Musing No. 5 - Music & Morality

So you hear alot about these people who think that musicians make too much about sex, violence, drugs, cursing, and other such things they don't like to hear about. It's corrupting our youth, yada yada yada.

Old People

I suppose the youth are very impressionable. I will give you that argument to a degree. So I recently started to think about this. Two things occurred to me that apparently don't occur to any of these people who complain.

Young People

Point 1 - All you older folk turned out pretty well. Yet, weren't Pink Floyd, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Eagles, and many many others from your day pretty open and explicit about alot of these things? Songs like 'Hey Joe,' talked about a guy going to blow away his cheating lover. Pretty much every other Jimi song had something to do with drugs.

Hey Joe, where ya goin with that gun in your hand?

AC/DC was violent and pretty explicitly graphic on the topic of sex. By the way - that song that you all love to dance to at the 46 year old's third wedding - 'Shook me all night long' by AC/DC is about nothing but sex. And yet you still dance to it. 'Brick House' by the Commodores is a all about how a lady has perfect dimensions - and is not missed at any older dance party. Pink Floyd concerts had more drugs than a pharmacy - in the lyrics & in the live shows - especially in the live shows. And yet you all turned out ok...interesting.

Led Zeppelin not promoting sex

So it brings to bear the question: Do you just think this generation is not capable of what you did - that is, being able to listen to songs with such 'awful' content and yet still turn out ok? Half the people who were at Woodstock are now running many areas of society. This generation is not able to do that? Is the fact that a good amount of this violence in music is in rap now a factor? I don't want to bring up the race card, but it seems like it would fit nicely here as well.

The board of ING on an executive trip

I think you don't give us enough credit. You would like us to think that when you listened to the music in your time you were somehow a whole lot more innocent and didn't know what the songs were about. I don't buy that for a second - unless you're too stupid to know what the lyrics meant, and that stupidity might explain some of the economic problems at the moment in our nation.

Or maybe you would like us to think that you were a whole lot more grown-up and were thereby able to withstand the 'horrifying' nature of the songs. That may or may not be true, as we have no way of knowing, but let's face it, older people always talk about how the current young people are awful and have no respect or morals or whatever. I'm sure when I'm old I'll be saying the same thing, lol. The point is, give us some credit, or at least let us make more mistakes than you did before you judge us.

Hi, My name is Wilbur, and it's been 60 days since I've listened to sexy music...

Point 2 - Why would the music business stop making something that people keep buying? I do happen to be a small business owner, and I know that if I have something that is selling - I'm not going to stop selling it. Not unless you want to pay me more not to sell it. It's really a simple situation. As long as people keep buying it, people are going to keep making it. That's Capitalism, which ironically enough many of these hot selling songs seem to be against it. I guess Anti-Capitalist music and movies can make Anti-Capitalists some major capital (or major hypocrisy), but that's another blog altogether.

I'm Michael Moore and I hate capitalism. Pay $12 to see my movie and I will tell you why.

There's all sorts of genres people can pick from, there's plenty of Christian bands out there too, so the people who don't want to hear it - don't have to. So it's not like they are forced to buy the 'bad' stuff, they just like it. But the very idea of telling people what they are and are not allowed to buy is very much not an American ideal in the first place, that's the kind of stuff we shipped over here to avoid.


So I guess the point is, that unless you can prove to me that your music hampered your ability to own companies or lead a productive life, and ruined you as a person - or pay all the musicians more than they are making doing the 'bad' music, then you should probably shut the hell up. Put your money where your mouth is.

End of Musing No. 5
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Musing No. 4 - I Don't Want to Do What I Don't Want to Do

This should be pretty easy to understand. But many people still don't get this concept when it applies to someone else and not themselves. If I don't want to do something, stop trying to get me to do something.

Not really related, just thought it was neat.

This covers a wide spectrum of different things. For instance:

- I don't want to recycle stuff. If it was easier, sure I'd do it - just have another tub that I lug out like garbage. I could deal with that. But you want me to pay? For something I don't want to do in the first place? If there is something that I'm already leaning in the opposite direction, and you guilt me into doing it, then after I'm like "Fine fine, I'll do it, where do I put it?" then you tell me I need to pay you 10 dollars a month to do the thing I didn't want to do in the first place? Get out. No. Not doing it.

Except this. This is amusing.

- I don't want to join every stupid facebook group you send me. I do not want to be a fan of 'Waking up in the middle of the night to pee.' That's stupid. Cut that shit out. Seriously. From now on, unless it's a company of some kind, or something that I can hold in my hand - stop sending me dumb invites. I don't want to become a fan of 'Good Will' or 'Love' or 'Spinning in circles like a little fairy till you fall down giggling.' No more of that shit, or I will become a fan of 'Pummeling my facebook friends into the ground.'

