Modern music ‘makes you want to hang yourself,’ American Pie singer Don McLean says

The music really has died, according to famed singer Don McLean.

McLean, who wrote and sang the timeless hit “American Pie,’” spoke harshly abut modern music on a recent YouTube series, saying music “doesn’t exist” anymore.

“The music doesn’t mean anything,” he said on the series ‘The Greatest Music of all Time.’ “The music reflects the spiritual nature of the society. We have a kind of nihilistic society now. No one believes in anything, no one likes anything, no one has any respect for anything much. The music shows that.”

The 74-year-old singer, who has 21 studio albums to his name, wasn’t done. He said the music on the radio nowadays is nothing like what it was in many decades ago.

“There’s some form of music like sound, but it’s not music to me,” he said. “There was a show called ‘Name that Tune back in the 1950s, and by the fourth note, they would say, ‘Oh, that’s ‘Strangers in the Night.’ There’s nothing on the radio you can name in 20 notes, almost.”

He added that modern music is just “notes repeated over and over again with a chorus that’s done over and over until it’s drummed into your head or makes you want to hang yourself.”

He didn’t mention any modern acts by name, but did say Paul Simon and Paul McCartney are exceptions. Simon and McCartney, of course, have been recording music since the 1960s.

Though he has continued to make music since “American Pie” catapulted him to fame, McLean could not sustain the success the poetic ballad brought him in 1971. His only other song to reach the top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart was 1980’s “Crying.”

This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 1:54 PM with the headline "Modern music ‘makes you want to hang yourself,’ American Pie singer Don McLean says."