Why does music suck so much right now?

[Peregrin Toker]

I am starting to believe the rule "Never buy a CD from a band whose members are all still living."

Hmm sounds like time to buy some Clash...

I think a lot of metal bands are an exception to that. Of course, a lot of them are semi-underground, too.

Actually, 99% of contemporary metal bands worth listening have quasi-underground status at best (at worst, they're hopelessly obscure) and will never rise above that.

This is because of several factors:
1. For most people, metal starts and ends with the sub-genre known as Thrash/Speed Metal. (eg. Sepultura, Sodom, Kreator) Therefore, the general public considers the whole metal genre to be brutal and unsubtle.
2. The vast majority of metal bands are signed on to record companies which specialise in the genre. (eg. Nuclear Blast, Century Media, Metal Blade, Steamhammer and others)
3. Thanks to the likes of Nokturnal Mortum and Graveland, the metalhead sub-culture is becoming dangerously connected to that of skinheads. (actually, the whole Nazi Metal thing started with Blue Oyster Cult writing "Me262" - but of course, nobody blames B.O.C.)
4. Most metal bands consider obscurity a sign of being avant-garde and therefore cool.

[jinx]

personaly I still like real punk. the new "pop-punk" (the most disgusting word since unisex) has tarnished has reputation, but there's still good stuff coming out. If you're a punk fan & you haven't heard NOFX's "the war on errorism" then I pity you.

[Crayz9000]

This is because of several factors:
1. For most people, metal starts and ends with the sub-genre known as Thrash/Speed Metal. (eg. Sepultura, Sodom, Kreator) Therefore, the general public considers the whole metal genre to be brutal and unsubtle.
2. The vast majority of metal bands are signed on to record companies which specialise in the genre. (eg. Nuclear Blast, Century Media, Metal Blade, Steamhammer and others)
3. Thanks to the likes of Nokturnal Mortum and Graveland, the metalhead sub-culture is becoming dangerously connected to that of skinheads. (actually, the whole Nazi Metal thing started with Blue Oyster Cult writing "Me262" - but of course, nobody blames B.O.C.)
4. Most metal bands consider obscurity a sign of being avant-garde and therefore cool.

Well, another problem is this so-called "nu-metal" junkheap. Many people have no idea what real metal even is; even the thrash/speed/death metal stereotype has become more or less forgotten. For example, I was talking to my girlfriend about music and mentioned that I liked metal. She said that she liked metal too: Nickelback, Linkin Park, and Creed. (I promptly burned a CD with a bunch of Iron Maiden's stuff that I thought was more suited for her. She liked it.)

But the metal sub-culture is far from being dead; more like just being ignored by the media. I mean, Iron Maiden's been around for almost 27 years now and they're still selling out stadiums when they go on tour.

[kojikun]

Iron Maiden is fucking pure metal. I think a trait of most good metal bands is that their songs tell a story, a real story, not "Wake up, grandmas gotta put on a little makeup", thats just stupid, I'm sorry. Metal can use the angst and suffering type music to good effect (Maiden's "Fear of the Dark" and "Power Slave" come to mind, the latter being my theme song, the former being my bliss song ) Unfortunately modern "NuMetal" is made to pander to the wanna-be unique 'help me everyone hates me noone understands me' mentality of the Mallcore pseudogoths and pseudopunks. NuMetal has fostered about itself an image of one-ness with the 'troubled youth', when in fact lots of times its inspiring things like suicide (theres this song by Papa Roach, Last Resort, that talks endlessly about mutilation and suicide as being the only way out of PEER PRESSURE). I'm sorry, but if modern music can only express sorrow in terms of "KILL YOURSELF!!!" then its stupid and pandering. Listen to fucking "Paint It Black", thats a better sorrowful song.

[PrinceofLowLight]

You just have to know where to look. Now would be a perfect time to pimp The Flaming Lips, a fun talented band. They had a new album last year, Yoshima Battles The Pink Robots. Download the title track.

