Get Outta Here.
I can respect that certain musicians worked hard on their dancing or their choreography and getting the right producer....or just had the right connections to get into the music business. But we gotta draw a line somewhere when it comes to the crap that the music industry pumps out. Are we under some sort of mass mind control mechanism that persuades millions of people by the music of a marginally talented "younger sister of someone else"?

In the key of fake

Teen songbird Ashlee Simpson had a microphone malfunction on "Saturday Night Live" last night, scurrying off stage when a production glitch caught her lip-synching the wrong tune.

The pop star, younger sister of singer and TV star Jessica Simpson, sounded great belting out "Pieces of Me" in her first segment on the show. It was the same song that she butchered at August's MTV Music Video Awards, drawing withering reviews for a flat, out of key performance.

But the triumphant moment turned into a debacle when she came out to debut the song "Autobiography" for a second set. But whoever was responsible for piping in a studio-engineered rendition for Simpson to mouth screwed up, playing "Pieces" once again.

No, the industry that supports artists like this made the mistake, the same one they have made year after year.

Tell me why Milli Vanilli was given a hard time again? At least they were eventually caught. J. Lo, Madonna, and Britney have been playing recorded music at their live shows for years on end without any repercussions. The music industry wonders why their records aren't bought in larger quantities (in absolute terms) anymore, as they push a smaller and smaller stable of 'mega-artists' pumping out platitudes rhyming 'dove', 'love' and 'above'.

While artists like Ashlee might sell a zillion albums, they suck up resources that could be spent finding and developing the next Led Zeppelin, Nine Inch Nails or White Stripes. Instead, that money is wasted on the next no talent moron. A pound of makeup per day. Airbrushing the video. Constructing a 'voice' in production. A team of writers producing shallow greeting cards to safe, bouncy music. A music racy enough for adults, but with an 'innocent' persona to make it 'ok' for kids.

Oh yeah, but its 'downloading' that's killing the industry. Give it a rest.