It was Armin Van Buuren that once said; “It's not love for music,its a passion,and it goes way beyond liking,and beyond a hobby,it's about a way of living. Music is essential for my life”
It was Young Money that said “ Mr room is the G-spot…call me Mr Flintstone,I can make your bed rock”..
Florence and the machine can hardly be beguiled for assuming that the “dog days are over”, but in my opinion they have only just begun. For what music today has become is nothing short of a litter of Little Bow Wows, and Snoop Doggy Dogs,interjected by periodic bitches! When did the music industry become a capitalist machine as much as Coca Cola and Macdonalds are sovereign entities, because I feel like i went to sleep smelling like teen spirit and woke up feeling like
P.Diddy.
P.Diddy.
Manchester (England) ,the late 70’s and 80’s, was the scene for the much documented birthplace of a revolution. The dawning of a new era and an alternative to the mainstream music of the time. The beginning of the Indie rock movement. Bands such as the The Sex Pistols,The Smiths,and My Bloody Valentine, tired of the monopoly of big record labels signed themselves onto Independent DIY labels that whilst had limited budgets gave them free reign over musical content .Thus coining the phrase “Indie Bands” which later evolved into the sub genre we know and love today.Paving the way forward through inconicism and infamy, namely the latter, was Oasis. As far as the real Rock n Rollas, these blokes were the full monty.
70 million records sold worldwide, eight UK number-one singles and albums, fifteen NME Awards, nine Q Awards, four MTV Europe Music Awards and six BRIT Awards,Guinness Book of World Records holders of the “Longest Top 10 UK Chart Run By A Group” after an unprecedented run of 22 successive Top 10 hits in the UK.The band also holds the Guinness World Record for being the "Most Successful Act of the Last Decade" in the UK between the years 1995 and 2005, spending 765 weeks in the Top 75 singles and albums charts. I could go on pasting from Wickipedia all day but it still wouldn't do them justice.What set Oasis apart from the bands of that era was that they were in all earnest, a true voice of the generation. They were kids who grew up as “florescent adolescents” on the Manchester streets and sang of non conformity,economic hardships, domestic turmoil, cigarettes and alcohol. The real rock star life,the toilet seat powder, the woman and the rebellion. The mindset of the youth was the canvas and the guitar was a paint brush. Never shy of the stepping up to a mic or ducking an interview, they hated everything that the commercial music industry stood for and famously once proclaimed how much they resented their Hit "Wonderwall" due to its massive commercial popularity.
I know that the era was defined by the “drugs,sex and alcohol” credo, but I think that artists today have taken this ideal a bit too literally. The only lyrical cacophony you hear today is about drinking Cristal in the club,getting shot and riding dirty. I don't know what you guys do on your weekends but they aren't talking to me.
Am I then to assume that pre pubescent teens like Justin Bieber and Miley Ray Cyrus are the voice of this generation? They aren't even old enough to have unwrapped a Hybrid Theory or know what a Chilli Pepper is, and yet their karaoke Sing Star titles and lunch boxes will outsell a Led Zepplin greatest hits .But lets not be too judging. Bieber had a tough childhood. (That one time he ran out of mousse and tampons, and his favourite pink GHD was lost in transit). Let's be honest. The little shit still has embryonic fluid coming out his ears and hasn't been on this planet long enough to have felt up a Victoria Secret mannequin,but he's singing to us about first love heart break and “baby baby oh”? Whats more discerning is that the celebrity charmed like "Kim" and "Paris" are tossing their diaphragms into an arena that was long reserved for the true artists and showman. Throwing up an album like carbs by way of synthesized beats and big budget producers.But why are we as consumers supporting this “music” because the reality is that due to our star struck eyes , anyone with a bullet wound thinks they can slap some bitches and bottles onto a gangster beat, get that vampire to piss glitter on it,and sell it at $0.99 a pop i-tunes.
For that matter why do we have reality shows and TV channels dedicated them. Do we live in such sad depravity that we have to consume our time watching other people live their lives.They all eat,sleep and shit just like everyone else does, so no, i don't care what brand of toothpaste Brangelina uses.
Its not that I really care who makes an album and what music people listen to.Go ahead and make a High School Musical 15 and please do sign that petition to bring Bieber fever to South Africa, but my qualm is the effect that its having on the music industry across the board. Fair enough its naive to think that music be made truly for the art form because ultimately it's a job and social welfare isn't throwing around Christmas cheer all year round. But with the consumers opting to chew through copious amounts of bubble gum pop, the true artists and musicians have fallen down the capitalist rabbit hole. Established pioneers of the industry are now being forced into jumping on the commercial band wagon just to be mentioned on a TRL chart.
Case in point the new Linkin Park album. I'm reiterating this point because their music was,putting it mildly,the changing point of my musical palette. I remember it like it was yesterday that my brother brought home that blue and white TDK with a 16 track onslaught of teenage angst.(A moment of silence for all the artists who starve from piracy) It had become somewhat of a ritual of rummaging threw his music collection,being the first one to come home from school ,and firing up anything new and shiny in our Samsung 3 CD changer. Up until then I had entertained myself with the pure thrill of secretly listening to profanity drenched lyrics of the most popular radio tunes of that time. But in that album I awoke a sleeping giant. It was a hybrid in its own with a mix of Theory and Meteora. Track 14 will forever remain etched in my memory as muscle memory kicked in ever time I flipped through to find: Nirvana-Smells like Teen Spirit. Those of you who i believe know what i am saying will recall the blood curdling voice of Chester Bennington resonating through our innocent minds as he spoke of love,hate,confusion and isolation.The corner stone of any teenage phase of rebellion. Lyrics weren't just a hiss on a back track.It was a medium.Poetry of the 21’st century . Let me just say that I have not heard the new Linkin Park album. Nor did i tear the plastic off and rip it to my i-pod.And no I did not assume the fetal position as I bore witness to the death of a generation of alternative rock. It did not happen because I will forever pretend that I never pressed play and keep the fond memories of that blue TDK in my mind till the day I shift off this mortal coil. And I hope they get paper cuts from counting the riches they amassed sound-tracking that movie with the robots and Megan Fox..
Anyone with half a musical inclination will tell that, that guitarist is doing shyt. Don't get up on stage,strum together two chords on a drum and bass back track and call it Rock.Why not bring back Milli Vanilli for a world tour while your at it. Technology has improved for back track singers. And while your at the concert, don't forget to stop at the kiosk and buy your Jonas Brothers promise ring/chastity belt combo.
Anyone familiar with EDM (Electronic Dance Music), Trance and Progressive will no doubt share my gripe with the “cross-over” generation. No stranger to the genre, I have witnessed trance titans like Tiesto long since get on his knees and fellate the commercial juggernaut.(look up the definition of fellate if you must..its worth it) Artists like David Guetta are collaborating across the board and making a genre long upheld by the underground, more accessible to the masses at the expense of the music. Repackaging trance and dance music into commercial and more palatable portions in order to rake in Beatport sales and fill dance floors with drunken teens. The maestro himself Armin Van Buuren admittedly remarked in an interview that he was forced to produce more commercial and lyrically driven tracks on his latest album just to get on the radio. The saving grace within the genre though is that there are myriads of up and coming disk jockey/producers willing to pick up that fallen torch and carry it forth onto digital vinyl without obsession of monetary gain. But for how long?
So if you will excuse me, I'm going to get back to stock pilling my bomb shelter with TDK’s, Verbatims and Memorex.Because when the world ends I do not want to have to re-populate to the sound of…"hotel....motel...Holiday Inn"…..
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