[Peregrin Toker]

Well, another problem is this so-called "nu-metal" junkheap. Many people have no idea what real metal even is; even the thrash/speed/death metal stereotype has become more or less forgotten. For example, I was talking to my girlfriend about music and mentioned that I liked metal. She said that she liked metal too: Nickelback, Linkin Park, and Creed. (I promptly burned a CD with a bunch of Iron Maiden's stuff that I thought was more suited for her. She liked it.)

Gah!! How could I forgot to mention that???

One thing is metal fading into obscurity, but another thing is the mainstream forgetting what the heck metal was in the first place!

Cliff Burton must be rolling in his grave.

Iron Maiden is fucking pure metal.

That's an understatement! Iron Maiden is the very definition of metal!

I think a trait of most good metal bands is that their songs tell a story, a real story, not "Wake up, grandmas gotta put on a little makeup", thats just stupid, I'm sorry.

And that's why I listen to Bal-Sagoth!! Say what you want about their music, but if a band creates an entire fantasy universe as a setting for their lyrics, they should be respected for that alone.

[zombie84]

The status of "underground" for metal bands depends on what country you go to--ask a typical kid wearing a spiked wristband in the United States who Stormwitch or Hammerfall are and they'll stare at you blankly. Go to Scandanavia or Germany and ask a typical kid wearing a spiked wristband the same question and he'll likely know, or at least have heard of them.

I hate to jump on the "lets blame America for every problem in the world" but the reason true metal is dead (as far as mainstream is concerned anyway) is because of the united states. Like everything else, they've taken something pure, bastardized it, commercialized and sold it off as tripe like Limp Bizkit. In England you had true metal acts like Maiden and Priest, and Saxon and Def Leppard and all the other incredible bands from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. As soon as it gets popular what happens? America jumps on them like a vulture eager to feed on the potential commercial profit, waters them down until they're ready for mass consumption and radio play, and before you know it you have Def Leppard, a hard and heavy NWOBHM band, playing songs like "pyromania" to teenage girls on the radio, and Motley Crew and Poison are unleashed as the American definition of "metal"--commercialism-driven pop radio fodder. Thank god for the grunge scene!
The same thing happened with Nu-metal, and now the definition of "metal" to the average American has become so diluted that fans at fucking Backstreet Boy concerts are flashing the devil-horned salute! Do they even know what the fuck that means? Do they know who Ronnie James Dio is, the man that created that salute? Its a complete decay of meaning. Okay, i'm just venting. Good to see there are some true metal fans on this board. It just pisses me off so much--metal used to mean something. 20 years ago, if you walked around with long hair, a leather jacket and a tatoo, you were a fucking true metal head, the kind that worshipped Manowar and Judas Priest--now the fucking Ginos dress like that, and Avril Lavigne walks around flashing the devil horns and proclaiming to be hard and heavy. What a fucking state its come to. Im glad that pop-metal has started to run its course--metal belongs in the underground, its just not meant for mainstream consumption ('metal' and 'mainstream' is practically a fucking contradiction of terms)...

[Peregrin Toker]

The status of "underground" for metal bands depends on what country you go to--ask a typical kid wearing a spiked wristband in the United States who Stormwitch or Hammerfall are and they'll stare at you blankly. Go to Scandanavia or Germany and ask a typical kid wearing a spiked wristband the same question and he'll likely know, or at least have heard of them.

Actually, I'm danish and if I ask most of the spike-wristband kids about Stormwitch or Hammerfall, I won't count on them knowing of them. However, I can hope that they have heard of Cradle Of Filth and Cannibal Corpse.

Then again, Denmark hasn't contributed much to the metal genre other than a handful of thrash bands, the most famous of which is now-disbanded Mercyful Fate. We also have the punk/thrash hybrid Red Warszawa, who are gaining cult status (their can best be described as an unholy crossbreed between Propagandhi and Slayer) but they're completely unknown outside Denmark's borders.