459 Fans? Really? F*ckin idiots.

- I won't stop eating things that will 'kill me.' As a matter of fact, no more news about how a new food is killing me. This week it will be bananas are killing me and next week you'll tell me it's the best thing for me. If something will really kill me, I guess you can tell me, but only after you're absolutely sure. Like arsenic. If you are as sure that something is bad for me as you are sure that arsenic is bad for me, then you are allowed to tell me. Don't tell me that coffee is going to kill me, I know plenty of dirt old people who started drinking coffee at 6 and at 86 can race me. You're full of crap and it's coming out your ears. While I'm at it, why don't I just give you a list of things that I won't be stoping, to save you time:

-- I won't be giving up red meat. Tofu tastes like human excrement.
-- I won't be giving up coffee or alcohol. These are staples of a good life. Yes that's right.
-- I won't be giving up fatty foods such as 3 AM Burger King burgers. I already know it's bad for me, doesn't matter if you graft a friggin health warning into the bun.
-- Until you can come up with something that doesn't taste like crap to replace it, I won't be giving up sugar. Splenda, Sacrin, Sucralose or Nutrasweet all taste worse than vomit.
-- Any and all things I come up with later are also on this list - this is the spot I am reserving for them.

Mmmm, Burger.

- I won't stop being politically incorrect. Frankly I don't have the time or desire to check every time something is suddenly considered as such. I will continue to call things I don't like gay - if it makes you feel better, feel free to call things you don't like 'straight'. I know you being gay and all makes you all emotional, but the rules should stand if I'm not offended when the shoe is on the other foot, then neither should you be. I will continue to say Merry Christmas because that's the name of the damn holiday - don't like it? Don't celebrate it. I will continue to have a Christmas Tree because I don't stop doing things just because others don't do them. I'm pretty sure you haven't stopped praying to Allah just because I don't pray to him.

*Sigh* shakes head...

- And finally: I won't switch to Biggby coffee from Starbucks Coffee. No matter how much better you tell me Biggby is, I have tastebuds, I know you're lying. If you want to buy me Biggby, that's fine I will drink it - at the price of free it can taste like crap....otherwise known as Biggby coffee - and I will still drink it. But if I am buying coffee, I am buying Starbucks. All this crap about it's way cheaper - have you ever actually purchased anything at Starbucks people? A regular cup of coffee at Starbucks is like 20 cents more than the gas station charges, and it's about the same price that Biggby charges. Biggby mixed coffees are on average 20 cents less, and yet they take about a dollars worth of taste quality out. Interesting. I'm willing to pay 20 cents more for coffee that wasn't poured through a jock strap. Some people apparently are not.

I see nothing wrong with this, lol.

Point is: I don't do, what I don't want to do. And you shouldn't either.

End of Musing No. 4

Musing No. 3 - Enough with the Politics in the Music

So I am more than a little annoyed by political music. Both sides. Seriously. Now I lean more to the right than to the left, but whether it be some country hack writing a McCain song, or Green Day or Smashing Pumpkins making anti-bush songs, or Lynrd Skynrd writing anti-healthcare songs - it ruins the listening experience for me.

I want you to stop making political music.

You have political views. I get it. You are very excited about those feelings. I get it. But don't write a stupid song about your political beliefs. That's dumb. Political debate is not art. Despite what is currently being considered art by people today - the 'Obama Hope' posters is just creative advertisement - much like this:

Really captures the teenage angst...

One reason not to do it is it makes your music dated very quickly. Do you think people care about Green Day's 'American Idiot' anymore? Once Bush was out of office, it doesn't matter anymore! There are songs that are written for and against Reagan, Kennedy, and even Clinton - by some pretty famous bands in the past. But do you know of these songs? The answer is probably not. Why is that? Because they became quickly irrelevant, and therefore faded away. Do you care about what someone's political views of Kennedy or Reagan was however many years ago? Of course you don't, it has no bearing on your life as of right now, and the music public has a very small attention span for things that aren't relevant to them - right now.

I believe this is the real 'American Idiot' hahaha...ok my puns suck.

I don't care if people hold personal political views, I would actually rather they did. I don't even care the position, if they pay attention to politics that means that they care about things outside of their own little realm. I don't even care if they give interviews saying what those views are - have at it. Just don't put it into your music, man. It ruins it for me.

Now of course, anti-war, anti-poverty, other transcending political topics are always going to be around, I don't have a problem with those. Just getting so specific ruins the poetry. There's alot of political songs that most people don't know are political, because they were written poetically or about general social injustice even if the artist was thinking something specific, it was open to interpretation.

" A King James I by any other name would still have dissolved Parliament..."

The beauty of music is that it connects with many audiences, in many different situations. I have many times listened to a song in a particular time in my life that helped me through that time and that I really connected with. Later on I have found out that the song was written about something different altogether, but I was able to connect with it because it was written in a way that was open to what I was feeling at the time.

Another reason it's not a great idea to make political music is because it instantly alienates a great part of your audience. This is not the days of Pink Floyd anymore - the average listening audience for a rock album or a rap album ranges to all difference races, religions, walks of life and political views. You are instantly alienating a portion without reprive when you blatantly state your political views in the contents of a song. The whole point of poetry is to create some mystery of what you are saying so the listener or reader can come to their own conclusions. Don't just state what are saying plain and out there. That makes for very little listening quality.

I'm sorry, I become deaf when people sing stupid.

