Do artists these days have it in them to produce a classic? Now let me make myself clear: I don’t mean that wave of nostalgia washing over you when you’re flipping through the radio later in your life.

I mean will songs like Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” and LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It” be synonymous with songs like Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’?“

You can argue that they will and you can argue that they won’t.

On one hand, a person could argue that they hold some type of significance and because of their music videos and cultural impact, people would consider them classic tunes.

On the other, people could just dismiss them as songs that were popular at the moment, but they aren’t anything special, let alone to a classic.

Then you have to think about a person’s criteria for a song to be considered a classic. Some songs that I would consider a classic may not be a classic to another.

Take a song like Justin Bieber’s “Baby.” Yes, that made a huge impact back in 2010. I literally couldn’t escape the annoying and repetitive chorus for almost that whole year.

But in my honest opinion, I’m not going to look at the Biebs ode to heartbreak and be like “this is one for the books.”

It isn’t a song that can be held up to the standards of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” or The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”

For now, everything he has done musically will be filed under forgettable in my book.

And like so many singers, even if they made an impact during their time of popularity doesn’t mean they are making classic music.

And the thing is, it’s not like some artists that are active today don’t have the ability to create a classic, it’s just they aren’t doing it for some strange reason.

Can anyone name a contemporary classic?