Sweden - on the other hand - has Bathory, Dark Tranquility, Opeth, Dissection, In Flames and Therion... and Norway has been plagued by a raving horde of crazed metalheads burning down all their churches for roughly a decade.... (Not that's anything to boast of, unless you happen to be Varg Vikernes)

That's before we get to Finland where bands such as Nightwish, Amorphis and Impaled Nazarene are almost national institutions.

Heck - there's only one Nordic country to have such a metal scene as insignificant as Denmark's, and that's Iceland. The closest thing to an Icelandic metal band is Falkenbach - a solo project of some Icelandic "pagan revival" guy who immigrated to Germany.

The same thing happened with Nu-metal, and now the definition of "metal" to the average American has become so diluted that fans at fucking Backstreet Boy concerts are flashing the devil-horned salute! Do they even know what the fuck that means? Do they know who Ronnie James Dio is, the man that created that salute? Its a complete decay of meaning.

I have noticed that while the music which the mainstream considers "metal" is getting more and more tailored to fit the flavours-of-the-month, the underground metal has become more and more extreme or experimenting.

As for that devil-horned salute, in Italy it's considered the equivalent of displaying a middle finger.

Good to see there are some true metal fans on this board.

What about starting a metalhead user group??? I'll be all for it!

20 years ago, if you walked around with long hair, a leather jacket and a tatoo, you were a fucking true metal head, the kind that worshipped Manowar and Judas Priest--now the fucking Ginos dress like that, and Avril Lavigne walks around flashing the devil horns and proclaiming to be hard and heavy.

I have an explanation for Avril doing The Sign Of The Horns - she's rumoured to be an acquaintance of Bal-Sagoth's vocalist and she probably just learned it from him.

What a fucking state its come to. Im glad that pop-metal has started to run its course--metal belongs in the underground, its just not meant for mainstream consumption ('metal' and 'mainstream' is practically a fucking contradiction of terms)...

Couldn't agree more.


NP: Bal-Sagoth - A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria

[Crayz9000]

As for that devil-horned salute, in Italy it's considered the equivalent of displaying a middle finger.

Same thing in Greece and the rest of that culture. They think it's like giving someone the evil eye... so you just don't use it over there unless you're at a metal concert.

What about starting a metalhead user group??? I'll be all for it!

Heheheh. Same here


By the way, zombie84, that's Eddie in your avatar, right?

[Peregrin Toker]

By the way, zombie84, that's Eddie in your avatar, right?

I suppose he's displaying Eddie.




BTW - have ManOwar made up a name for that faceless warrior who has appeared on the cover of all of their albums since "Kings Of Metal"??

[Crayz9000]

I suppose he's displaying Eddie.

Yep, that's Eddie alright. I don't have Live After Death so it wasn't immediately obvious, but it looked like Derek Riggs' work...

BTW - have ManOwar made up a name for that faceless warrior who has appeared on the cover of all of their albums since "Kings Of Metal"??

No clue.

[Tosho]

I'm wondering have any of you heard of "Type O Negative"? their CD Bloody Kisses IMO is one of best CDs ever.

[zombie84]

Yeah, Dio's devil-horn salute is just the Italian malochio--he started doing that because Ozzy was making peace signs and he wanted to be different (the story goes that his grandmother used to give him the evil eye and the malochio protects you against it...or something like that)

Anyway, while its true that a lot of metal bands still remain unknown in lots of European countries, theres no way that Hammerfall would be playing outdoor festivals to thousands of teens in the United States. Hell, Manowar, the pride of USA as far as im concerned, titled their fourth album "Hail to England" because no one in North America gave two shits about them. European metal is so saturated with different power metal bands and virtually every country has at least one or two reputable heavyweights, from Italy to Spain to Finland to Germany, and the black metal scene from Sweeden has diffused into surrounding areas as well. America at least gave the world thrash, but it was never mainstream and it peaked over 15 years ago. The problem is that no one cares about anyone unless they're popular in the US, and in order to do that you have to be some watered down nu-metal act, and if you're not then you have to sell your soul and become one (hell, In Flames are coming along nicely since they became popular in the US).

