Stop With the Crap

The roar of the crowd. The anticipation of jumping on stage. Watching thousands of people sing your song. It's what every wanna be rock star dreams of. Who doesn't want to be famous? Money, booze, sex, and the admiration of millions. It's the rock star way of life. Catch it if you can.

Problem is...it's not as easy as it looks. Or is it? The music industry would like to make you think it is. With the pile of poop that it's been rugeritating to the impressionable lemmings of America for years, it's quite easy for the douche next door with the shitty garage band to think that he can get signed and be a rock star by tomorrow. And with satires like "The Rocker" being put out, every teenager in America is going to to think that all they have to do is put a stupid video on YouTube and record execs will coming knocking on their door within days. If you suck but you've got a good gimmick, you'll make it; however if you're a truly talented musician wanting to share his/her passion with the world...you don't have a chance in hell.

Re-reading Planet Rock on my trip to and from Vegas this past weekend pinched a very irritated nerve. The particular chapter that hit the raw nerve in question had to do with Sir Lonn Friend's years at Arista Records under Clive Davis. It's not that his words hadn't affected me the first time around, but the second time around was like a punch in the mouth. Being the true music fan that I am, I want to believe that the music industry really does care about the music and not the bottom line. As a fan, it's disheartening to really accept the fact that the music industry could give a shit about the quality of the music they're putting out. It's all about quantity, the quantity of dollars in their pockets and platinum records on their walls.

That's why the music of today is the way it is. The industry is super saturated with the same bullshit bands. Is anyone going to remember Three Doors Down 20 or 30 years from now? Will Katy Perry make an impact on music history like Janis Joplin? Doubtful. These bands and this music are all products of a machine manufacturing cookie cutter shit to make a buck. Whatever happened to being timeless?

Led Zeppelin is timeless. The Beatles are timeless. The Rolling Stones are timeless. Black Sabbath is timeless. Nickelback is not timeless. My kids aren't going to be sitting around with their friends 20 years from now talking about how "I Wanna Be A Rockstar" is one of the greatest songs ever written. Want to know why? Because it's not.

And on the way home today, I heard Nickelback's "Something in Your Mouth" and almost slammed on my brakes to cause an accident to make the shit stop. Really? "You look better with something in your mouth"? That's all they could come up with? That song sounded like they put forth no effort whatsoever and just shit something out. Even "squeeze my lemon til the juice runs down my leg" is more creative than that.

This is the kind of mindless garbage that's infiltrating our airwaves right now and it makes me want to pull all my hair out. I can probably count on one hand the nubmer of current bands that are actually worth a shit today. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of talented, undiscovered bands out there who'll never see the spotlight because they may not be radio worthy for one reason or another. I've watched friends struggle. I'm watching my fiance struggle. Will they ever get the justice they deserve? Probably not. Instead, they'll just watch idiots like Ali Lohan and her big sis Lindsay Lohan put out albums that are SO overdone that the general public will really believe those two can actually sing.

I can't take much more of this radio doo doo in my ears. I keep hoping that the tides will turn and someone...anyone...will realize that it's time for a musical revolution! It's time for change and hope! It's time to stop using computer generated instruments and Casio keyboards and voice modulators! It's time for true, unfiltered, pure, raw rock & roll to make a come back! Stand up everyone and unite! Stop buying all that crap and let the music execs know that you want to hear some real music! Help promote those bands who truly deserve it!

Damn. I wish it were just that easy.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The picture is of me sitting in Axl Rose's voice booth at the Studio at The Palms in Las Vegas, NV while he was recording Chinese Democracy. Had I known then what I know now about the album, I would have destroyed everything in that room and the recordings, so we wouldn't have suffered such disappointment.