rap is really horrible

[AndyC]

It is a very good point. The music I hate the most is cookie-cutter commercial crap that is cranked out according to a marketing strategy by a bunch of "stars" who all seem the same to me. This means I hate most music out there today.

Funny, when I didn't like the direction popular music was going in the early 90s, I turned to country for a while. Now it sucks too - a lot of wannabe pop and manipulative drivel.

Everything has turned into pop. It's the same problem we see in the movies. If people are buying a lot of one thing, nobody considers that something different might stand out, and be refreshing. No, they give us more of the same. Sad.

What does it take to get a song that is fun, lively, distinctive and without pretensions?

[h.p. Love]

This is a longer one but I only recently started getting excited about music in general again, and this is sorta how it happened:

I talked a friend into seeing Green Day with me in WI about four years ago. They played a good show. I'm not sure what happened to them. I think they are political schills/poster boys who spend too much time talking and putting on make-up. The music is bland. It happens. I would have walked 500 miles to see Metallica in the Lightening/Puppets era. Now I wouldn't walk a city block. Even when the music isn't as good, some bands keep it real or whatever: Motorhead, Social Distortion, Neil Young (punker than green day - IMO - Prince is too for that matter).

Mojor labels love putting geriatric golden geese on life support as if they can do no wrong: U2. All bands have an expiration date. Only those who really walk the walk get a pass: Rolling Stones.

I like a lot of 80s and even 90s pop. 70s R&B is good too. Some of my favorite discs are compilations.

In the mid 80s I lived in a small town around Springfield, IL. There was a radio station that had a punk/college radio type show. Everything from Replacements to early Suicidal Tendencies. It was great. When I first heard ST's Fascist Pig, it was the greatest thing I ever heard.

Anyway, we used to order punk albums from Toxic Shock records. They used to send all kinds of zines and stickers with every order and we digested them all. It was cool, we were able to keep up with the west coast scene. We also read all liner notes and tried to check out the bands that other artists mentioned. This was a very cool pre-web way to check out bands.

Anyway, I'm trying to be more like that again. I'm not in an urban area, where you can catch up to 6 bands a night at one show. I check out indy label websites that I read about in zines. They usually have mp3's, none of that streaming nonsense. A lot of bands still sell cheap tapes for a few bucks and they'll often burn them for you too.

Go underground. There are more cool netcasts out there now you can download by people who spin some good stuff. I just found a good one called "no one listens to ska anymore".  If you feel ambitious, sign up to do reviews for a website or zine, you'll get free cds to listen to. mp3.com used to be great. Cdnow was cool too before amazon ruined it, they used to have great band information. There are also some cool punk blogs aimed at cataloging older forgotten bands and good up and comers.

Anyway, most of anything seems to suck a lot. Keep trying to find the next big thing before it is the next big thing. A lot of good stuff always winds up getting pimped out.  And when you do hear something fun, find the early material by that musician. Usually it's rawer and takes more chances.

[BeyondTheGrave]

Since I like in NYC their always a show somewhere. I go to a place called CBGB that have underground rock bands. I just went to a show on Sat. and saw 6 bands for 10 dollars. Their were all pretty good and one band that stood out was Penny Royals. Really good. Some other good ones were Billion Dollar Boys Club and Fixer. Unfortunately the place might close in Aug. due to raiseing rents. Their appealing to the city to put the place as a landmark, Its been their since the 60s and had such bands as a young ACDC and The Ramones. If you want to help keep them open, check out their site:

http://www.cbgb.com/

_____________________________
"We Greeks created democracy! You also created homos!"-Ghost World

[h.p. Love]

I'm surprised to hear that CBGB is struggling. Never been there but I know it's a mecca.

Lounge axe in chicago bit the dust a while back. It was a tiny place to catch incredible shows while packed in like sardines. I get misty when I see it in High Fidelity.