Sound City: Music Is or Is Not As Good As It Used To Be

The Suburbs- Arcade Fire

In today's society, when people think of music they often think of the hip hop and pop culture that surrounds us and represents values of violence, sexism or stereotyping in their lyrics. While songs like Rihanna's S&M or 50 Cent's Candy Shop are very inappropriate and clearly display profanity, there are numerous artists that today still display fantastic music, and are not abusing the technology they are provided with, but instead taking advantage of it for the benefit of their listeners. The band Arcade Fire perfectly displays this in their song The Suburbs. The Suburbs is a song written by the Canadian band that talks about the expansion of Suburbia in North America and how, in the long run, it could affect our social and economic lives as a whole.  Legendary artists in the past have addressed this issue such as Joni Mitchell in her song Paved Paradise, and Bob Dylan in his song, The Times They are a Changing. Arcade Fire uses deep lyrics such as, "So you can understand, why I want a daughter while I'm still young, I want to hold her hand and show her some beauty before all the damage is done." to represent the issue of suburbia and how it could affect the next generations to come. On the technology side of the argument, Arcade Fire effectively shows how music videos can be used to display the issues presented in their songs. In this specific video, Arcade Fire uses an excerpt from a French Indie film to play along with their music. The short excerpt from the film displays children being affected by growing up in suburban areas, and shows how it can negatively affect the way they grow up both physically and emotionally. Since Arcade Fire uses this film, people who are fans of the popular band may also want to view the film after having watched the music video. Arcade Fire has drawn attention to a less popular artist, and in doing so, will increase their popularity and help them 'make it' in the industry. The Suburbs is perfect proof of how the music industry is not depleting in today's society, and in certain genres of music, it may even be evolving for the better.