(BTW, the faceless Manowar barbarian that grazes all of Manowars artwork, to the best of my knowledge, is nameless--lots of people simply refer to him as the manowarrior

and yes, that is Eddie in my avatar, from the Live After Death cover--got the same image tatooed on me. Looks fucking great!)

[Zaia]

Just wanted to add in my $0.02......

1) At one of my old jobs, my boss used to play the local oldies station all the time. All day long, every day. Generally stuff from the 60's (poppy stuff, not too much hippie music), a little from the late 50's and a smidge from the early 70's (pre-disco). During that eight-hour workday, they never repeated songs, but every day they played the same ones. They would mix up the order, of course, but it was the same songs. That's how I know all my classic oldies, because I had no choice but to listen to them day after day. My point is that for a station that is essentially aimed at one generation, they have enough "classic" music to last for one workday before repeating. Just a thought when you writhe in agony at the thought of Avril Lavigne being considered a classic....

2) Aerius said something earlier in the thread about how he thought "Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence was a good song but it's been overplayed to death by radio stations. Yes, that's true that the stations have been trying to jam that stuff down our throats, but it doesn't change the fact that a) it's partially our fault if we spend the majority of our days listening to the radio at work or school (especially if we skip around from station to station), and b) the overplay doesn't change the quality of the song in question. Yes, it becomes annoying if a good song is played on the radio a lot, but there are alternatives to the radio and it's still a good song, even if it is played a lot. That one in particular, and others that suffer the same fate. If you distance yourself from any song like that and listen to it with the aim to listen to the quality and musicianship of the song, I'm pretty sure that you'll be impressed and remember why it's on the radio in the first place. That's USUALLY the case. (I'm not talking about teeny-bopper songs that get on the radio because they have a cult following).


Damn. I'm feeling long-winded tonight. Sorry. *phew* Hope that all makes sense. Or, at least a little bit of sense.

[zombie84]

meh. I dont even need a radio. I only listen to it at work--even on new-rock stations, half the stuff is crap and most is mediocre. I enjoy listening to classic and hard rock stations much more, even if they recycle most of their entire library in the course of a week or so. Thankfully theres a great hard rock station in my area that plays metal from the late 70's to present; they dont really play any import stuff from Europe (unless its fairly mainstream, like Maiden and Priest--mostly British stuff) but its still better than anything else on the air. Internet radio is much more helpful--of course the drawback is that you need a fucking computer, which is a pretty big drawback!

IMO, word of mouth and fan-based zines, but especially internet communities are still the best method of music communication. Without the internet i'd probably be wallowing in nu-metal (seeing as i never really knew any true metal-heads growing up and given the metal atmosphere over here, would probably never looked into Iron Maiden or Running Wild), and the internet truely opened up the doors to a complete universe of music i didnt even know existed; its unfortunate that for most people as well this is the case. People will never actually hear great metal bands unless they deliberatly seek them out. They only reason i even got into true metal is because a friend of mine recommended Iron Maiden--i had never heard their music, though i was familiar with the name, and after i listened to a few samples on the net, everything changed. Its kinda sad when a person has to go through all that trouble just to hear the damn music; i guess the upside is that it keeps the posers out and the fans true, and i guess thats an acceptable tradeoff.
Evenescence is a good band, but its still pretty mainstream in sound. They play good music, which is seemingly original, but look at the originators of the sound they shamlessly ripped off--listen to Nightwish, or even Sinergy and Lacuna Coil, and you'll see how watered-down Evanescence truely is. I'll admit that it is still fairly avant-garde in terms of radio, but isnt saying all that much; i find it hard to support Evanescence when the original--and more importantly, far, far superior--bands like Nightwish remain in obscurity.

[Peregrin Toker]

Hell, Manowar, the pride of USA as far as im concerned, titled their fourth album "Hail to England" because no one in North America gave two shits about them.

