Modern Life is Rubbish

I’ve been listening to a lot of old music lately, more than usual. It makes me think of how funny the 90s were. I grew up in the 90s, and there a lot of bands and musicians I remember listening to, like the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Shania Twain, the Black Eyed Peas (yes, their songs released in 2000 were quite funky and I suppose hip-hop hadn’t really touched the mainstream side of things yet), Oasis, Linkin Park and, well, above all, Blur. I’ve recently become obsessed with Blur all over again. I suppose it’s that sense of nostalgia that drags us back to those times.

Which brings me to “current” music, which I barely listen to. Whatever is mainstream now doesn’t appeal to me anymore, and it’s not just because I can’t stand the hip-hop that’s taking over, or the overrated teenage singers. It’s also because I’ve found a sort of ‘comfort zone’, in which I listen to all the artists I enjoy listening to time and time again, taking their music in, enjoying it for what it is. Even if they get “old”, I still love them. Even if these bands broke up years ago and never record anything new. Even if Damon Albarn is old now, even if Kurt Cobain is dead, even if Armor For Sleep have broken up, even if Poets of the Fall’s new album sucks and I’d rather listen to their old.

I think you’d get overplayed songs by listening to the radio, listening to mainstream music. I believe that’s why I began to get sick of it. It’s almost like the contemporary mainstream music is dying to be squeezed through your ears. It’s not the music that is rubbish, most of the time, but the way society expects it to be dragged through your brains.

News is rubbish. Current affairs is rubbish. We spend hours on end on social networking websites and often find out about world events and disasters through our friends and family on Facebook or Twitter, and that is only slightly more valuable than the rest of the crap that pops up. People often complain about other people complaining in their status updates. People post useless photos and tag people when the photos don’t even have those people in them. Twitter often has trending topics of useless hashtags like #ileftyoubecause and #replacebandnameswithpenis. We might pop onto Digg or Reddit and find ridiculous memes or spend hours on Tumblr reblogging everything to do with Doctor Who. O yeah, I did that today. And sometimes I think, “Why do I do this? Why do I spend hours reblogging gifs and screenshots and other pretty pictures?”

Memes are utter trash. Double Rainbow. Being rickrolled. As fun as it is being rickrolled, it’s rubbish. It’s like the only original thing someone can do to fool someone on April Fools’ is to link them to a video containing Rick Astley or send them to a shock site or post shit on 4chan.

Education: primary school, high school, university is rubbish. Mike and James are dealing with the undeniably irritating Pacman, code name for an annoying character who doesn’t seem to be able to fend for himself or do his own work, attempts (but fails) to organise group meetings primarily because he isn’t considering other people’s busy lives, and also seems to be jealous of James’ and my sprouting, joyous relationship. We’re forced to do group work with people in our group who we can’t even get along with or who leave our calls unanswered, call us at ungodly hours or continue to call us to pester us. We’re expected to do tests and other ridiculous assignments just to get a piece of paper with some bland qualification that has the same effect as writing, “You fucking graduated!” on it with a picture of Sean Connery as James Bond.

We’re expected to be able to drive cars to get ourselves around yet they expect us to pay toll on some roads. Then they complain about exhaust fumes and want us to catch the trains and buses in order to travel to work, and when we do, we’re stuck on a tin can train smothered with graffiti running at two metres per minute, and forced to shove past pushing and shoving people through ticket barriers that are far too narrow for someone even slightly plump.

On the flip side, nothing is perfect and we would be naked people living in the bush and arguing over a glass bottle of Coca Cola and unknowingly having our story written into some movie. Whatever we’re living now is a conformity-based, albeit constantly changing facade of how we really are inside.

Blur was right. Modern life is rubbish.

Comments on this post

A lot of 90’s music makes me sad. Jeff Buckley and Nirvana for example. Incubus’ 90’s albums don’t make me sad though.

I’ve noticed that you’ve been listening to Blur :P
Shania Twain and Britney Spears were my favourite singers when I was younger than five. I find that quite amusing seeing as I don’t listen to either of them any more.

