fairly long post that I don't feel like cutting, cause I'm a brat tonight.

The following is a post I've been thinking about for almost all week, trying to figure out how to describe.
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I've been highly unsatified with radio music as of late.

It all feels like...pop.

Now, I like pop. I listen to pop. Like, Coldplay. That's good pop music. Matchbox 20. But now even the rock bands sound like pop music.... or the definition of pop music has changed so as to include balad-like rock songs that have relatively politically correct content and easy-to-hum chords.

This isn't going to be easy to explain. But lately I've been listening carefully to my local rock radio station (104.9FM), and analyzing stuff when they play alternative music of 5 or more years ago, and the music of the last 5 or so years. There's an incredible difference.

Mostly, everything sounds the same.

The popular songs of Nickelback, Three Doors Down, Default, Incubus, Lifehouse, Goo Goo Dolls. All rock bands, right? And they all have songs that I've loved, at some point. And yet, they all sound the same. Some more (Three Doors Down), some less (Incubus), but there's this level of similarity in the songs they have that get played on the radio.

And that's not even touching on the new high school punk music. Good Charlotte? Go the fuck away-- "Girls and Boys" is a *pop* song. My mother liked that song. You are a pop band. So is A Simple Plan. Posers.

A recent trend is with bands like Trapt, or Staind, AFI, Creed...or something. I'm blanking out on particular names. But the music goes one of two ways: there is a melodic verse, and then a loud and incomprehensible chorus... OR.... there is a loud and incomprehensible verse, but a melodic and easy-to-sing chorus. Thought of an example: "Sweetness" by Jimmy Eat World.

There's little variation within a song. Little experimentation within, little changes. I was listening to Nirvana on the radio the other day, and I was shocked by how much different *stuff* they did within a song. The same with The Smashing Pumpkins. Pearl Jam. There wasn't (mostly) this loud-yet-easy-to-follow routineness in most popular rock songs these days.

And their subject matter is so... tame! Where's the subversiveness? That's what I really miss about Alternative. How come the radio isn't playing new songs that are more like "Rape Me" or "Jeremy" or "1979" or "Suicide Dream"? Where's the cool but weird yet instensely romantic stuff that Live used to put out? You know... "All Over You" and so on. Nine Inch Nails. I remember about 2 years ago being delighted with the lyrical explicitness of "Control" by Puddle of Mudd... that's damn mild compared to the imagery of the "Greedy Fly" video by Bush, or so many others. Stone Temple Pilots, with lines like "The dogs begin to smell her..." ...I don't even know what that means, but it's way more weird and twisted than whatever new Staind song it was that I heard on the radio this morning. And Creed. Gag me.

I was listening "Rooster" by Alice in Chains while driving about three days ago, and I relished it. That was a relatively slow song. And yet, it's got so much *to* it. Like "Plush" or "Yellow Leadbetter." Like "Ana Song" from Silverchair. It's not the same the whole way through. You can have a song that isn't constant crashing, and yet have it be plenty loud, and weird, and subversive, and dark, and *not* a romantic ballad. Although "Yellow LeadBetter" might be romantic-- I can never understand what he's saying, so I don't know. I just love the vocals and the guitar in that song.

Now, some bands are doing now exactly what they used to do then: Red Hot Chili Peppers; Beastie Boys, 311, Cake, Garbage, etc. That's cool. Keep doing that, you have all my love. They're not quite Alternative (except maybe Garbage, I'm not sure...), but they were there during it or near the end of it, and they stood out then and they stand out now.

There's also this other new trend: bands like The Strokes. Where the whole thing, especially the voice, is so synthesized that I don't even want to listen to it.

To think I used to hate rap-rock. God, I still hate most of it, but at least it doesn't... at least the ones that I hear aren't this tame.

I find myself really liking the White Stripes. Not because it sounds like Alternative-- it doesn't at all. But it doesn't sound like anything else I'm hearing on the radio either, so that's something. And I like Seether, which is kind of Alternative. In fact, Seether has failed to do anything yet to annoy me at all, or bore me. But then I've only heard two songs, one of which _was_ subversive enough to meet my tastes.

