Where Do We Go From Here?

Just posted this the other day about the state of music. Basically it was me having a bitch about the fact that we don't seem to have any epic rock gods in our time and that the likes of Led Zep and Floyd are gone. Also the fact that everyone seems to be fine with this.

Ok. I'm sitting here listening to this playlist on my iTunes called "Reasons To Play Guitar". It's got songs from Eddie Hazel, Jeff Beck, David Gilmour, Jimmy Page, Frank Zappa, Stevie Ray Vaughn and a bunch of other guitarists that I really look up to. It got me thinking about the state of music today and what a sad reflection it is of the society we live in.

Where do I begin? Firstly we've got the top 40. A mind-blowingly shallow selection of stereotypical pop tarts, wannabe gangsters and soulless commercial rockers. Don't get me wrong I actually have an appreciation for certain pop and hip-hop songs, especially at 12am on a Saturday night in town, but I can't help but cringe at how meaningless most of our popular music is. I mean I couldn't care less about some girlie's lip-gloss, her handbag or whether her goddamn milkshake attracts many members of the opposite sex, in fact, I'm not entirely certain of the suitability of milk-products as subject matter in any music that I want to listen to.

Our music is censored. Rammstein release a video for the song "Mutter" which is perhaps a little dark, yet has no gore, sex, violence or even swearing. The same video gets blocked from TV until late at night simply because some mother thought it had "dark themes" and that it might corrupt her child. Sorry lady, by blocking thought provoking content on our airwaves, you're only helping expose your "precious darling" to a sea of depraved mediocrity. Someone should ask these mothers why on earth it's not okay to broadcast a hard rock video that is filmed in a dark room but for some reason it IS okay to show almost-naked ghetto booty flashing their shit around while rappers treat them like pieces of meat. Why is it okay to support these gangster wannabe mother-fuckers and condone videos depicting them doing drive bys?

What happened to the substance in our music? In the '60s and '70s, when the world was going through significant social change, the music reflected this fact. In some instances it even helped influence the change. Songs like Jimi Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower" spoke out against the leaders of the time. The use of freedom of speech and creativity lead to boundaries and restrictions being challenged and broken. The youth were fueled by music and by the realisation that they lived in a social environment that wouldn't change unless they changed it themselves.

In the 21st century we find ourselves controlled by new leaders. Heads of conglomerates and corporations control everything we do. We're given the illusion of free will through the choices presented to us via the Internet but how many of us actually go out of our way to experience something new online or research an injustice we hear about. How often is it that we just do what everyone else is doing? How many of us choose to do something that might even a effect the mindset of one other person for the better? And going back to the original point of this rant, why isn't our music challenging us to challenge them?

It sucks that amazing bands like Shihad struggle to make it overseas and are booed off stage for having an opinion about the war on Iraq. I find it disgusting that the RIAA (Recording Industry Assholes of America) make 11 Billion dollars a year and it pisses me off that record companies fight the downloading when the artists themselves make almost nothing off albums and a lot more off their shows.. There have been a fair amount of local and independent bands I've seen live and bought only because I downloaded their song off the net first and loved it. I paid over 100 dollars for my Foo Fighters ticket and usually don't have a problem forking out $120+ for a Big Day Out ticket. [edit:] And I'd rather support a band by seeing them live than support a record executive's $200 lunch by buying 10 CDs.

In the words of Rage Against The Machine who so aptly seem to be blasting in my car lately. "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me".

We don't all have to be passive consumers. We shape our art.