I remember in around 2003-2004, hip-hop was my favourite genre and everyone else seemed to like rock. It’s the opposite right now.

That is the only reason why I despised mainstream music. Everyone’s always playing it (especially at school) and after a while, it becomes monotonous. And if you don’t listen to it, people think you are weird. Luckily, peer pressure doesn’t affect me much.

Wow. I just realised that everything you said is true. Everything really is rubbish (or garbage, if you wan’t to get american). I don’t know why I invest so much time in memes and reading random sh!t when I could be doing something so much more productive.

Ehh, Pacman sounds like he has poor leadership skills. Someone should teach him about Napoleon. I think you should slap Pacman. This is why I prefer working alone. I don’t like getting paired up with lazies (that is a new word according to Monica).

My life suddenly seems so bad and pointless after reading this.
I think I should start listening to Blur.

I know this was just a quick comment :P It’s 11:11 and I have school tomorrow. I shall return your comment another time. Goodnight, Georgina!

Or is life itself just rubbish? Sometimes I do wonder why I bother blogging but the same principle could be applied to everything. Why go to university? Why get a job? Why turn up on a daily basis to said job? Why have children? Why send them to primary school to play with bricks? There really isn’t a point calling life “rubbish” nor is there a point calling life “brilliant”. I’ve always thought of life itself as a clean, neutral slate with neither a point nor a specific end target. It’s just something to work on and with. Like a blank canvas. There isn’t a specific painting that you have to paint to every canvas. What you decide to paint could turn out absolutely shit, it could turn out quite pretty and to be honest, you don’t even have to paint on the damn canvas in the first place.

Modern life seems pointless in itself because of all the mind-numbing things we do. And when you look at in perception with whatever other mammal, bird, insect, bacteria is doing, we look so out of place. While we’re queuing for this and paying bills and going grocery shopping, they do as they have always done, each like the other. But really it’s what life is and has become for us. But when you look at it that way, what kind of life is “non-conformity” based? It’s become quite ‘fashionable’ nowadays to say that our society is one reliant on strict conformity but which society was not? In the 1800s you could get yourself burned at the stake for being slightly different, at least instead of crucifixion or something else horrifying, we just get ridiculed by others.

And whilst Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook etc. may seem pointless, I can’t agree that current affairs are pointless. I will never choose ignorance over information.

And because, I always seem to comment backwards through a blog (because I suck like that), I finally arrive at the topic of Blur and music; Blur is, by the way, my favorite band of all time since ever. Had you known me well only a couple years ago, Blur would dominate each and every one of my blogs and “about-me” pages. I made Blur seem mainstream, let’s just put it that way. I’ll never have anything against “pop” music because it’s irrelevant whether or not I ridicule it. It’s called “popular” for a reason, whether or not I choose to listen to it or not, no one cares. I’ll listen to pop, I’ll listen to hip-hop, I’ll listen to R&B but I’ll be choosy over what I listen. I don’t engulf everything that cycles through the Top 10 of the charts but nor do I choose to generalize and demean all and any music achieving record sales. Music is all about personal taste, which is why I never choose to review it. Plus Blur was “mainstream” back in the 90s, so I would feel like a giant hypocrite. You probably know of the Blur vs. Oasis feud. That was a society, media-driven, sensationalized media war: the ultimate icon of mainstream.

However, Damon Albarn is not old, yet and his voice is still as sexy as always. Listen to Gorillaz, listen to Graham Coxon’s solo stuff. The older you become, the better your game is, so it appears. Oh and after Fool’s Day, they are reported to be in recording studios following their reunion back a couple years ago.

That’s the thing I always forget to extrapolate on – world news is relevant, possibly useful, but what irks me more than anything is current affairs shows that typically exaggerate the stories in the media. Since doing a unit on it in high school and related research projects in university, a lot of what they attempt to tell us in the news is exaggerated for the channels’ benefit, to gain more views and hence revenue. A lot of what they broadcast is tantalised and things that don’t deserve as much attention are given all the attention in the world. It kind of disgusts me.