Does any of this rambling make sense? Does anyone get the feeling that I keep getting... that something is lacking that makes it all sound the same?

I was pretty young when Alternative was popular. It hit when I was in early elementry school, and lasted up until about the end of middle school. What I hear on the radio newly written right now is *not* Alternative-- at least, very little of it is.

In a drive from Yosemite to the Bay Area in the summer after 9th grade, I sat in the farthest back of the van, on the backward seat, and stared out at the receding road and listened to the song "Galapagos" by The Smashing Pumpkins for three hours and about 40 minutes, straight. I'm not kidding. I even changed batteries once in between, and went back to the same song.

I can't think of any new song on the rock stations radio these days that I'd do that with. And there's something wrong with that.



How is it that I'm 19 and I'm talking like an old fuddy duddy mourning their lost music age?

You know a song I ahven't heard in years? "So Help Me Jesus" by the Toadies. OR whatever that song was called. You know...."Take a walk with me, beside the lake tonight..."

ANOUNCEMENT!

I have recently considered something I hadn't really before: Europeans being spoiled on my LJ.

Well, it's never really bothered me, because I've never had anyone mention it to me before (except mrthursday, back when the end of BTVS was happening.) I just assumed (and mostly rightly, since as I said no one brought it up but the once) that after a few days to a week of first airing, an episode is fair game. That's how I've always approached other peoples journals; if I miss an ep, I don't look at my friends list unless I'm prepared to be spoiled for it.

I definitely believe in cut-tags for spoilers of unaired episodes. That goes without saying. I also believe that within the first few days, at least until the weekend, probably should cut for the most recent episode, especially the really intense content. That's your judgement, and I've seen for peopel that it varies. Heck, it varies for me. But after it airs... well, I expect people to talk about it. I also will talk about stuff. Many times I cut posts for length, which also might serve the unintenional function of a spoiler cut, from a non-American/Canadian perspective, since I tend to label my LJ cuts. But I have random comments, one-liner observations, and sometimes long rants or essays or opinion statments, sometimes weeks after something airs, sometimes within that next week.

So, here's the rule of thumb for people reading _my_ journal.

NO DISCUSSION OF SPOILERS FOR UNAIRED EPISODES, unless I invite it directly, which happens very rarely. Except promo discussion, which constitutes an aired piece.

THIS JOURNAL IS NOT SAFE FOR EUROPEAN OR OTHERWISE DELAYED VIEWERS WHO WANT TO STAY UNSPOILED FOR THE SEASON. Most of the people who read my journal undoubtedly have figured this out already, but might as well make it official. The truth is that it's inconvenient for me to think about cutting something, especially if its a one-liner that's tied into the topic of my post, as much as 2 or 3 months after an episode has aired. I'd forget about it anyway. If that thought is worrisome, well, you've probably already been spoiled for some early AtS season 5 episodes, so if you've kept reading my journal then obviously you're not too bothered so far. But any newcomers I guess... I can promise not to talk about unaired spoilers, but not about spoilers from already-aired episodes.

Besides... don't a lot of you download episodes anyway, or get copies? Some of you must, because I've talked to people from across the pond who know more about what's going on than I do.

Anyway, so that's it. Most of you are probably already spoiled anyway, and likely more than me. Since my spoiler level typically consists of what comes on the TV on 9pm Wednesay nights.

Ten Unpopular Opinions

I'm going to try this "Ten Unpopular Opinions About Fandom Thing." Though many are more controversial than strictly unpopular. And some are very popular in places, very unpopular in others.

( Read more... )

one thing didn't surprise me too much about the AtS 5.8....

AtS 5.8....

Being one who loathes Mountain Dew and has only ever drank it willingly three times, I can completely understand that a Cup of Eternal Torment would be filled to the brim with it.

yeah.

I want a boyfriend with pretty eyes, so I can say "Turn around, bright eyes."