They don't write 'em like that anymore

You know, in the 80's, we had GREAT music. Say what you want about it, but it had grace, it had class, it had MEANING. We had some great anthems about being young. Think about that awesome anthem "Youth Gone Wild" by Skid Row:

They call us problem child
We spend our lives on trial
We walk an endless mile
We are the youth gone wild
We stand and we won't fall
We're the one and one for all
The writing's on the wall
We are the youth gone wild

What do kids have today?

Uh huh, this my sh*t
All the girls stomp your feet like this

A few times I've been around that track
So it's not just gonna happen like that
Cause I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl
Oooh, this my sh*t, this my sh*t [4x]

Yes, so very meaningful. WTF is a hollaback girl? Not that it's not a good song, I'm just saying things are different today.

Or how about the ballads that were sooo serious and loaded full of messages:

I drive by the homeless sleeping on a cold dark street
Like bodies in an open grave
Underneath the broken old neon sign
That used to read JESUS SAVES
A mile away live the rich folks
And I see how they're living it up
While the poor they eat from hand to mouth
The rich is drinkin' from a golden cup
And it just makes me wonder
Why so many lose, so few win
And give me something to believe in
If there's a Lord above
And give me something to believe in
Oh, Lord arise

And compare that to what it would be today:

What happens when you become the main source of her pain?
"Daddy look what I made", Dad's gotta go catch a plane
"Daddy where's Mommy? I can't find Mommy where is she?"
I don't know go play Hailie, baby, your Daddy's busy
Daddy's writing a song, this song ain't gonna write itself
I'll give you one underdog then you gotta swing by yourself
Then turn right around on that song and tell her you love her
And put hands on her mother, who's a spitting image of her
That's Slim Shady, yeah baby, Slim Shady's crazy
Shady made me, but tonight Shady's rocka-by-baby...

NICE!

Now I'm not saying that todays music is bad or not well done by talented people. I enjoy it, I really do. But it's missing something...it's missing meaning relevant to everyone.

On the upside, in the 80's, we didn't know the soul of Joss Stone, the heart of the Wreckers or the wonder that is American Idol.

However, we were able to be "Up all night, sleep all day!" and knew what it meant to "Slide it in, right to the top". We knew what it meant to be a "Blister in the Sun" and that "Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand". But most of all, we knew that "Love is a Battlefield" but when it's "Just Another Manic Monday", you can trudge along knowing "Everyone is Working for the Weekend." And it was all good...