[bunnerabb]

I have a lot of people, the "kids" I like to call them - between 21 and 35 - sharing their views with me on the state of music, these days. Some are very passionate about it, some sort of look at it as something to have on in the background. Normal attributes to any given degree of interest in any form... not everybody is a music aficionado... but they all have one thing in common. They all like songs. Not mixes.

They have no idea what the hell goes into assembling a mix, they just like the song or they don't. They may like it because of the mix, but they don't know that. It sounds "cool" or it sounds "crappy" or it's "kick ass" or "not really very well done".

They know what they like, but not why. They expect certain things from any given artist, and have no idea the degree to which the mix effects what they hear, and that's fine. That being said, POOR engineering and production values almost consistently lead to something being rejected out of hand.

It has to be listenable. They have no clue as to how this is achieved. The majority of people think that any given record's sound is simply what happens as that artist plugs in and opens their mouth.

You know what?

GOOD!

That's fine... but be warned: THEY KNOW WHEN SOMETHING SOUNDS SHIT. They can't say why, but they know a bad recording. Keeping the standards high is everybody's business. Writing brilliant, moving, fun, catchy, hook-y songs is the job of the artist and crafting them into well structured pieces of recorded music is the engineers, producer's AND artist's job.

Great pop songs aren't recorded, they're crafted piece by piece.

We need good writers. We need craftsmen behind the consoles with good tools and with a SENSE OF HISTORY. Who we are, culturally, is who we were, and nothing can evolve from a vacuum.

Everywhere I go, kids wanna rock.