I thought it was called so in honour of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. (NWOBHM)

European metal is so saturated with different power metal bands and virtually every country has at least one or two reputable heavyweights, from Italy to Spain to Finland to Germany, and the black metal scene from Sweeden has diffused into surrounding areas as well.

There's exceptions - many. All of Denmark's metal bands are hopelessly obscure save for Artillery, King Diamond and Invocator.... maybe also Red Warszawa, but they're actually a hardcore punk band whose music gets mistaken for thrash metal. And Eastern European metal bands will never get much recognition because most of them are skinheads.

(a pity, since if Graveland was considerably less surly they'd probably be considered Poland's equivalent of Bathory - currently, they're just considered Poland's equivalent of Skrewdriver and that's not something to be proud of!)

America at least gave the world thrash, but it was never mainstream and it peaked over 15 years ago.

I thought thrash was mighty popular during the late 1980s??

(hell, In Flames are coming along nicely since they became popular in the US)

NOT IN FLAMES!!! Well, at least the same hasn't happened to Dark Tranquility and Opeth.

(BTW, the faceless Manowar barbarian that grazes all of Manowars artwork, to the best of my knowledge, is nameless--lots of people simply refer to him as the manowarrior

Hmm... how many other metal bands have such mascots?? I currently know of:

The Manowarrior
Eddie
The goat adorning several Bathory albums
That corpsepainted weirdo appearing on early Darkthrone releases

Any others??

meh. I dont even need a radio. I only listen to it at work--even on new-rock stations, half the stuff is crap and most is mediocre.

I go further than that - I barely know that Disturbed and Mudvayne exist, but I am proud owner of CDs by Bal-Sagoth, Dissection and Finntroll - and soon also "Hammerheart" by Bathory!!

(As my CD collection grows, it'll probably also number the likes of Therion, Children of Bodom and maybe even also Nocturnus)

Without the internet i'd probably be wallowing in nu-metal (seeing as i never really knew any true metal-heads growing up and given the metal atmosphere over here, would probably never looked into Iron Maiden or Running Wild), and the internet truely opened up the doors to a complete universe of music i didnt even know existed; its unfortunate that for most people as well this is the case.

Exactly the same here - my fascination with metal started when some Finnish guy recommended Bal-Sagoth as background music for roleplaying games.

They play good music, which is seemingly original, but look at the originators of the sound they shamlessly ripped off--listen to Nightwish, or even Sinergy and Lacuna Coil, and you'll see how watered-down Evanescence truely is.

Hehe - and while we're at it, I'll mention Thergothon and Slow Horse - the two most depressive bands in existence!!

[zombie84]

I replied Thursday afternoon, but right when i was finishing up typing...the power went out! The fucking east coast blackout occured!

Hell, Manowar, the pride of USA as far as im concerned, titled their fourth album "Hail to England" because no one in North America gave two shits about them.

I thought it was called so in honour of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. (NWOBHM)

Yeah, it was a tribute to British metal, but it indicated where true loyalty's lied--American metal was non-existant; Manowar's career didnt take off until they toured Britain, and they've always had more love and support in Europe than on their home shores (though the hometown fans are no doubt just as loyal, just fewer in number).

]European metal is so saturated with different power metal bands and virtually every country has at least one or two reputable heavyweights, from Italy to Spain to Finland to Germany, and the black metal scene from Sweeden has diffused into surrounding areas as well.

There's exceptions - many. All of Denmark's metal bands are hopelessly obscure save for Artillery, King Diamond and Invocator.... maybe also Red Warszawa, but they're actually a hardcore punk band whose music gets mistaken for thrash metal. And Eastern European metal bands will never get much recognition because most of them are skinheads.

