So, I've been hearing allot of things over the last couple of years. The music industry is falling to shambles. With album sales dropping, and people stealing music, and the internet growing; it seems as if the whole music industry is about to crumble. Also now more than ever we've got bands that are making music not because they love it, but because they wanted it for the money and the sex and the drugs that older bands sung about, when in actuality these bands were just singing it but they were doing music because music was their life.

To me, music is an outlet; an escape so to speak, something that helps me keep my head together when something gets me down, or I'm just so darned happy I can't express myself in words, but someone else can with their music. Music to me, is a pure art form. It's something that can be so much more honest than anything else in the world. When music hits you, it does not hurt you or bruise you. It cradles you inside its warmth and shows you what the world could be if you tried. It's something that you can mold and grow with it. Music is that ultimate art form that you can express yourself as exactly you feel. From a lovesick ballad. To a screaming death metal ballad that explains your latest relationship. To something that's so confused and full of heartache that you just want to open up those tear ducts right then and there and start crying your eyes out. Or something that is so upbeat and happy that you just want to start dancing right there and screaming and yelling to the heavens. Or something that reestablishes your faith in God and love.

But so many bands these days aren't feeling it any more. They are doing it because its "The next cool thing". Their are very few bands anymore that really show feeling; that really care about where their voice is saying. They don't realize that kids when they are looking for shelter look towards bands for their salvation. Because so many teenagers don't have a faith in God, so they look towards people just like them, with problems just like them, but then thats where the trouble comes in. We've got these bands who make up things, that don't mean a thing just so they can have money and girls... It makes me sick.

It's like, these guys don't have a mission, they don't have an insight on anything that matters. Yet somehow they've made it out of obscurity, while a guy like me, who has something he wants to bring to the table, someone who wants to make a difference in at least one persons life before he dies; can't get jack shit done but those assholes can. It's just not right if you ask me.

What is music becoming today?
What it's really starting to become is saddening me.
It truly is falling apart.
The one Earthly thing I had faith in...
Is falling apart.
Though, I must say, their are still quite a few bands that have me staying hopeful towards music finding away to stay what it should be.

Wow, dude. I agree. Music is getting worse and worse and worse. I think it'spart because of the whol eipod-music-for-free thing, but I also thnk it's partly because of the divesification of teenagers. In the past everyone listened to the usual pop (think the 80s), but the industry quality just kept declining and declining, so the teens started going underground to actually hear good music. The industry didn't respond by getting better, it just got worse, so the problem that'd been there for years basically broke the industry's back when ipod came up with the ipod and gave people the ablility to get music for free.

I feel the same way you do. I'm in the process of trying to find new bands, and its so f**king hard to actually find good stuff. I don't know what ypr of music you like, but I like a mixture of things (alternative, metal, pyschedelic, and emo mostly, but a tiny bit of trance, disco, and rap), and everything sucks so mush ass today...

I'm into a lot of everything, except rap and country. And yeah its really hard to find something good that isn't being done just because its the next cool thing.

Blame Napster. There's really two sides to it, though. There are some good bands out there (I suppose it depends on your taste) who wouldn't be able to reach out to fans and expand their fanbase without the internet. The music industry has been like this for a while, a contributing factor is when peer to peer sharing was started. Then album sales starting dropping. But, album sales aren't the only thing that bands rely on. There are still live shows, something that the internet can't take away from them. And lucky for the "good" bands, people go to their shows. Besides, peer to peer sharing would still exsist without the internet. Plently of people have borrowed a CD from a friend and burned a copy of their own.

I know what you're saying and it saddens me too. I'd probably put the majority of the blame if not all of it on the music industry and all the radio stations in the country, not really the music itself. The industry choses what we get to hear, they advertise what they think is good. And the radio......man. Every station's library of music is so limited, you hear the same shit every hour. It's not that the music is shit, you just hear a very VERY select portion of it. The same thing over and over. Of course, everybody's got their own opinion of music. But if you don't hear "good" music on the radio or tv's, it's because nowadays you gotta go out and look for it. A lot of good stuff is being overlooked. You can't always just sit back and think it's gonna come to you. Not anymore anyways.

