So music is something I find is a universally loved pasttime. Video games are for nerds, sports are for jocks, tanning is for tools and whores, but music is for everyone.
The problem I find with music is that people are too goddamn biased about it.
Now, I'm the type of person who will listen to just about anything. And no, I'm not giving that retarded disclaimer of "oh but X genre in general sucks"; every genre has something good in it that you'll like, whether you like that or not. In my opinion, people who say that are fucking ignorant and should be shot for saying they hate rap yet have whatever it is song that's charting well on their iPods. Don't dismiss a genre if it's your guilty pleasure just because it'll make you look cool. Nobody's impressed with your idea of trying to fit in because the song you like won't get you acceptance from people who shouldn't give a shit anyway. Besides, if they don't accept the fact that you listen to X genre or Y artist, they're probably too dumb to function and aren't worth wasting your time trying to impress, anyway.
MOVING ON,
There are very few things I can say I don't like. I don't like howdy-y'all-redneck-sister-is-also-mother-of-my-child country shit where they sing about cowboys and horses and Texas. Carrie Underwood's "Cowboy Casanova" is the only exception to this, as she's a talented singer and the song's extremely well-produced for radio. But I really just don't enjoy the genre. I could go into a million (more) (left-wing-biased) reasons why I hate country, Texas, and all that other bullshit in general, but suffice it to say that the genre isn't something I enjoy. Perhaps I don't go to those grimy pool-table biker bars enough? Not that I've been to a bar, and if I ever go to a bar like that, please swiftly remove me and drunk drive me off the Ambassador Bridge kthnx.
I also dislike most classical music. There are some exceptions, but for the most part, if I don't like it, it's because it's
boring. I'm sorry, but my kind of music is something that inspires a physical reaction of some sort. That's how I can best describe my taste in music; if it can get me moving and pump me up, it's good in my books. Classical music is for the most part boring, despite being composed downright brilliantly. But most classical music is just that; classic.
I see most of contemporary music as the three monster genres -- rap, rock and pop -- and the branch genres that were formed off of them in order to "diversify" themselves from the field of "all the artists who are the same". Let me be the first to say, while I accept this whole idea of branching out and creating a sub-genre, you are not a giant big uber man-man for pioneering such a thing. I find the diversification bullshit, ESPECIALLY in rock. I have probably heard a million variations of the word "metal" or the suffix "-core" alone; death metal, heavy metal, black metal, white metal, pink metal, metal gear solid, grindcore, deathcore, puppycore, applecore; and if I've heard the argument of "this artist is X genre" vs. "no you fucking cuntfag this artist is Y genre because X genre is a genre only shithead faggots like you listen to, go fuck your brother you stupid dumbshit cuntface" once, I have heard it a million times. Can we both agree that this song/artist/video/album/WHATEVER is just good fucking music and leave it at that? Why must you persist to label your favorite artists as something so fucking different that nobody could possibly be the same? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of labelling something in the first place? If it's got guitars, it's most likely rock.
I love all three of the monster genres, but I love how I hear maybe 4-6 labels of rap -- "hip-hop", "R&B", "soul", "gangster rap", etc., but I have to hear over 9000 fucking labels for rock. Pop has dancehall, reggae, electro-pop, and techno, that's all I can really think of. It's stupid, and it just gives me the opinion that rock music fans are so blissfully ignorant in their quest to be uniquely labelled that their "omfgawesomesong"s aren't even worth listening to, simply because you're going to dismiss X artist, Y genre, Z song or N album because it's X artist, Y genre, Z song, N album, or simply because EVERYONE likes it. God fucking forbid you like X, Y, Z or N because EVERYONE OBVIOUSLY LOOOOVES THEM.
You know I like?
Lady GaGa.
And if your first thought is "oh she's terrible", I want you to stop now and scroll down, and comment WHY you think she's terrible. WHY do you think she's such a horrible musician.
Why do I like her?
Because she's different.