Yes, of course there are exceptions, but when you consider that America is the entertainment hotspot of the world, their stunning lack of solid metal bands is disturbing. Once in a while gems like Manowar and Metallica and Iced Earth make there way out of the woodwork, but when you consider the relatively small size of all the European countires, the band-to-population ratio is staggering. Considering that America has a population second only to India and China, the amount of utter shit that the country thrives upon is sickening. Denmark is hardly any kind of musical hotspot, but for a small country like that, giving us Mercyful Fate is good enough, and bands like Artillery and KonKhra continue to remain semi-popular in the underground. Germany is only the size of the state of Texas but they given the world some of the best metal ever played, and they've churned it out faster than the US can churn out boy bands!

]America at least gave the world thrash, but it was never mainstream and it peaked over 15 years ago.

I thought thrash was mighty popular during the late 1980s??

Yeah, thrash burnt out around 1989 or so, right around the time Metallica abandoned it for the Black Album. I would say that it peaked around 1987 or so--over 15 years ago (my how time flys eh?).

](hell, In Flames are coming along nicely since they became popular in the US)

NOT IN FLAMES!!! Well, at least the same hasn't happened to Dark Tranquility and Opeth.

Yeah, In Flames have become fairly mainstream in sound in the last two or three years. Its not like they're playing on the radio or anything, but they definitly have moved away from the tradition Gotherberg-style. I'm happy that great word of mouth and support from touring with popular metal acts has helped them become popular, but they've definitly settled with a more traditional American sound in order to appease their newfound status in America. Thats the tradeoff--you can become popular in America if and only if you sacrifice your sound. Dark Traquility and Opeth havent become popular so they still have artistic freedom; i always preferred In Flames to DT much more though. In Flames have a song on the new Freedy Vs Jason soundtrack now (movie soundtracks seem to be good indicator of metal popularity).

Hmm... how many other metal bands have such mascots?? I currently know of:

The Manowarrior
Eddie
The goat adorning several Bathory albums
That corpsepainted weirdo appearing on early Darkthrone releases

Any others??

Dio used to have the horned-demon guy but they havent used him in a few albums. They alternated with a Dragon for a few albums too but i dont know if that was ever a permanent thing. Megadeth have Vic Rattlehead the skeleton, and Overkill have that winged-skull thing (it has a name i think, i dont know what it is though). Grave Digger have their grim reaper guy and Hammerfall have their own version of the Manowarrior. Hell, just about every power metal band nowadays has a manowar knockoff mascot, theres too many to list.
Theres a few more...cant seem to recall any right now.

[Crayz9000]

Once in a while gems like Manowar and Metallica and Iced Earth make there way out of the woodwork, but when you consider the relatively small size of all the European countires, the band-to-population ratio is staggering.

Metallica gets a fair amount of airplay now thanks to their new album. I can't say I'm particularly enthusiastic about that album, though...

[Slowhand]

1/ The music industry (proper) has existed since the 1930's. Given that a million songs have been recorded and all the ideas for something catchy have already been used, a good original song these is literally, one in a million.

2/ Record producers only worry about the bottom line. "Can we sign him to a deal, produce something flashy, give him a whirlwind tour, film a few videos, and still make a huge profit after we gouge him and make him sign IPA's for songs that he has written?"

3/ Even if you manage to be the next Avril Lavigne, you personal profit will be miniscule compared to the label. The lights, sound systerms, arenas, tour busses, and production costs come out your end.

4/ Producers don't want to make "Super-Bands" anymore. In the seventies, some of the arena rockers like Aerosmith, Boston, and Foreigner became something bigger than the label could positively control.

I could probably go on, but I think it's clear that by going the route of signing a major deal with Sony records, or one if its *fine* competitors, will burn you unless you can consistently write no. 1 hits. If you can't, then they will force you to sing songs that aren't even yours.

Nickelback routinely sells out 20,000 seat venues at $40 a seat. That $800,000 is used to pay for a myriad of items, the least of which is your salary. Bela Fleck, or some other renouned, if not obscure, jazz band, routinely sells out 5-8000 seat venues at $40 a seat. That $320,000 pays the venue fees and, umm, the rest goes in their pockets.

