venting a bit (probably boring for most of you)

Date: 13 Jun 2003 18:34:33 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.fan.admiral-twin
Size: 6,522 bytes

>So if it's rock music it automatically makes it better? Image obsessed cookie
>cutter music is still image obsessed cookie cutter music whether it's a half
>naked blond chick singing someone else's songs to synthisized beats or a
>bunch of young males with guitars and Brady Bunch haircuts singing their own
songs to guitar chords.
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Absolutely correct! I hate cookie cutter music from any genre. That's why I
can't get into "modern rock" either, for example. Same ol' blah blah blah
lyrics about hating myself and how much the world sucks and variants on the
whole "Why can't I feel anything?" ethos...all screamed to the same ol' boring,
ugly power chords. Country and soul and rap and rock are *all* saturated with
cookie cutter crap nowadays...which is sad, because I've always been a fan of
all those genres...back when they were full of creative perfromers and decent
songwriters.
Country was great from the '30s to the '70s. Since then it's become rather
coma-inducing. (A few exceptions: Dixie Chicks, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash.)
Soul/funk was great from the '60s to the early '80s. I grew up listening to
Motown records. I've been a HUGE James Brown fan for years. Prince too. In the
late '80s, though, funk/soul became over-produced and utterly boring. The life
was completely sucked out of the genre. Every song became a predictable love
song...no lyrical inventiveness, no new ground covered. (Exceptions: Prince,
God bless him. After James Brown, he's the funkiest man alive. I also dig Ben
Harper and, of course, Lenny Kravitz, who is as much a rock star as he is a
funky soulman. Lenny rules.)
Rap was really only great in the '80s and early '90s...Run DMC, De La Soul,
Public Enemy, etc. Back then rap sparked with energy and life. It was socially
relevant too. Since then rap has become a complete joke. Talk about a genre
completely bereft of anything relevant to say! Rap is the WORST. There are only
two lyrical subjects nowadays: sex and money...and what rappers have to say
about those two subjects is so pathitically infantile and coarse that the whole
genre borders on self-parody. (Not that most of them would even know what that
means.) For the most part, current rap is stupid music for people who don't
want to think. The beats are predictable, the artists are predictable, and the
videos are the very DEFINITION of predictable. "Oh...look...the new (insert
dorky rap name here) video has cars, a party scene *and* booty shaking going
on. How novel!" (Current exceptions to the rap rule...Jurasssic 5. Those guys
are great...smart, lyrical, and catchy.)
Getting back to the main subject (as if that were possible at this point), if
Rooney is as cookie cutter boring/predictable as you make them sound, I'm sure
I won't be buying their stuff any time soon, either. (But I still like their
anti-popstar lyric. The truth is a good thing no matter where it comes from.)
The thing is, teeny pop (and you must agree this is true) has gotten a whole
lot more saturation on the radio and TV airwaves over the past several years
than other genres. So it frequently gets the brunt of annoyance from people who
can't stand nonstop bubble gum stupidity.
The problem, as I always say, isn't the fact that the bubblegum crap
exists...to each their own after all. There's no acounting for personal taste.
(Here's an admission: Even *I* like the occasional plastic pop song...every
blue moon or so.) The problem is just that radio doesn't allow ANYTHING else to
exist on the airwaves these days. With an occasional weird exception (Coldplay,
The Strokes), the airwaves are still ruled by the same shallow/predictable
garbage that presided in 1998 when I first started offending several of you
with my tirades against the music biz and stupid teeny music.
And, of course, the radio situation is getting worse by the day as further
deregulation occurs. Clear Channel will eventually become the Absolute Ruler of
All Radio/ Television/ Concert Venues/ and Billboard Advertising. They will
determine what 20 artists you may hear over and over again everyday on all
formats and who you see in concert at big venues. (I know many of you are
probably chuckling at this, thinking I'm being overly dramatic, etc. But I'm
really not. Just wait and see.)
Why do you think my band has pretty much given up on the idea of trying to make
a go of it in the USA? We've got an Australian-born British manager now for a
REASON. The US is pretty much a hopeless case for a band who makes "different"
music.
I mean, who knows...it could all change, I suppose. Melodic rock *could* make a
comeback here. Music by bands in their 30s might suddenly be *allowed* on
current radio again. Lyrics about topics other than teeny love, sex, money, or
hating life *might* become acceptable again here in the good ol' USA...
But probably not. So forget this country. (Don't get me wrong...I'm actually a
big *fan* of my country...just not the radio/ record companies/ MTV over here.)
You were correct about one other thing as well. You asked: "So if it's rock
music it automatically makes it better?" To which I say, unabashedly, YES.
Of course, I realize this is strictly a personal taste thing here, and I'm sure
I'm about to insult several of you (so be warned) but let me tell you this:
Rock is simply superior to syntho teeny pop. It's miles above it, in fact.
Light years, even. There's really no comparison between the two. They are
utterly and completely opposite. God made rock'n'roll, you see. And he saw that
it was good. On the other hand, smarmy, conniving record company imps created
teeny pop for the delight of their dark Satanic Lord who rules over the
stinking pits of eternal Hell. Just play your favorite Justin Timberlake song
backwards and listen closely. You'll understand.
Yep, give me a group of musicians making beautiful noise with real instruments
ANY DAY over plastic music sung by pretty young dancing things. The most
rudimentary local rock band having a good night at a dinky club in
Nowheresville -- really firing on all eight cylinders and connecting with their
audience personally -- is better by far than the absolute best show put on by
(insert current pop phenomenon name here) at the biggest arena with the best
p.a. and light show ever created by mankind.
Basically put, teeny pop is wuss music for little girls. And me hates it, me
precious, me hates it.
(There, I've said it.)
It's just how I was raised, I guess.
Don't be angry.
--Jarrod--