So sayeth the kid with the Blink 182 avatar. Are you out of your f**king mind?

You clearly are utterly devoid of any sort of taste or legitimate knowledge concerning music. First off, all music is a lie. Music is a contrived, premeditative monster, especially in the case of lyrical music. And, no where is music more a lie than within the industry. You shouldn't be asking for the revival of commercial music; If you really understood what you supposedly believe, you would be helping us in hammering the last few nails into the coffin of the record industry and doing so with an enormous stupid grin on your face. Music, in a sense, may be better off than ever before.

The information age has allowed people with very little resources, no celebrity, and absolutely no traditionally marketable sound and or message to finally reach out to people who care. Until today, the honest and unique local band was almost always destined to remain local - very local. However, now, anyone, practically anywhere, can broadcast his or her voice all over the world with a few simple clicks. This is powerful. Not everyone believes in your god, not everyone is sad like you, happy like you, anything like you... if the industry was making you happy, it was making that much more people pissed. And, if you couldn't find the music you wanted, someone else was finding something that felt just right.

When a song has a price to it... there is almost always a strong form of corruption looming overhead. I mean, why do you think New York medal bands get signed? Because they're misogynist, war-mongering, jocks... they support the status-quo. It's why mainstream rap makes poor black kids (and rich white kids, for some reason) think that broken english, forties, rims, and bitches are cool. It's why radio rock makes white kids think that being sad is the hippest shit ever. It's all built and sustained by fat-cat interest companies. Your industry, and the music you listen to, is a f**king lie.

If you want to find good music and can't seem to... that's your problem. You were clearly raised on a strong radio-diet; you need to learn to overcome that, because... there is a shit load of f**king amazing music in this world.



Oh, shut the f**k up!

stopp postenn bunchaa lamee shiett NUB...

-blinkk 182 ezz fukenn trashh.. suu ye.. lool.. pretttii muchh whitt musikk alll trash..

-u dum orr sumthang...da songg u listtinn 2 gitt pricee 2 u douche... u musikk u listinn 2 ezz lyee 2... stopp telllinn da kidd wat trashh n goodd musik..

-LOOL... u tryda telll da kidd wat good n trashh musik... dude... alll ppl gitt difff musikk tastt..

Yeah thats why I don't listen to the radio, I be like damn I just heard that 5 minutes ago.


I agree the internet has allowed you to go beyond to discover artists that your local radio station , MTV, BET, etc. wouldn't even let see the light of day. However there is good mainstream rap out there. Lupe, DMX , Common , Kanye, Jay, Mos Def, Outkast, Em, Ludacris, Nas, etc. are good artist that many people listen too. Therefore I'm one of those black people that think mainstream rap is cool, rims are cool, etc. Rap must also be responsible for that old ass white lady I seen have 24 inch rims on her Escalade the other day. Obviously its not just a bunch of kids that thinks its cool.

But for the record why do people get upset with the artist? Especially back pack rapper fans. I remember when Kanye collaborated with Lil Wayne, purist were up in shambles despite the fact that Kanye never expressed disinterest in working with Lil Wayne. To be honest if you were enticed with a ridiculous amount of money to change your image I'm pretty sure a majority of artist would no doubt sell out.

Okay first of all, I never said that the internet was a bad thing. And 2 I refuse to listen to the radio. Okay, bash the kid who likes Blink-182 not because of the fact that they were mainstream, because he found them by accident digging through his friends cd collection and instantly fell in love with it, pardon me for having an opinion on music. Okay, first off I want to state that I don't hate rap, or anyone who listens to it, its just not my thing, and I respect anyone who likes this stuff (unless its something that disney has been trying to do like hannah montanna, and the jonas brothers because there just trying to commercialize music even further.)

And I agree that we all have different music tastes, and that the music industry is a big fat lie. But there are a few good people out there that have a story to tell, and are trying to make a difference in a world that doesn't seem to want to listen. Even in the record industries. And I am supporting a movement to finally destroy the record industry. It's called Modlife.com check it out. Its the end of the record industry as we know it.

