Pop Music: New York, London, Paris, Munich

Radio video
Boogie with a suitcase
You're living in a disco
Forget about the rat race

Let's do the milkshake
Sell it like a hotcake
Try some, buy some
Fee fie foursome

Talk about...pop muzik
--M

Warren waxes philosophical all up in the accessmag about the culture(?! The culture Lost.)

Naturally, popular culture is changing all the time. If it is not unique to a particular place, it is almost always unique to a particular time, like Beatle boots or spiked hair. And with few exceptions, the things that constitute popular culture typically get their start in darkened corners and under dusty floorboards -- in the dodgy clubs, at the out-of-the-way studios, with the odd-looking people no one ever invites over for cocktail parties. Popular culture, almost always, emanates in a sub-culture. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
But it's also true that, as he or she casts an eye over the cultural wasteland that is 2004, there's a young rebel out there in the dark -- like Johnny Rotten, like Kurt Cobain -- ready to strap on a guitar and kick the living s**t out of everything again. It will happen again because it has happened before. Count on it.

And are the rest of us getting really, really impatient for the arrival of this young rock & roll iconoclast?

I wrote a very long essay on this very sub about two weeks ago, stating that part of the problem that we find ourselves in the 'minor leagues' of pop music: the indie rockers. There is an overwhelming peer pressure to be a certain style, discard certain technological advances in sound and music, and tread only on the well beaten path of acceptable 'alternative' music, recreate 'Doolittle' over and over. Revile the labels, but try as hard as you can to get signed. If your name isn't 'the [insert object name + an 's' here]', change it immediately. If a band strays too far from the crowd, reel them back in. The Killers diss the Stills, Montreal bands diss Sam Roberts, Matt Goode disses Nickelback.

The problem also rests with the 'family' nature of the music business as well. Big artists bring friends with them to the top, regardless of talent: Nelly/St. Lunatics. Dr. Dre/Snoop, Dr. Dre/Eminem.....Unfortunately, this sometimes leads to an oversaturation of an extremely shitty bands, ie: Nickelback bringing up Theory of A Nickelback,er Deadman, and paving the way for other like minded rip off bands like Default, or *fill in the blank*. Eminem, for all his apparent intelligence, has brought up decent mc's like D12 or 50, but 50's entourage, G-unit have to be the maximum of 'no talent/big dollars' extreme. But if one sound sells, the industry will push it for every dollar possible. Imitation, as a business strategy, is very acceptable: if a competitor does something well, copy his move to limit his control of a market and maximize your own output.

Geography is also playing a part. In some areas, rap was developing for years on end, but because it was 'based' in New York, all we had were 'NY party anthems for years on end. Then came NWA from the underground, talking about killing cops. With no advertising at all, their debut went platinum. They changed the game. And to a certain extent this process of geographically searching out new talent has extended to the midwest with Nelly, Chingy, the emergence of the south and so forth. Kanye West, the grammy nominated genious, is from Chicago, which in rap circles, may as well be on the moon. For rock, the same process happened when the music industry 'found' Nirvana in the northwest. Outside of the mainstream, Seattle was not reached by big tours and shows, and so its own sound was developed. But the indie rock crowd is now interconnected, infecting every corner of north america, spreading its mono-cultured homogeneous sound into every garage.

I don't know if a rock messiah is on the way. Maybe. But I don't think that in a well developed genre like indie rock, with a critical mass of sound alike bands that vary in only somewhat in sound (chugging down strokes on barre chords) vocal abilities (which are regarded as a bonus, but you don't want to sound *really* good, because that would reek of effort) and lyrics (everything sucks, and you suck too). This is well-trodden ground, and the best have already been there and back. Where do we go from here?

Good question, and I would suggest we stop looking in dingy clubs filled with same BS we see every night. Rock n' Roll, Four to the floor, like yesterday and the day before and the day before.......We need fusion of genres, we need lyricists from rap to break out of gangsta/party rap and start dealing wth reality. The Streets and Dead Prez are some good choices...Kanye, too.

You say that every thing sounds the same
Then you go buy them!
There's no excuses my friend
Let's push things forward
--The Streets

Rock for its part, can start using some technological advances. At one point, the electric guitar was an advancement above all advancements. Unfortunately, the only 'new' thing that is 'acceptable' these days, is a crappy eighties synth to recreate what hated Duran Duran were doing before most of the indie schmucks were born. There needs to be a push to incorporate different sounds. Fusion of rock with hip hop was interesting, and it could go farther. How about incorporating drum driven rock, rather than guitar driven? The Rise of the rhythm section! ...take off where Ministry and NIN started heading....this is turning into a rant, more than anything, but what I guess what I am saying is this: Let's push things forward and stop glorifying the past.

We been there
Done that
Fool, check the format
--Sen Dogg

Stop posting Cobain on articles (that was over 10 years ago!) and start looking for something new and exciting. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel, and try to push outwards rather than rearranging the interior. No more Nirvana reincarnations (the Vines), no more 'Ten' ripoffs (Creed, et al), no more NWA wannabes (50). Let's push things Forward.

You know everybody's talkin' bout the good ol' days
Let's talk about 'em
(Can it be that it was all so simple?)
--Wu Tang