Maybe it's a sign of old age, but I find myself listening to less and
less of regular radio. I listen to NPR a lot on my commute to and from
work, with the occasional flip over to Howard Stern when he is not on
one of his 20 minute commercial breaks. The only other radio station I
listen to is WRNR, because it is
the way WHFS used to be when I was in high school. To be honest, I
think it is because pop music and most radio stations suck.
Then, on Tuesday, I heard the following story on All Things Considered:
Music Fan Pokes Fun at Nickleback Song Similarity
(There's a link to hear the story. It's about 8 minutes long, so have a listen then come back to this entry.)
Well, needless to say, the story just verified for me why today's music
blows. Here's how to make it big in today's music industry:
- You have someone playing a very loud power chord.
- You name the band after a common misspelling or a 2 syllable word.
- You make sure that each song sounds exactly alike.
- You vastly overproduce the musicians to make them sound better.
Now, the greatness of Korn is the exception to this formula, partly because of their usefulness as an anger management tool. And they made an appearance on South Park's second Halloween episode as an homage to Scooby Doo.
I will admit that as a child of the 80's, the music was not terribly
great. The best part about that time was you had cool artists, the
beginning of music video, and the New Wave invasion. The late 80's and
early 90's blew for a variety of reasons, but one stands out in
particular: Vanilla Ice. Need I say more?
Bottom line: give me my jazz, classic rock, Eric Clapton, the crooners,
and the occasional Snoop and Ludacris, and I am pretty content.
Nickleback and their ilk all really suck, and hearing them just makes
me pine for the days when music was actually not bad.
12:15:14 PM 
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