Old Music, New Music

I just ran across something that made me smile. Jed Gottlieb writes for the Boston Herald and put up an essay titled "Why classic albums are selling more than new ones". Because they are cheaper is his answer. But it was this bit that made me pause:

And anyone who thinks old music is better than new music isn’t listening to new music. Neko Case, Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire and a hundred other young acts are delivering brilliant art.

The "old music" he is referring to isn't J. S. Bach, let me hasten to add, but the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. Since this is the internet, there was the option to leave a comment, which a number of people did. Here's the link to the comments. With only a couple of exceptions, every single commentor said the same thing: "dude, the pop musicians today have a serious shortage of talent". Heh.

OK, well we are all about exploring the new here at The Music Salon, so let's have a listen to a little Neko Case. She is, by the way, an American singer/songwriter who has done a lot of performing with a Canadian group, the New Pornographers. Here is the first clip that comes up on YouTube:

That was ... exciting? Pretty dull harmonies alternating between I and bVII nearly all the time (the same semi-progression that Gotye uses in his hit "Somebody That I Used to Know"). Drumming? OK. Guitar-playing? Subfusc. Singing? OK. Now this is awkward. In the traditional method of music criticism here at The Music Salon, now I am going to put up some 'old music' to compare this to. But it's going to be embarrassing. OK, let me see if I can find a dull song by the Stones.

I'm not a big fan of the Stones, nor of this song, but don't you think there is something going on there, some of it fairly original? It would be cruel to put Neko Case up against some real singers and songwriters, but what the heck, let's do it:

Yeah, no way that is better than Neko Case. Uh-huh.