Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Music Is Dead

Do you remember when Mtv first aired 'Video Killed the Radio Star' back in 1981? I don't, I mean I was what 3 years old and my whole life revolved around Seseame Street, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, and where my next meal was going to comefrom... Ahhhh, the good ole' days!(Although I still wonder about the third sometimes) I am sure that it looked, back then, as if music video television would be a lasting trend that brought the sounds of rock and roll to life.
I never even got to watch Mtv as a kid at home, a)my parents wouldn't let me andb)our tv was not able to get the channel in the first place. It was not till I went off to college in 1996 that I finally could watch MTV without the fear that if I got caught than very bad things would happen to my physical well-being...flashbacks...ARGH!

By the time I could freely watch, the golden days(if there ever were any) ofmusic television were already long gone the way of the dinosaur. Nowadays it's hard to even find a music video on music television. And, you have to know exactly what sort of music you want when you want it since MTV has segregated all music types into different hour long shows loosely sparsed between the latest reality shows and other crap.

I mean it is not even worth trying to find the music because most of it is crap or sounds the same. But what happended to the music? After the 80's and all the great music that we had during that decade what happened? I have a theory MTV KILLED IT, yes MTV killed the music. Here is how

THEORY:
MTV chairpeople have made a bet with the president of MTV. The wager: to see if we the viewer would really eat up any cottoncandy crap music the channel played as long they played alot of the videos for the bands in question, and show them on MTV news alot... and at their little music award shows....the answer sadly is YES.

PROOF:
Hanson-
The first lab rats MTV tried on views these year were Hanson. Three cute chicksfrom the south that were given instruments and instructed to get 13 year old girls love sick. Disguised as boys this band was given a bunch of songs by MTV and told to make a video at their house. The result worked. Hanson got all theyoung ladies to stop looking at their Kurt Cobain posters (which they probably had no idea who he was anyway, they just noticed he had nice eyes) and start grooven to the soothing sounds of Mmmmmhhh Booppy mmmmhh boppy.
MTV Chairpeople= 1 Viewer= Nothing

Spice Girls
Five british lady's were given songs by MTV and told to scream something called "girl power". Some of the girls we're kinda short so they were given platform shoes. The Spice Girls we're given little dances to do on stage by MTV and somevideos and slots on MTV's little award shows.....the result........ Spice Girls won over little girls everywhere and convinced them it was alright to be annoying and yell girl power. But in ten years when the spice girls become golden girls.....watch out!
MTV Chairpeople= 2 Viewers= 0

Marilyn Manson
MTV wanted to see if the viewers would give into a total idiot with a wacky eye,who dressed up in nylons and biswick pancake makeup, and had a Metal band andsome songs to sing. He was told to make fun of everything even MTV itself......The result....... actually the viewers (for the most part) weren't this dumb yetand didn't really accept him. Pat yourself on the back for not accepting HermanMunster Manson into your lives...although Vanilla Ice did fool us for awhile!
MTV Chairpeople= 2 Viewers= 1
I could go on but it only gets uglier.

But you know the biggest offender of all...The "Artist" once known as Puff Daddy (Puffy, PDiddy, Puff, H.R.Puffinstuff or whatever he calls himself these days), I mean this guy recycles more crap from the 80's than Greenpeace! I remember when rap was cute I mean you had M.C Hammer, and Rob Base/DJ Easyrock, and even Vanilla Ice.....Yeah! I mean Rap was all a ploy to get white kids to buy Raider's Hats and wear ugly baggy pants so everyone could laugh at them! Then rap got tough and angry with Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre, and Wu-Tang.....well to me it seemed angry....they kept saying something about "Capping Whity".

Now what's with Puff Daddy? Like I said, this guy recycles more crap from the 80's than green peace! C-mon it's one thing to sample a song, but to lift entire songs and just put lyrics over it, and do this to more than 1 song! C-mon!!!Even I can go into a studio and take a Sting song, and put new words toit...what's next!! Imagine what he'll do to "Fields Of Gold!"
And shame on Sting for actually letting Puff Daddy do this to his songs.....is Sting this desperate? He's been on Vh1 alot lately and that's always a bad sign!And don't get me started on Jimmy Page redoing "Kashmir" with Puff for the movie Godzilla(from the 70's I know but the point is still valid).Puff.....leave our precious 80's songs alone. Please don't touch them anymore! Ihope one day I don't have to wake up and hear him butcher Electric Avenue....

Even bands I liked a few years ago have 'Sold Out', an example being the Dave Matthews Band. I remember when they were about the music and being original and different now its the same processed radio processed crap. I haven't bought a CD since 2003 and have only downloaded a few albums of of iTunes, like Ben Fold's. I don't listen to the radio anymore either because I am sick of the same crap that sounds like the last song. Right now I listen to Toad the Wet Sprocket, Lemonheads, Radiohead, and most recently Johnny Cash.

My point and I had one when i Started is...MTV what happened? Back in the 80's"we [could] dance if we want[ed] to" to music television, because Mtv played music. And,even if all we had back then was Men Without Hats dancing "The SafetyDance" through some sort of twisted, Scandinavian ,renaissance festivalnightmare and Michael Jackson cavorting with cadavers in "Thriller", at least we had music videos all the time. Save your REAL WORLD and other crap for someone else.

-c

5 comments:

Phillip R Goodman said...

so all of these people are just manufacture robot clones of MTV well if thats true then or course we can doubt anything including you perhaps MTV have a bet that they can completely trash their own schemes through the internet and that people will still watch their shows and of course they will no one cares.

Always Ashley said...

I don't know whether to tell you your just miffed because you don't have "SUPER CABLE" (the perks of having a roomie working for Time Warner), or gleefully agree becuase I almost crashed the car when I heard the new song "S.O.S." stealing my beloved "Tainted Love". At least P-Diddle is getting sued for his "sampling", brings a very very small sense of justice to the world.

Darth Shan said...

Hanson was from Tulsa.

Shawn said...

I realize this is partly a tongue-in-cheek indictment of pop music, but I'm not sure I totally agree with your thesis that music is dead and MTV is responsible for the mushroom cloud. For starters a lot of 80s music is classic because it is cheesy-bad, not because they are innovative, timeless songs. Second, the real problem is the consumer. I mean look at the crap that is on TV and the movies. I heard today someone is making a "Welcome back Cotter" movie. Who thought that was a good idea? The problem is not matter how big a train-wreck the regurgitated crap is, people will plop down their $10 to see the celluloid tripe. The same can be said for TV and music. A quarter of the population would to like to ban everything on the radio and TV that doesn't meet their standards of decency, and the majority of everyone else is happy with cloned acts. Why else does the world need Jessica Simpson, Brittany Spears and Mandy Moore? Aren't these all the same performer? You can't really blame the DMBs of the world for taking advantage of the consumers behavior. They make a new album, same as the last one, and laugh all the way to the bank. Plus, there are very few writers, musicians, etc. capable of perpetually putting out original work. An authors best book is inevitably the first one they write. Terrestrial radio sucks here, but fortunately there is XM. I almost never hear the music on XM played on the radio. I suggest a few of my current favorites: Morningwood, Slater-Kinney, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Killers, Death Cab for Cutie, and Sia to name a few. Hurry, before the rest of the world finds out and ruins a good thing.

Always Ashley said...

The Killers, Death Cab for Cutie and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs get radio play here. Everyone I know listens, I mean DCfC has an entire hour dedicated to them on either MTV2 or Fuse.

For some awesome music try-O.A.R., Marc Broussard, Ingram Hill, CrossCandianRagweed, etc.