Has artistic merit been left behind in 21st-century recorded music
The state of recorded music in the 21st century
The 2000s began with a promising burst of creativity in recorded music around the world. This early period offered listeners a wealth of interesting and original sounds.
Remarkable works from that era include:
- Speakerboxxx/The Love Below — OutKast
- Musicology — Prince
- Fly or Die — N.E.R.D.
- Come Away With Me — Norah Jones
- Room for Squares — John Mayer
- Chocolate Factory — R. Kelly
- The College Dropout — Kanye West
- Da Real Thing — Sizzla
- Stony Hill — Damian "Jr Gong" Marley
These albums stand as outstanding examples of imaginative, high-quality music. Such releases have become rare in a recording industry that now runs on hype, social-media engagement, and massive sales figures instead of artistic substance. Record labels seldom invest the time needed to nurture and showcase real talent; that responsibility has fallen to independent labels and production outfits.
Look at the major pop stars across any region today, and you will notice that exceptional skill is hardly a universal trait among them. In many cases, the ability of these celebrities is thoroughly questionable — a point that comedians and talk-show hosts globally have turned into regular material.
Within Jamaican popular music specifically, only a handful of albums carry any real artistic value.
In spite of the widespread mediocrity flooding global airwaves, a few genuinely gifted artists and remarkable records continue to emerge. The pressing question is whether we are witnessing the dawn of a new golden age — something comparable to the musical heights of the 1940s, 1960s, and 1970s. For the sake of music itself, one can only hope so, because audiences are growing exhausted with the predictable fodder the major recording machine keeps serving.
Rap and its derivatives — trap and drill — have become increasingly difficult to stomach, even for longtime fans of those genres. The same formula persists: minimalist beats, vocal grunts, and lyrics that are barely intelligible.
An identity crisis in Jamaican music
Electronic dance music, once a respected underground movement valued for its grit and sonic experimentation, has been flattened into a formula of repetitive bass drops, synth loops, and shallow lyrics.
Jamaican popular music now faces its own identity crisis. Although a few innovative sparks exist, the overall creative scene remains stuck: subpar performers dominate, and the production of mind-numbing, repetitive beats continues relentlessly.
New musical styles have emerged that could easily be recognized as fresh genres, but without consensus or leadership, the industry fails to evolve quickly enough to capitalize on them financially. All of this frustration persists despite Jamaican music's enormous global popularity — a popularity that remains largely unmonetized.
Ironically, the Jamaican sounds that consistently perform best internationally are fusion styles seldom respected in local urban street culture.
Who would have guessed that with homegrown "superstars" like Sizzla, Vybz Kartel, and Bounty Killer, the most internationally successful Jamaican acts would turn out to be Shaggy, Omi, and Sean Paul — artists who, even now, struggle to gain acceptance from purists in the urban culture scene.
Albums like the ones listed earlier — and a handful of others — offer a refreshing break from the cookie-cutter trends of mainstream pop.
The Billboard charts overflow with albums and singles that sell enormous numbers and turn their performers into big names. Yet one could argue that for all that commercial success, we are no further ahead: we still look to music from the 1960s and 1970s as the benchmark of true artistic achievement.
It is safe to say you will never hear N Sync, Britney Spears, Limp Bizkit, Vybz Kartel, Elephant Man, or Nick Cannon mentioned in the same conversation as the Beatles, Van Morrison, Dennis Brown, Jimmy Cliff, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, or Earth, Wind & Fire. Audiences will still be reaching for Bob Marley's Kaya and the Beatles' Rubber Soul long after No Strings Attached by N Sync or Big Tymers' Big Money Heavyweights have faded from memory.
The truth is that great music continues to be recorded. But because large corporations control mass media with profit as their sole motive — no regard for artistic excellence — most of it never reaches listeners.
Many fine artists produce exceptional work but remain unknown because of inadequate promotion. For the discerning listener, however, names worth knowing include Ani DiFranco, Jorja Smith, Robert Glasper, 3 Canal, the Roots, Black Star, Lasana Bandele, Chance the Rapper, Laura Mvula, and Samory I.