Albarn’s old but he’s still a hot rocket; I guess I was briefly outlining how and in what way things have changed, even in the smallest ways. Hell yeah, Gorillaz. :D I’ve heard people argue that Coxon sounds like Blur minus Albarn, but what can you say, I believe it’s good music.

Old stuff is definately better than the new stuff, agreed. Despite this, I listen to BBC Radio 1 a lot during college, but I guess that’s because I don’t like working in silence . XD
Everything you’ve said is true, but unforunately life isn’t the greatest of machines and we have to put up with it’s errors and glitches. *hugs* ♥

Thanks for the comment – Yeah, my teacher was kind of making advances, things like he’d been seen almost grabbing a girls bum and commented to another girl ‘i’m not supposed to say this but your arse looks really nice in that dress’. :| It’s shocking really, especially as I wasn’t putting two and two together to see that he was doing was innapropriate. @_@ eeeek

im proud to say i still listen to the backstreet boys and they still togethor and making excellent music
my kind of music is hardly played by everyone so im still safe ;)

Heey Georgina(:

:O I am familiar with all of those artists/bands that you named of except for Twain :O! I have been 10 feet from the people of Linkin Park before :P. They went to my middle school to visit the choir teacher :O. There`s no such thing as artists’ musics getting old because.. It`s still being listened to :O

I don`t like the current mainstream music of today– that includes teenagers singing. Like most of the Disney Stars of today. They just do it for the fame. Sometimes, the old is better than the new :O Or the new is better than the old. It varies a lot -__-!

The news of today.. It`s decent for those who don`t have access to what we have. But sometimes, it is rubbish if it is in your way. What you said– is just true :O.

Pacman sounds like a clingy person ‘~’. Pacman needs to see what reality really is about -___-! Nothing ever is perfect. Modern time is. Like any other times, it can be rubbish now, and it`ll be said otherwise on textbooks later.

Its okay (: Now, I just worry about the pain on the back of my feet -___-! Whenever I say “..my old teacher…” to one of my teachers, he corrects me because I guess he finds it offensive in a literal term :X.

Sorry about the long comment delay :/. It`s like, my site is down, I am too “depressed” to even think about connections besides twitter ‘~’.

Take care (:

Omg I HATE memes. They annoy me to tears. @_@ People are so ridiculous sometimes.

I’ve started listening to a lot of older music too. Same as you, mostly 90s stuff, early 2000s.. Dido, Incubus (but I never stopped listening to them), Dave Matthews Band, Garbage, a lot more..

It amazes me how much music has just gone downhill. Everything is electronic, auto tuned to hell or just don’t even use real instruments anymore. Its kind of sad. While I like a lot of the newer music, I don’t want it to replace REAL music.

Oops I meant to tell you thanks for entering my icon contest and voting started today /eee

I usually listen just to mainstream music, or like the music on the Billboard Top 100 and stuff :P For me, I guess it really depends if I’d keep listening or not, sometimes the songs if I listen to them too much they get annoying, well for me.

So truee, there’s so many teenage singers and people getting discovered by YouTube and all that, haha. Well I guess out comes the old in comes the new? And I do like Hip Hop music, but sometimes I just want like pop and that stuff too. Like you’ll never find a song I swear these days without some partial rap in it, okay you can but the majority has rap. It’s kind of cool how they’ve found a way to incorporate like songs that come off as soft then rap after. Like, Love the way you lie and I’m Coming Home, things like that. :D

That’s actually really true, there’s certain songs that are so overplayed on the radio its crazy! I love when like I’m in the car and I’m switching radio stations trying to find which song I like the best and when they both have the same song, haha.

Aw, that’s awful! “Pacman” is so inconsiderate, he seems kind of selfish.

Canada doesn’t have tolls on the roads… yet. In the States when we went there were so many though, on the highway and stuff.
I totally agree with you!
—
Wow… her name also? She didn’t even say “oh this is my alias” or anything? That’s really weird. Like I have an internet name but it’s kind of a fail because I use them like half and half, depends on the person of who I’ve introduced myself to as “Celine” and who I have to my “nickname”. But I kinda say it’s an internet name, well I mean on my site. The internet name is kind of a shortform ish, just spelled different of my real first name.