So before you make assumptions of where I stand, take time to listen.

I don't find music sharing to be wrong. True artists aren't bothered by it because they know all art is quite useless. Although the artists can't make much money if their albums aren't sold, they can go on tour and make more money than they can make with albums sales and sell albums at the tour itself. Now though, artists don't care about producing true art, they care about making money. Unfortunately, the bands with the connections to the big record companies are the only ones who get attention. So the best way to support a band you like is to go to their concerts, buy merchandise at the concert, and tell other people about that band. There's nothing wrong with sharing art, how is it any different from seeing a painting or mural? The answer is, it's not.

Standing by the statement all art is quite useless, it's easily detectable, especially with today's artists. The artists that don't write music for a reason (such as, money, fame, even dancing music) their music is normally the most pleasurable to listen to. People say they like rap music to dance to, hence a reason for writing the music. That's why rap isn't all that good. Mozart can even be used as an example. His symphonies written for ballets were not near as good as his symphonies just written to express himself. So honestly, true artists shouldn't be trying to make money off of their art, because that just diminishes their truthfulness to art.

I agree, I've never thought about that way because I never could've thought up that. Well, thats what the website Modlife.com is preparing to do. They are preparing to try and give their art their music away for free and make money off of videos and up to date things and merchandise, they have to make some money in order to make music, but they don't want to have to sell their music. It started off with Angels & Airwaves but they are slowly introducing more artists that agree with their philosophy. Music is an artform that should be shared, and given away for free. And then to support them we buy their merch, and go to their concerts and everything that you said above.

Yay I'm glad something is beginning to exist like this :D

There's too much text in this thread
I'll read it someday

Its a very slowly moving process, but so far, Timmy Curran, is the only musician (plus surfer) that has been started, they are supposed to be launching the next band today. Everyones been wondering who its going to be. Hopefully this works out, and then we can finally see a better music industry than the one that is so commercialized.

Proof that you know nothing about rap.

Not everyone listens to rap just to dance too. If thats the case the clubs would be playing Eminem's Cleaning out My Closet and Ludacris's Slap instead of Lean With It Rock With it, Crank That, etc. Like it or not rap is more diverse than any other genre I've explored as far as lyricism is concerned. Think not? Then why can rap easily be mixed with other genres. I.E. Linkin Park. If you don't like rap thats cool , but to say that the only reason rap is need is to dance to is ludicrous. Yeah I listen to rap songs to dance too but I also can't imagine myself leaning with it rocking with it while listening to Kanye's Can't Tell Me Nothing.

Yeah, I get what your saying, I can see that it is really diverse a genre. Probably more diverse than any other genre out there. Which is why I definatly don't bash it. And yeah, thats one of the reasons why I can semi tolerate rap, (it just doesn't appeal to me 99% of the time) is because how well it can mesh with stuff like Linkin Park and other forms of music. It's great though that you are so in to it that you explored it and payed attention to it.

I respect that, you give a good reason why you don't like rap. A lot of people give a typical answer "because there is no meaninful lyrics" which is a direct slap in the face to a Lauryn Hill who plays guitar , sings and raps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ4xpiYS1fI

Now, I can see myself listening to that from time to time. That was pretty nice. Thanks, and your welcome.

I'm not saying rap isn't good, I meant most mainstream rap. I happen to greatly admire G Love and Lauryn Hill isn't bad either. That was a bad generalization to make on my part, woops.


Also, about the dance thing, that's just the most common answer I receive from people who say they like rap.

Oh I see what you're saying now, makes sense now, my bad, I didn't know you were singling out mainstream rap.

Music is a lot like beauty. It's all in the eyes, or ears, of the beholder.

Some things I think are pure shit can mean a lot to other people, just like the music that means a lot to me can sound like garbage to someone else.

With exceptions, like that "I kissed a girl song" and all songs like that, I think people should try to be more understanding about music tastes.

ppll aintt ginnaa sttupp dl musik.. suu stopp u bitchen..

fuk dat...

uff summ musikk shiet da moi.. *kikk dat shiett outt..*

wow XD