12RS, you're writing in circles.

There will be crap music in every era. There will also be great music in every era.

The difference is - it's not YOUR era when you choose not to roll with change. It's that simple. Music evolves. I remember being told exactly how it evolves while in music school. What I learned about the cycles of musical styles was interesting. What I didn't think I'd see was how fast it would change through cycles. Based on what I learned, we're due for a huge rollback to simplicity. And if some of the things I've heard recently are any indication - it's already starting to happen.

Another reason why it may be harder for you to find your great songs, is due to the incredible amount of competition there is. Comparing the population from the 60's to the population today is only going to disappoint you since it's more than doubled and the amount of people attempting to be musician's has also increased dramatically.

Here's a little story from last weekend. I was hanging out in a resort town during a very popular arts festival with some friends. I had my guitar with me while we were out on a plaza during lunch. They pestered me to play some songs. I pulled out my guitar and started playing. There were a bunch of people who were probably of your age bracket 12RS sitting around as well. One of my friends was near a group of them and they turned to tell him how brilliant they thought I was and wondered if I was a professional. He replied to them that I was a professional musician to which they said it was very obvious. The point of that is, they weren't closed minded. They loved it and picked up a CD and that wasn't even my intent while hanging with friends.

Additionally, several of my friends asked the question "How it is that you can sound exactly the same live as you do recorded?" My response was, when you're really good, there isn't much of a difference between live and recording. It's all a performance and it's all about the song and how you want to present it.

I think the real difference today is that songwriting and production can be and usually is specialized - you even touched on it (songwriting). However, that does not mean there aren't great songs today.

BTW, the Beatles are mentioned. Guess what? They used every ounce of technology they had at that time to create those masterpieces of pop. That still happens with artists today. The difference is, there is way more technology to choose from now, just like there are way more artists to choose from that use it.

Why spend so much time worrying about where your era went? Again, I implore those who are so negative on change to start writing something that sparks the craze for tomorrow. Prove it by putting your songwriting where your mouth is.

p.s. despite the grammatical faux pas about 2006 [and I disagree, it's not a great article - to me it's an opinionated editorial by someone who is stuck in the 60's and 70's]. "Crazy" is still a great song. American Idiot is still a great album. Panic At The Disco writes some really great pop rock songs that if you'd study them, you'd see they're not always pumping along in 4/4 even though they feel like they are.

Jody Whitesides
A Funky Audio Lap Dance For Your Ears!
www.jodywhitesides.com