“…don’t hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky…,” “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas. Chances are you either have never heard of that song or it is just simply too old for you to even care. The truth is, that is the only music that I really listen to due to the fact that music today all seems the same. So if you want a decent review, I will have to take a gander around. According to the Billboard Top 100 Chart at http://www.billboard.com, the number one song right now is, “I’ve Gotta Feeling,” by The Black Eyed Peas. The number two is, “Down,” by Jay Sean featuring Lil Wayne. There it says the number 100 song is, “Million Dollar Bill,” by Whitney Houston. 99 happens to be, “Closer to Love,” by Mat Kearney. Junior Brian Tolan says “’21 Guns’ by Green Day is real good.” Now on the charts they take the 28th spot. According to the charts, the top five CD’s are as followed: “I Look to You,” by Whitney Houston; “The Time of Our Lives,” by Miley Cyrus; “Ready,” by Trey Songz; “Bang! Pow! Boom!,” by Insane Clown Posse; and, “Breakthrough,” by Colbie Caillat. I find it quite ironic that Whitney Houston’s new CD is number one when her single is the last on the list. In the different genres (according to the chart), “Check my Brain,” by Alice in Chains is the number one rock song; the hip-hop/ R&B song is, “Pretty Wings,” by Maxwell; the country song is, “Big Green Tractor,” by Jason Aldean; and the pop song is, “I’ve Gotta Feeling,” by The Black Eyed Peas. Popular songs right now include, “Say It,” by Blue October; “You Belong with Me,” by Taylor Swift; “Use Somebody,” by Kings of Leon; “Obsessed,” by Mariah Carey; “Run this Town,” by Jay-Z, Kanye West and Rhianna; and “Throw it in the Bag,” by Fabulous featuring The-Dream. Junior Kenzie Lamoreaux says, “I listen to the oldies. I hate the [21st Century] lyrics. They are all pretty much the same.” When it came time for me to ask her about her thoughts on current songs like “Down,” by Jay Sean, she didn’t know who that was. Along with Mat Kearney, Trey Songz or Jason Aldean. Junior Tyler Berger says, “I think a lot of it is the same stuff, same sounding. They don’t have individual sounds like they did in the 80s.” I agree with Lamoreaux and Berger. None of the songs now are really that great. I prefer older music to current music because the artists back in the day had such distinct voices and such distinct guitar parts. Like Axl Rose, Johnny Cash, Pink Floyd. Senior Ryan Eugires who attends Service High School, recently asked me if I have heard the song, “I Love College.” Of course I had, but I always thought it was Eminem. But it is indeed Asher Roth. Exactly what I mean to say is: artists nowadays need to make their own distinct sound and figure out how to be rememberable. Same goes for guitar parts in the songs now-a-days, they are all the same. There aren’t any guitar riffs where you can just automatically say it has to be so and so. There aren’t any songs in the 21st Century that I think are distinguished by either the guitar part or voice. You just have to wait and see who it is at the end of the song. A good example of this might be, “Thunderstruck,” by AC/DC. A person, unless they have no idea of who AC/DC is, would never mistake that song to be someone else. The guitar part is just so them, and the voice is so distinguishable. Anyways, I can’t wait until the day when I hear a good artist in the 21st Century that has distinguished themselves from the rest. It doesn’t have to include a guitar riff, maybe a soundtrack, but just so it is good enough to remember 20 years from now, because the same bass note isn’t cutting it for me.