Nostalgia is fine – but get behind the acts of today

There’s no arguing that iconic acts, artists and records getting the appreciation they deserve is a good thing. However, this often comes at the expense of people getting behind today’s most promising talent.

Hardly a day goes by without thousands of people on social media fangirling over Pulp, begging the Gallagher brothers to reunite or even complaining that certain decades “were better for music”. In reality, it’s this simple – taste is subjective, and there has always been music, in all genres, that people will consider “good” and “bad”.

What is worrying is when people’s Morrissey memories and Oasis obsessions block them from appreciating the diverse, vibrant and talent-heavy music scene of today. If some people put a fraction of the time they spend sharing old concert videos and imagining reunions into getting to local gigs, buying recent releases or just discovering new artists on the web, it’d make a world of difference to the bands of today.

If people decided to stay at home singing the praises of a previous generation of bands and didn’t go to see Oasis at King Tuts, there’s every chance they wouldn’t have been signed to Creation Records. More recently, if people didn’t pack out pubs and ‘toilet circuit’ venues for Slaves and Bastille, those acts would still be playing those venues or have thrown in the towel altogether.

Nor is this issue genre-specific. A lot of the music in the charts at the minute from the likes of Zara Larsson and Ed Sheeran has many of the hallmarks of defining pop music from down the generations. We are lucky to have so many incredibly talented songwriters and artists around at the minute in the mainstream. That’s not to say I like everything in the charts, but there is no less talent around now than at any other time.

Similarly, new and emerging scenes should be being embraced. If you yearn for the carnage The Sex Pistols would cause at their shows, try something that offers a similar sense of counterculture for this day and age - maybe a bassline event or grime show. Different styles, granted, but the same energy, spirit and vitality. A lot of the most exciting music around isn’t being made by people with guitars anymore. Embrace that.

Ultimately, if people don’t live in the present to support their local and national scenes, those scenes simply won’t exist. Nostalgia is fine, but get behind the acts of today.