Music, like everyone, ages and grows overtime. Throughout the years the world has had many genres of music and has gone through so many songs it is almost impossible to count how many. In the 80s through the 90s, it was mainly grunge and rock music while the 2000’s have been mostly pop and rap. To this day and through all time generations have debated which ones songs are better.

     A local musician Jarred Heckart, a Hamburg Hawks alumni, shared,”Your generation has happier lyrics. My generation was the second rebellion. The first was the Beatles obviously.  I have always tried to write so that it sounds like me, not my generation, but lyrically it was based on my own mental health. So I don’t use his generation as an influence. Occasionally I prefer my music but I can listen to both. We were the last of everything dude, the last guitar solo for example to get a boost during a work day I listen to the hard driving angry sound like Rage Against the Machine.”

      The length of songs and shorter breaks between the lyrics because the generation is more focused on getting to the next lyric the length of the songs, he explained. “The songs are extremely short compared to, for example, the Green Day song Jesus of Suburbia. It still holds the record of the longest song played in full on “The Last Call with Carson Daly.” 

     The real question is does the music from today hold up to his music. “Sam Smith or Adele for our generation and how do they hold up? They hold up very well. Edwin Mccain the same kind of thought, is one of my favorite artists and he has the same power that both Adele and Sam Smith carry in their lyrics.”

     So it seems that the generations of music have changed over the years with rebellions and rock solos and more angry lyrical choices. And it has now changed to mostly happier lyrics and shorter songs with no guitar solos and less rebellion. But there is still a bit of that power from those guitar solos and angry lyrics that seeps through this generation’s music now and then. So as the generations move on, the songs of the time do too, but they always have a little bit of that same spark and power as the last.