That’s so dumb, why would she ask proof for who you were…. just because she’d lie about her identity – like maybe to hide her personal info, but lie about other things too is far past that point – doesn’t mean you would have too. Wow, she was already caught so why even lie more about it? Did she even lie about where she lived? :P Haha, true. Imagine if you mistook that person for your online friend!

Haha, I remember :D How long did you wear a retainer for?? Did you have like the metal glued on behind your mouth or the retainer where you can put on and off?

Haha /hehe Canada has a lot of “smaller” parties too, but there are like the “main” parties that people vote for :)

… anyway, did you make a list of your May goals? :D

Agreed, especially re: new music. The only new music I like lately is that released by “older” bands: Motorhead’s new album, Slash’s solo record, Danzig’s new stuff, etc. There have been a few new bands I love — Black Angels and Rival Sons, for example — but the new stuff I like tends to be unpopular, given how low rock is on the popularity totem pole these days. I’ve never been a fan of hip-hop or modern R&B (aside from an adoration for TLC dating back to their first album from 1992), so its seeming domination of music lately is… well, I’m not a fan of it. I know tastes and trends are cyclical and rock *will* come back in a big way, but I want it to happen NOW. NOW NOW NOW.

And, really, I agree with the rest of it. Sometimes I envy earlier times/years, but then I remember that I like the internet and central AC and other modern conveniences. No-win situation, really. :

Yeah, have you seen that photo of Justin Beiber in Speedos? Holy crap his wang is tiny. Like a cashew nut that was run over by the Shrinky-Truck on the way to Tinytown.

But I’ll agree Poets of the Fall is heading downhill 3:

Yeah, current affairs is pretty crap in Australia. I remember in the aftermath of the V-Tech shootings that a “witness” said ‘…but I heard about it on TV.’ /bash /bash /bash

Sean Connery’s voice is sexier than Damon Albarn. So dry. So smooth. 🤤 /ehe 🤫
He makes Damon sound like 🤮

(Y)

Modern life is… bleh. I pick and choose what I like. I don’t listen to mainstream music and I don’t social network, but I read the memes on Reddit occasionally.

I feel like that there are parts of modern life that I enjoy a lot. Like having computers, and blogging. If everyone were able to produce actual content, then I would enjoy the Internet even more. As for people complaining through their statuses, I’m pretty sure that the complain has just moved from behind people’s backs to the Internet.

As for music, I don’t listen to popular music, but our favorite music is always the music that gets us into music. For me, that’d be some techno, folk, and classical. (But to think of a generation that loves hip-hop = … ugh…) :P

I agree total rubbish. I don’t like modern anything … hahaha @ james comment about Justin Beiber. I really did have to laugh … ♥

Hello!

Ahhh yes, 90s music was awesome. Backstreet boys were so ♥. Hahaha. Well their music was anyways, I can’t actually remember what any of them looked like D:. Music now really IS trash. I am SO SICK of hearing Bruno Mars on the radio, and those STUPID songs with endlessly repeating phrases as lyrics. And omg, I get that alternative non-mainstream music was very cool at one point, but that was when it was GOOD. Turn on video hits lately, and there’s a NEVER-ENDING STREAM of these CRAPPY songs by artists that no one’s EVER heard of, but they just sound like they’re randomly talking to background music. It’s so frustrating!

Haha, news really IS rubbish these days. They report the bare MINIMUM, and there’s like NO integrity anymore. It’s all about ratings and entertainment. Seriously, on the anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre, they reported on the Royal Wedding first, and not a massacre. Okay, I guess the wedding is more recent and the massacre happened ages ago,but still, since WHEN does such a tragedy which should never be forgotten because it shows what happens when you don’t help people who need it, take precedence over an event that in all actuality has NOTHING TO DO with Australia, bar the fact that if there’s a change in the line of succession, it means our head of state is a different person. *sigh*.

Highschool totally sucked. I never want to go through that again. D:. And man, that Pacman /angry. He needs a life. Or at LEAST to be a little more considerate. The ass! Hmph. Jealousy is a green monster.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT! HATE HATE HATE! The m2 is supposed to be fast, yet at times I could almost WALK faster than the traffic is moving. *sigh*.

