artist looks to The Beatles and wants to be like them because they set the bar for one of the most famous groups to ever exist.

No one listens to classic music anymore. Current music is all unoriginal and sounds the same. It all has some form of drugs, sex, alcohol, and other illegal things. On the other hand, songs from the 50-80’s did have some of those references but they always had some form of meaning. One of my favorite songs “Blackbird” by The Beatles is about the segregation between blacks and whites. No one talks about things that are wrong with the world anymore or have meaning. It’s about love or illegal things, never about the importance of what is going on around them.

Music is intended to give us some sort of comfort, or recognition that we are not the only ones going through pain. When we are sad, we typically listen to sad music to match our mood. The words in the song can empower us to try to be happy and be positive. No matter what our mood is, music can always change our mood.. The song “Dream a Little Dream of Me” by The Mamas and Papas honestly makes me drift away into another place. It’s just a beautiful song about love that has so much meaning in the words. It’s not a typical love song about the singer’s significant other this was just written from the bottom of their hearts.

Some people listen to music to relax, we don’t really think about the meaning of a certain song until we fall in love with it and listen to it on repeat until we hate it. For example, a really big song of 2017 was Sign of the Times by Harry Styles which pretty much everyone has been listening to. The song is very beautiful, but the song is deeper than you realize. It’s about a mother dying giving birth which most people probably didn’t know. Music is so much more than just the beat or the words. There is so much meaning than people realize. Next time you listen to a song think about the meaning and the beat and what the story of the song is.