And if your first thought is "no she's fucking not, all her songs are talking about shit I've heard before", then you're right. But have you ever heard the phrase "Write what you know?" I'm sorry, but when has your uber-special deathmetalpunkcore band ever scaled the lost mountains of Thornesiahankoshinkakawaii in three summers' nights? Yeah never, that tl;dr place doesn't even fucking exist. That being said, does the situation presented by GaGa or any other pop artist exist? Who knows? In most cases, you don't sing your shit if you haven't been through it yourself. I'm not going to sing about getting drunk at a club and partaking in a threesome when I'm not only a virgin, but I hate alcohol and clubs in general. Then again, I probably won't sing in the first place since I'm not like Josh Grobin or some uber-talented singer. /jealousy
Have I gone through half the situations that the pop artists I enjoy sing about in their songs? No. I haven't just danced, I haven't thought of the same sex while fucking the opposite sex, I've never wanted to have some fun because this beat was sick, I've never chased someone down until they loved me, and I've never even close to desired a sloppy hookup with someone. But that's because I can cut through the bullshit of fake situations and enjoy a catchy song when I hear one.
And you might be thinking "then you're listening to music for its beat, not its lyrics", which is 100% true, for pop music at least. I'm sorry, but I don't need a singer to tell me my situation. You're not fucking therapists. I enjoy your music, if I live it, then that's a bonus. This further questions why people bash the senseless lyrics of pop music yet enjoy the fanatical ramblings of whatever the fuck it is genre you listen to. Have you clashed your mighty sword against tooth and nail of beast so fierce, you bravely swung to no avail? If you have, you are my hero, but I doubt that. I can enjoy a good beat without a care in the world as to what people think if I listen to a song like "3", by Britney Spears, a song about threesomes. A threesome is not something I think about...often, anyway. And when I am thinking of it, I'm usually not listening to my iPod. ;D
(Even the song in my "Listening To" -- "What's Your Fantasy", by Ludacris -- isn't something I listen to when I imagine the situation, and it's not something I can entirely connect with. It's catchy, flows well and it's a fun song.)
Anyway, I think Lady GaGa is different because SHE'S different. Sure, her music's the same old shit we've been hearing since God knows how long ago, but I like her style, her quirkiness, her...character. Some people believe it to be a well-planned facade concocted by record companies to sell records, but I have been a fan of hers since well before she became the superstar she is today, and she was always this weird, this quirky, this...outlandish, before it was profitable for her to do so. Does she take it too far? In some cases; I'm not one of those deluded uber-fans who idolizes their celebrity and treats them like God or some shit. But for the most part, I enjoy her persona because she's really not Britney; a pre-packaged, media-controlled, media-controlling pop star with no style, substance or uniqueness to her persona. I find that Lady GaGa very much is in charge of her image and how she chooses to present it; the only thing that I find is she has a little more help budget-wise on her costumes, music videos and all that. (If you've seen her earliest performances of "Just Dance"...she's come a long way as far as being outlandish goes, let's just say that) It doesn't look like the media has a very tight grip on her, since, if you think about it, the idea of a fashion-freak crazy psycho-art bitch doesn't really translate to record sales at first glance. It works for her, and I enjoy that it has. I believe she deserves the success she has, which is mostly fan-controlled; you kinda have to request songs if you want them on the radio, y'know, and I find that's how most people know GaGa. That or the penis rumor, which is something I choose not to pay attention to.
The problem is, I get a lot of flak from my friends and even some of my family members because I love her music. The difficulty is trying to get through to people's heads that I'm not a ridiculously stupid fan of hers who loves her simply because she's popular and she's a current artist; I love her because her music is enjoyable, she's enigmatic in interviews, and there's that something about her that just gets me attached to her. I genuinely am a fan of hers.
Then there's rap.
A lot of people hate rap. Is it racism? I don't know.
I've had my days where I used to listen to nothing but rap, pretty much. I call those my wigger days. I want to forget I was even alive during that time; I was probably at my most insecure and depressed during those times, and I guess the brashness of rap helped me find something to identify with. If this sounds stupid, re-read it and pay close attention to the word "insecure".
Rap isn't something I listen to for the lyrics, for certain. I don't have this deluded idea that I'm "running things", that I'm a rich motherfucker, or that I come from the ghetto. Most of the rap I listen to has either sexual content or just has a really kickass beat.
My favorite rapper is probably Ludacris.
