What Happened?

“Without Music, Life would be a mistake”—Friedrich Nietzsche

This is probably one of the best quotes I have ever heard and can honestly relate to. All my fellow musicians, artists, songwriters, or simply fans of music can attest to the statement above. I honestly think this is the truth. There is not one single person out there that does not love or at least like music. Whether it’s being a full-blown fan, or someone who just grooves to music while they’re mopping the kitchen floor.

With today’s current state of music (specifically what sells, and what’s being played on the radio), life just does not exist and if it does exist it sure as shit does not have any heart. It upsets me just as much as anyone else who believes what I am about to say in the following passage.

Let’s start by asking a few questions shall we?

Where is the heart?

What happened to the passion?

What happened to hard work?

Where is the message?

What happened to saying FUCK the system?

What happened to starting a movement?

And finally…

What happened to the talent?

These are all questions I am constantly asking myself every time I hear the bullshit that’s being played all over the world. What pisses me off is that children listen to this crap and actually think it is music. My main target is obviously fools like T-Pain, and people like that. Seriously, FUCK HIM. How does someone honestly get famous for sucking so bad that they use a voice correctional tool in all its capacity on his voice?? This boggles my mind. What boggles my mind even more is that there is no message or substance. Today’s music industry has drastically changed from the past and I can adapt to how albums are a thing of the past and singles are the way to go. The general public do not want albums anymore, I don’t blame them because most of them suck through and through these days anyway. However what I do want is some quality music that displays talent, a story, a message, or at least have some sort of substance and atmosphere to it. Now I know most of you might be thinking “why am I so disgruntled when I don’t even listen to music on the radio for the most part anyway?” Well I’ll tell you why…

I’m obviously a HUGE fan of Hardcore, Hip-Hop, and Jazz music. That being said, all true forms of these genres of music still hold true to their value, nature and still obtain substance. They are by far the most underground types of music and are the only genres that the media hasn’t completely torn to shreds.

I can remember back when I was kid listening to bands like Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Cypress Hill, Gorilla Biscuits, Agnostic Front, Black Flag, and Slayer, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Smashing Pumpkins, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and Cream. You just don’t see bands breaking the rules or breaking boundaries anymore. No one is taking a risk. While there is talent out there and it is waiting to be found, why isn’t the general public or the people that make up the vast majority that buy music wanting more than what they are given? It’s simply because they are not presented with what we had access to back in the day. Imagine this scenario if you will, Eric Clapton is an up and coming artist playing gigs all over the nation but is not famous. You want to know why? Because Eric Clapton wouldn’t be given the time of day in this market. That to me is a fucking disgrace. You have such talented artists out there trying to break through and make an impact on music and change the current state of music and no one gives a shit what they have to say. There’s just simply no heart in popular music anymore and I don’t care what argument you present to me saying that there is.

I understand that even back in other eras of music there was bubble gum pop bullshit still peaking its ugly head out just waiting to shove its bullshit down our throats, but at least we had good rock n roll, at least we had the grunge movement, at least we can listen to B.I.G. talk about the struggle, at least we could listen to Henry Rollins scream RISE ABOVE! To conclude this lengthy rant, I urge everyone to take a stand and promote REAL music. Deny what the stupid music executives are trying to pound down your throat. I am a firm believer that it is Generation Y’s sole responsibility to fix this. Stop buying into the bullshit and support your local artists/bands with actual talent. Go to shows, rebel against your parents, stick it to the man, do whatever you have to do, just DON’T buy into bullshit artists like T-Pain, Ke$ha, or any other crap you find out there.