Plus the jazz band gets to play for the whole world, while Avril and Nickelback rarely leave North America. With the notable execption of "smooth jazz", most jazz artists are supreme musicians, while very nearly all "pop" artists suck. I think I know where my $40 is going.

BTW, I consider "pop" to be anyting that's popular. That being said, I would not tend to lump Iron Maiden together with Britney Spears as Blackie Lawless has more talent in his stool than all the bubble-gum bitches and bastards could ever hope to muster.

Did this make sense? I'm in an altered state at the time of writing.

[ArmorPierce]

It's cause nowadays people don't think that just someone's music ability is what makes music "good". This has mostly been decided by mtv choosing that kind of music and shoving it down our throats.

[Rye]

Most music now is shit because most music anytime is shit, we just don't remember it, because only the special bands get remembered.

There are good new bands though, Killswitch Engage jump instantly to mind. New Metal, not Nu metal.

Not that Nu metal is bad, just poor attempts like limp bizkit and papa roach and crap monopolise the market so people just want crap like that, hence linkin park's non swearing rise to success.

But not all new music sucks, the new orbital and slayer albums have fucking rocked, not to mention superjoint ritual.

And yes, i know who type o negative are, they're great too.

[Crayz9000]

Did this make sense? I'm in an altered state at the time of writing.

It makes a lot of sense. Steve Albini observed pretty much the same thing in his essay/rant The Problem With Music.

[EmperorSolo51]

Today's music sucks because the era of actual song writing and actual instrument is over. Nowadays, it's the Music industry that writes the songs and pays musicians to play instruments while premoting this one person to sing thier songs. That's why it all sounds the same. Also, since no one is writing music, we don't have any modern day john Lennon's running around changing music and culture. Instead we are forcefed this drivel by the music industry becuase it appeals to today's youth.

Let's face it. The day good music died, was the day The Beatles broke up. Oh, sure it was prolonged by bands like Led Zep, Boston, Queen, etc. But, now look at it. Music today is now filled with Fake punkers, Britney Spears wannabes, Gangsta rap, and boy bands. The Beatles set the bar so high by thier talents in both songwriting and the ability to play instruments that now record companies try to convince us that thier artists are just as good if not better than the fab four.

[Xenophobe3691]

I'd join the metalhead usergroup, not many metalheads around me and I know very few metal bands, and no people to tell me new ones :-\

[Slowhand]

Thanks Crazy,

I used to rent a room to a very good musician. We became good friends. You know the kind: one can move away and not see the other for 10 years. When you're back in town on business, you can pick up right where you left off it seems. Anyway, he had his own professional quality recording studio, remnants from a failed sudio venture. The other room mate, a drummer, was at odds because he still wanted to go with a record label and fill his bed with easy broads, even though he looks like Uncle Fester from the Munsters. His underlying mantra was that this life of excess comes with great money. He was also quite dismayed when we informed him that we would not be forming a band to tour the local shit watering holes, and in fact, we were putting together a few original jazz pieces to eventually record. Then we post it on Didibass or another online music service and hope someone picks it up.

"How's that gonna get you laid?" he ranted. Maybe it wouldn't, but then again maybe Nissan would pick it up to replace "Zoom, Zoom!" and a fortune in residuals would ensue. Perhaps, just perhaps that money would be used to persuade young, impressionable sluts to lay down was my response. Anyway, I declared bankrupcy and everything went to shit, but I still work on my own stuff which will never compete with AC/DC but it just might get me playing a few folk/zazz fests that permeate the north american music scene.

Jeez, I went off-topic again... Regardless, writing my own music and playing a coffee shop every few weeks gives me more satisfaction than being in a bar band. I've done both, there's no comparison. When I play something original and one, or maaaaaybe two, persons actually sits down close and really appreciates my music is far superior to belching out the lastest Top 40 garbage for screaming preemies.

My studio will be complete soon, and if I'm lucky, I might be able to write and record 1000 songs for all seasons. Even if all your music goes into television commercials, It's better off than signing a deal with Company X.