In my opinion, Ludacris is probably the most well-liked rapper outside of the general hip-hop fanbase. Most people who listen to pop or rock have probably heard of him or at least heard his music, since he generally makes more radio-friendly songs. (Have you heard "How Low"? It's a top 10 hit at the moment, and it's enjoying a great amount of success.) And he deserves it if you ask me, because most of the singles he's released are catchy and fun, and aren't the content most "gangster rappers" are putting out. (That being said, is it original content? No. Is it fun content? Hell yeah!
I don't really like many other rappers, but one rapper I'd like to bring up is Lil' Wayne.
I heard of Lil' Wayne a long time ago, back when he and the Hot Boyz made "Bling Bling" (Oh GOD), but I hadn't really heard of him as a solo artist until 2005, when he released singles from "Tha Carter II" (which wasn't the enormously successful one). I thought he had a way with words, using cadence extremely well...despite the content of his lyrics, which I couldn't even begin to relate to.
After that, he started getting on the radio by being in like at least 100 (not fucking exaggerating here) songs/remixes between '06-'07. Some were hits, some were misses. Some were catchy and of-the-moment, profitable. Others...were horrible failures and just sucked. That created hype; everyone's like "holy shit, when is Tha Carter III coming?" (If you've never heard anything Lil' Wayne other than the songs with autotune, watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThX0p69ANfA . If you're unimpressed, keep in mind; that's someone else's song's instrumental, he's saying that as he's just thinking that, it rhymes, and the complication of using whales, batteries and boats while rhyming, while being on-beat and keeping up without stopping. That freestyle was done in I think late '06 / early '07, a full year before TC3 was released.)
I hate to use a really boring argument with Lil' Wayne, but his older material is just superior to the new stuff. Even then, he's one of those rappers who can still make a good song despite the fact that he really just doesn't know when to stop beating the dead horse that is autotune. There are some songs people will listen to just to listen to Lil' Wayne rap a verse on it, because his verse either has the best flow, the most intelligent use of cadence, or simply goes better with the beat than everyone else's. ("We Takin' Over", by DJ Khaled, is a good example; remind me who listened to that because of anyone else?)
Tha Carter III, despite its overuse of autotune and the overproduced "A Milli", still produced some half-decent songs. "Lollipop" is still catchy (though I personally prefer Framing Hanley's take on it, but that could be just me), but it does overuse the FUCK out of autotune. "Mrs. Officer" would've been good without Bobby Valentino trying to imitate a cop car's siren (it had a really mellow beat that I could really get behind, then WEE-O WEE-O WEE, WEE-O WEE-O WEE, WEE-O WEE-O WEE), and then there's "Got Money", which just sucked on all fronts, and "Mr. Carter", which, while it probably is a good song, is probably only good because it's Lil' Wayne and Jay-Z together on a song, which is OMFGTWOREALLYPOPULARRAPPERS. HOLY SHIT GAIS. It sold 1 million records in its first week (it might've been 1.3, or as high as 1.6, if I remember correctly) because it was purely hype; people WANTED to hear the next incredibly hot verse he'd give us. All we really got was "OK, you're a goon, but what's a goon to a goblin?"; which is a neat line but it's not anything I think will be memorable.
He's ugly, but he's talented. He sadly wastes his talent behind a tired fad of 2008 that I have never been happier to see die. Now if only Jay-Z could kill Disney as swiftly and justly as he killed autotune, I will be a happy man.
I don't mind rap. People say it's the most talentless genre of the big three; but you have to keep in mind that while the other two sing (which is big, let me remind you), rappers use slang and cadence better than anyone in pop or rock could even attempt to. (Comedically doesn't count, even if it's not only a meme but a Grammy-nominated song.) You have to mix complicated words together in a way that it works with the music, which is more difficult in rap than it is in rock/pop since the singer can just drag the last word to fit the bars of the music. It doesn't look like the most difficult shit to do, and if you look at the more seasoned artists of the genre (for me, this begins and ends with KRS-One), it's arguably been watered down CONSIDERABLY since the genre's origins, but you look back to the earlier years (mostly the 90's, when it was, IMO, at its best balance of commercial success and artistic strength) and you would wonder how some of these guys do it. I honestly don't know how they do it, and thus, the appeal of the genre, for me. If you can mention the most obscure shit ever and make it work, you win in my book, regardless of the fact that it can and most likely will talk about a gun, a woman, or a club, or something in those areas.
