Spirit of Radio BBS

Somebody tell me - who pulled the trigger on rock and roll? They've left us with a music biz trying to peddle thee most uninspiring CRAP on the masses. There is not one band out there that is doing anything remotely interesting or innovative today. And don't say "What about the Strokes?" or I'll smack ya. Regardless of whether you have the balls to print this on the site, you can be assured that I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Rock and roll no longer possesses a single aspect of danger - and I'm not talking about the farcical and rather tiring "danger" of hip hop gangstahs threatening to blow each other away. No my friends - it would appear that rock and roll has Alzheimer's and has forgotten how to scare people in both a good and a bad way. It's also lost the ability to make people want to burn albums and ban certain musicians from playing their towns. As one of my favorite musicians (who used to possess this quality of danger) once said, "Rock n' roll isn't dead - it's just passed out in a corner." We can only hope so.

The truth of the matter is that there will always be people who are quite content to accept the absolute slop that the music industry peddles to the average joe - so immediately discount these people from this diatribe. As the Dead Milkmen once said, "They'll dance to anything." These folks only prove that the music industry can unleash just about anything on the public, like Britney Spears, Blink 182, Pink, or Creed - and actually generate sales. The unfortunate result is that this then inspires the biz to photocopy the sound to create a bunch of useless knock-offs with no ideas of their own.

No my friends - we need a new rock n' roll visionary - a savior with an idea that will spark others to create. Rock n' roll has always had the ability to come back from the dead in tsunami-like proportions - unleashing a wave that scares the hell outta people and cleanses away the crap. New "waves" of rock n' roll have always had the audacious ability to influence so many other aspects of society - from hair, fashion and furniture designers to music equipment manufacturers, the music and publishing industry, and yes, tourism. (Think about it - when was the last time you heard about a city that was today's new "hotbed" of upcoming bands?)

Basically this is a want ad. Am I pissing into the wind with this request? Why don't I save rock n' roll? Yeah well, I can't. But I have a hard time believing that nobody else can and that all inspiration and creativity is dead. And please don't reply to this with a pitiful attempt to list all the "innovative" new talents out there. Don't do me this disservice. No folks - we need to ennervate music once again, and ressurect rock n' roll. Any takers?

Wow, you're actually approaching the death of Rock and Roll as a new phenomenon. The only difference in 2002 (as opposed to 1963, 1967, 1970, 1977, 1983...) is that absolutely every venue for public access is controlled by a few corporations, who have an agenda to sell certain product they've already invested heavily in.

Since, say, Nirvana, record company sleezoids have been trolling and trolling for the Next Big Thing. They don't want to repeat their costly mistake of the early 90's signing everything they could, hoping for the next Kurt Cobain. Think Mudhoney. Think Tad. Labels spent tonnes of $$$ on those bands, and hundreds like them, in the hopes of finding the Next Big Thing. Now they have refined the A&R process to be completely controlled, using radio and video to force what THEY decide to release. It's cheaper than taking chances.

There is no escape this time.

Case in point:

For some reason, someone in a position of power decided it was necessary to release a Mick Jagger solo album this year. Their reasoning is worthy of a whole other thread, so let's not dwell on that here.

Instead, let's dwell on the marketing of the Mick Jagger project itself. It was released after the heavy rotation of a mediocre single, and sales were, well, poor. Even the most skilled spin doctors in the business could only generate sales in the triple digits in the UK the first week of this release. North America was similarly uninterested, with sales reflecting a larger population base. This apathy despite all the best music marketers on the planet putting their best feet forward! The incident became a joke and an embarrasment. Radio stations who were still flogging the first single were poking fun at ol' Mick, saying his time has (finally) passed. Yet they continued to play the single in heavy rotation, DESPITE THE TASTE OF THEIR LISTENERS. A second single was released, and entered into heavy rotation. Then a third. Only then did sales of "Goddess in the Doorway" begin to take off. Not stellar sales, of course, but enough to break even (how much does it cost to make a Mick Jagger CD, anyway??). The lesson learned? The music industry is one big machine, designed to sell a product via its own promotion system, from start to finish. The democratic element is completely gone now. These companies no longer need to worry about the public's lack of interest, because they have complete control of the media, and can influence that interest to their shrivleled hearts' desires.

Same thing happened with the Wallflowers's first release, which I heard on, you guessed it, CFNY a million years ago. Nobody bought it, but they were still given another chance, and with different--more intensive--marketing, to release a second CD, which went quadruple-double-anthracite-platinum.

I say again...There is no escape this time.

Surrender, Dorothy!

PS--if you want to have 'credibility' and be a rock god(dess) now, either be a Pearl Jam ripoff band like Creed, or put some numbers in your name, a la Blink 182, 311, etc...

Send me a postcard from Famousland!


PPS--if you want a truly innovative artist in your collection, check out Jim "Foetus" Thirlwell's newest release "Flow". It's perfect. Just to prove how good it is, no major label will touch him, despite his setting trends in alternative (not the absence of quotation marks) music for 20+ years.