These kids and their newfangled music.

So this week, with the death of Michael Jackson, I got to thinking. You see, that day, and the following one, all the pop and hip-hop radio stations played Michael Jackson songs in tribute. So here's my thought: what happened to all the music icons? I mean, who can our generation really look up to in the same way that our parents adored the Beatles, The Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, or Michael Jackson? Who has so shaped our generation's music that, if they died, the radio would play their music non-stop? I'll answer that question for you. Nobody.
You see, music today has degenerated into nothing more than a free-for-all, gladiator style death match of competing musicians (and I use that term liberally).

Music WAS Show Business. Music was IT.

These days, anyone gets a record deal, which the record companies then take and warp into something that resembles nothing of the original version. Music today, especially rap, is nothing more than ego-obsessed, proud, gaudy, swaggering "artists" trying to one-up each other.
Now, I will say this; there ARE good songs out there, but it is getting increasingly difficult to produce an original sound while saying the same things (I love you, nobody understands me, life is so hard for me, I want you back etc...)
But back to my first thought, where are all the icons? Why is it impossible for us to rally in the same way that the world followed Elvis? I think that it is because there are so many different branches of music nowadays that everyone can find something that is explicitly tailored to that individual. Everyone wants to be different, to set themselves apart, to define themselves, that they are almost afraid of liking a band that is accumulating a following. Because nobody wants to be the same as anyone else. I miss the icons. Thank goodness someone invented CDs.