Man, I have a new found respect for that song. Modern life IS trash!

I don’t hate all mainstream music, because there are still a few gems in there, but a lot of it’s pretty annoying already. I just hate that my youth is eventually going to be known for rap and hip-hop. I never liked either. I like the music of real singers – the ones who have a much bigger singer range and have the mental capacity to sing about things other than getting laid, getting drunk and getting high. Sometimes it’s like they’re paying more attention to the looks of singers than to their actual talent. They get any random actor or actress who can carry a tune and brand them as an artist, making them think that they’re good at singing when they’re nothing special. This is why I love Adele – “I make music for ears, not eyes”.

It’s just sad to think that a lot of the things that were established in the past have lost their meaning and purpose. Education, which was meant to pass down information and spread knowledge, has become something based on memorization and is made up of things that most of us won’t remember the next year. Sometimes it’s just about acing the test and not about long-term success and fulfillment.

While it is messed up in many ways, I don’t really hate the modern world. There will always be something to complain about, no matter what time we were living in.

Modern life is.. hmm, well retro fashion is back right now so people are definately missing that 80’s or 90’s feeling. But yes modern music is quite weird these days. I do like Bruno Mars and Taylor Swift. But I miss those “greats” from past centuries.

I love to swim. The last time I went swimming was last week when I went in the sea. I miss Portugal already. I’m glad I’m going back in like 10 weeks.

I was lucky to miss the whole wedding. It was nice to watch the highlights on TV when I got back but I’m sure I would have been pretty bored if I had sat there and watched the whole thing.

I love love love older music! Blur and Oasis are great bands. My friend says that my dad looks like Noel Gallagher but I can’t see the likeness at all!!

I have to listen to current pop and hip hop music everyday on the radio and the way to college. It doesn’t appeal to me at all and I’m glad I have my iPod full of music that was produced years ago. I think it’s funny when someone thinks old music is from 2005! They should try 1960’s music. :D

The only way I know what is going on the world is by looking at Twitter. That’s how I first knew about most of breaking news stories this year.

I actually like Rick Astley’s music so rickrolling annoys me because everyone thinks his music is a joke, when some of it is actually rather good. I’ve seen the Double Rainbow video. I don’t get it hahaha!!

I like music of the 90’s, because it reminds me of dancing around like a loon when I was 6/7. I like some of the current music, but not the dance, trance, hip hop stuff unless I am in a club and in that frame of mind. I used to like Spice Girls, Blue and Five. Music older than the 90’s does not really interest me as I wasn’t around then, but I do appreciate the odd song or two.

Yeah, I’m like that too now. Well I use to be like that more but now I listen to music whenever my sister puts it on, or like when I’m in the car. I’m not as obsessed as I was before, ish. I do listen to some music that’s not on the charts, though. Not much though.

I know right, I agree with you. I think it’s kind of like unfair when you see celebrities performing live and they absolutely suck at it, and there only good on the CD, while you see other singers like on YouTube and like American Idol or The Voice, things like that, that are actually like REALLY good live and they’re not even famous. /ehh But like have you ever heard Hedley live? Is he famous in Australia? Well, he’s on the charts and everything and his voice live is as good as the CD. Just little worse, but like near to perfection. One of the best I’ve ever heard, you could never really sound the same as on the CD, you know?

Yeah, but the type of singing I don’t really get is like, ughhh it’s so hard to explain. Like you know Lady Gaga? When she sings some part of a song it’s not really singing. Like some verses if you know them. It’s hard to explain D: And like ughh. One day I’ll get a verse out of a song to show you! Lol, it’s kind of like talking/singing. Not rapping, but talking/singing with a tune in it. Sorry it’s hard to explain! I’m not sure you’ll get what I mean.