On behalf of musicians and music listeners everywhere - please don't make any more songs for or against presidents, congressmen or city councilmen - I'm tired of skipping your songs on my iPod. Don't make songs for or against government policies or things you should be government policies, although I suppose people will never stop making songs about weed...what are you going to do? lol. Those are dumb things to make music about, don't make for great musical poetry, and frankly are getting pretty boring and repetitive.

End of Musing No. 3
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Musing No. 2 - Style Lines Are Being Blurred

The more I listen to the new music coming out - it seems to me that the style lines are being blurred. What was once clearly defined as one style can cover several genres at one time.

http://unadorned.org

Not that I disapprove, quite on the contrary, I appreciate the diversity in each market. We went through quite a stint what I like to refer to as 'The Creed Era' where anyone and everyone in rock sounded like Creed. Now many people have varying opinions on the band Creed itself, I loved em back in the day, but everyone copying everyone else is a great way to kill your industry. Look at bands like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles - these groups have never successfully been duplicated, in that time when something was made no one else (who was serious) copied it - they made they own stuff. It made the industry diverse.

AC/DC in concert. Photograph: Michael Halsband/PR

Well we are in a very diverse time in the industry at the moment. Rock, Pop, Classic Rock, Techno, and Jazz can all be found on one album many times, even once in awhile, in multiple elements on one song. Take a look at a new band - Mutemath, for instance. Mutemath, to give you some back story was started by ex-keyboardist and back-up singer for christian band, Earthsuit, by the name of Paul Meany. Earthsuit was a very experimental techno centered rock. Paul has been able to take some of that techno infusement and put it into a rock format, with a bit of a pop tinge. 10 years ago, his music would have been criticized as a mamby-pamby soft rock or pop. But the industry has changed. Let's face it, as much as you like the sound of a song on the radio, you may not want to hear the exact same thing through 15 tracks on an album. And in today's internet music market, people can choose to just buy the songs they like and ditch the rest.

Mutemath album - Armistice

This ends up being a good thing and a bad thing. Many professional/career musicians think of it as a bad thing, because all of their songs have to be good, and let's face it, most albums - don't really have all great songs.

The good thing, which I really want to point out - is that due to the diversifying of the industry, creativity is given full reign. No longer is someone forced to create a new band whenever they want to do a different sound. You don't have to sit down and think "This has to be a rock album, so I can't do this pop/rock song that I just came up with." You can just channel what comes to your head and through your hands. Now there will always be niche bands, like the extreme heavy metal or screamo bands, but even they are creeping out with one or two pop-esque tracks and they are being embraced pretty well.

If you focus on making music that you like to make, regardless of if it all falls into a particular genre mold or not, then it will work. Creativity cannot be put into a box! A great example of this is the many rock bands & artists that are collaborating with producer Timbaland. Timbaland, for those of you that don't know is an r&b and rap producer, but he is very experimental and enjoys using different elements to create new stuff. You have bands like Fall Out Boy, The Hives, She Wants Revenge, One Republic - even Chris Cornell (former lead singer of mega rock bands such as Soundgarden & Audioslave) all working to create a rock/r&b hybrid on certain tracks. Why? Because it's new! It's different! It's creative! It's probably something they wanted to do, but felt they had to stick to a particular genre. Many musicians I have talked to feel this way.

Timbaland (Tim Mosley)

The point I would like to hit home is that when sitting down to make music - make music that is organic to you. Make music that comes out of your like magic. Make music that you just make, not that you have to slave and slave to change into what you think it should be. You will end up enjoying it more and will be much more successful if you are doing what you love than what you don't. The artist that is himself - however weird or different - will be the most successful.

End of Musing No. 2
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Musing No. 1 - The Point Has Been Missed

So I have alot of friends in christian music, which is a very interesting market indeed. I prefer regular, what is considered 'secular' music by the christian market, but that is because for every 10 bands that are big in the christian market, only 1 out of that is actually good. So it's alot of crap to wade through.

But I am impressed at how un-lame many christian artists are looking these days. Many of the christian lynch-mob like to say that tattoos, wearing clothing with skulls or dragons, getting piercings and such things, excessive make-up (for guys or girls), sexually attractive clothing, goth-looking hair and other such things are trying to look like the world, and therefore somehow wandering from God.

The Becoming

My view is much different than this. I am, by trade a marketing expert as well as musician. Now, sure, those things are different than what christians generally look like - but if you actually have a message that you want anyone outside of the christian market to hear, should you be only marketing yourself TO the christian market? Now if you are just making music for christians, or as I like to say - Reaching millions of Christians for Christ - then by all means, follow the christiany stereotype. But if you are reaching out of the body, like we assume that God meant when he said 'Go into all the world' then maybe you should try to market your message to them.

Showbread

Basic marketing 101 - if you want a certain group to go for your product, service, message - then market yourselves to them. How hard is that? Apparently very.

As I Lay Dying

I don't want to harp on something that most people clearly will never change on - go ahead Christiany guys, just stay irrelevant and watch your empire tumble. I do want to give an atta-boy to the bands with the great messages who have gotten ahold of the concept of 'IN but not OF.' You can be there, you can look like, but your origins are different. Your origins are going to show in your actions not in what you look like.

End of Musing No.1
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