And then there's rock.
My kind of rock, really, is rock I can clearly hear. See, these days, all I'm hearing of that's good is basically 30 seconds of figurative button-mashing your guitar and growling gutturally, "singing" the most incomprehensible bullshit ever. If it's not that, it's extremely powerful progression and slick, strong production backed by terrible or incomprehensible vocals. If I listen to a song, I want to understand what it's talking about, and if there isn't that balance of beat or vocals, then unless the lyrics are just fantastic, I'm not for it.
I don't care where I get my music from. I tend to keep my finger on the pulse of what's popular, so if a song gets radio play or a lot of hype on Billboard, I've probably heard of it, heard it, and it's on my iPod. However, most of the popular rock bands who get video rotation on my television are Canadian, seeing as that television station is MuchMusic.
I don't know what the mentality is to like a non-popular song and pretend like you're the coolest shit ever for liking it. Most of the people I know tell me different things about what it is that caused the industry's artistic strength to sort of collapse; you look back in the 70's-80's and everyone was doing amazing shit; you look at the 90's and, while people were still doing amazing shit, it was harder to find and a lot of the old popular stuff back then was really overdone (one-hit wonders? really?). You look to today and almost no rock artists get venues like those of days past. (I can probably count on one hand the bands in the last year who have hit the top 10 that aren't overtly pop)
The most popular answer I get is the birth of grunge that ruined music, because of the fact that it made a lot of decent music obsolete. I guess I agree with this one, but it's mostly because, if I had to pick Guns & Roses or Nirvana, I'd pick G&R because I just enjoy their music more.
The band that I enjoy the most right now is Protest the Hero.
I love the progression of their music. I ignore their lyrics almost entirely (I pretty much mocked it earlier in this rant), but it's mostly the craftsmanship of their instrumentals that attract me to the band. It's a short and simple fandom of them, really; they make awesome music and interestingly artistic videos; sometimes hilarious, such as "Limb from Limb", my favorite song at the moment.
If I had to pick a band who I am attached to because of their lyrics, it is hands-down A Day to Remember.
I heard of them through their cover of Kelly Clarkson's "Since You Been Gone", which was their first video I'd ever seen that got video rotation at MuchMusic. I believe it was through word of mouth that I'd heard some of their other music, and realized that they are indeed an awesome band. I don't know what it is, but it's that bonus I said before that they just happen to make awesome music that relates to my life situation. "The Plot to Bomb the Panhandle", a song about wanting to just beat the shit out of that one motherfucker you hate, really resonated with me because I started listening to it at the height of a rather petty conflict I was having with someone. I hated the guy. I just really, really didn't appreciate anything about him. So this song's lyrics got to me, I guess. Could I have listened to the song had it been about something different? I listen to both "If it Means a Lot to You", a song about lack of commitment to relationship that eventually causes its end, and "The Downfall of us All", a song about the pitfalls of success, not caring for the lyrics of either, especially the latter. I don't care about lyrics.
What's the point of all of this? The point is, I'm sick of the fact that I have to defend my diverse tastes because they're not what someone else likes. I don't needlessly bash other artists simply because I don't like them; and I certainly don't care to influence anyone into liking or disliking any artist, song, album or video. It's one thing to ignorantly dislike another artist; it's another to express such ignorance, much less to the extent I have to put up with it.
I like a lot of music. Some of that music you don't like. Get over it. You complaining about it isn't going to get me to change the music I like. If you don't like the music I like, then troll the YouTube video. Telling me is not only unnecessary, but it's simply rude if you ask me and all it does is inspire me to write this whiny-ass rant about how I can justify my fandom of any and all music I listen to.
If you're thinking that I shouldn't pay mind to those who insult me for something as trivial as my tastes in music, consider this: I have to put up with this crap from people I call my friends. It's not something I particularly enjoy, or feel that I deserve to have to deal with. And there are simply too many people who do this in my life to go around addressing the problem person-by-person. I don't have the time for that. I do, however, have the time to address everyone at once with something like this.
tl;dr version: Stop fucking telling me that I listen to shit music. You don't hear me calling your shit shit, now do you? It pisses me off and I frankly consider it rude. So if you could shut up, that'd be nice, kthnx :)