We have like in Canada registration, not tolls. And that sucks if you’re in a rush and then you have to get stopped for a toll! :/

Same, sometimes if I like kind of imagine saying the words outloud it’s kind of obvious if they’re being “fishy” or “lying”. That’s why it’s hard to make friends on the Internet :S It’s hard to tell most of the time. I know right, now when I think of it, it may seem like I have 2 identities on the internet LOL. Since I told you like about it depends who I’ve introduced myself to as which name, depending on when I made the “alias”. Like I met you before I made my internet name. :P

When did you get your braces taken off? And how long more do you have to wear them for??!?!? D:

Yay for the May Goals! You’ve never had a bagel before? Well there just like sandwiches, well you probably know that. It’s just like the breads a bit different and you add like creamcheese to it or butter.

Books, which books have you read recently? :) Any to recommend? Ahh, you and your candy addictions. :D What jobs are you looking to apply too? Like what type of job? :)

I wish I’d grown up in the 1900s. I barely got the ’90s.
A couple of friends and I were talking about the death of Princess Diana and they were all going on about different stories they had when they found out. I was barely 3 years old and I didn’t even know what Wales was lol.
I hate mainstream music. It’s bleeding to the ears. e_e. A lot of my music is from the ’70s-’90s.
I completely agree with you. The modern day really isn’t that great. In my English class, part of our grade comes from keeping up-to-date with current events, but I really could care less if Mariah Carey had twins or triplets or whatever. And then the occasional advertisement that says that 1 in every 4 kids in America is faced with hunger. Hmmm.
I stopped using Facebook because everything everyone posts pretty much wastes my time. Twitter can be pretty interesting, though.
Some of the news is funny though. Fox News had a “typo” in one of its headlines today so it wasn’t Osama who died but Obama XD

Well said!

I absolutely hate mainstream music. I listen to stuff like Red or We Are the Fallen (2 bands no one has ever ever ever heard of), I HATE the genre pop, I hate hip-hop, okay I pretty much hate all music. Most of my music is rock, and I’m even picky with that. I have a problem with alternative, which I consider to be mainstream. I miss stuff like Heart or Queen. Though I haven’t heard much of them, I know they were great. But modern trend? Seriously.

Social networking (like FB??!) is utterly retarded. There is no freaking point to it at all. And #replacebandnamewithpenis on Twitter? People have no lives. Memes? They’re just the modern way of saying Myspace Surveys. And now they’ve become 30-Day Tumblr Challenges.

And don’t even get me started on modern schools. I hated everything about my high school, though I miss it now because university is worse. Well maybe not, but dorming says all.

The only thing modern I like are new & clean buildings. That’s why I like going to midtown Manhattan so much. Reminds me of all that beautiful stuff in Beijing and Shanghai. Mainly because not-modern buildings are invested with mice. -scream-

Heya blog friend! ✌️

These points are all so true, people just don’t realize the ff things:

1. Music these days are just catchy but majority of them have crappy lyrics. Music before happen to be meaningful and had good lyrics.

2. If you notice Twitter, more and more of our “offline” friends follow us now. :| I don’t know why, it just feels so weird.. I rant so much stuff at my Twitter account which I’d like to keep to my blogosphere friends.. ><

i can’t tell i listened to much music in the 90s besides norwegian “children music”, haha i guess i was too little to give a damn about music back then, i was only a kid. but i started to listen to shania twain after a while, my dad had his influence on me i guess, i still do sometimes though, some artists are timeless! (: i listened a little bit to britney spears as well, but i actually think her newest album is the best one so far. never been a fan of backstreet boys, i think their songs are too “soft” for me, but black eyed peas is a cool band, remember i sang songs from them on singstar haha!! :D
when it comes to music now when i’m listening to it pretty much all the time, i mainly listen to music from “today”. i don’t think many of the songs are from further back than 2000, but of course there’s a few exceptions! still i’m not a big fan of all those on the hit lists, i like to find the songs myself, and then judge for myself if this is good or not, not depending of what others like or not like.

haha yes it’s my site too, but i design for me, and after a few days without having my hands on something, i feel frustrated for not doing anything useful, lol!

thank you!! <3 and thank you again for the good luck, i'll need it on thursday and friday, just two tests before the final exams, ekhh i'm nervous ;S

I think I’m in love with you after reading this post. :D