The Broken Scene
Posted November 1, 2006 — in KOAR Rants, Music News
The Broken Music Scene
Trends come and go. I know that may seem obvious, but it appears not everyone is getting the ‘and go’ part. With most genre originators moving on to greener pastures (or dissolving completely), labels seem to be clutching to the past as they search for their replacements. Pop punk and hardcore ran their course and those artists have moved on. So why does it look like labels are snatching up pop punk bands like its 1999?
Band X sells alot of records. Band Y sounds almost identical to Band X, therefore, Band Y should sell. Interesting logic, and actually that would probably be a decent plan if it weren’t for Bands A through W, who Band X ripped off. How many copies of the same record can people really be expected to own? Unfortunately for the labels, they’re left with little choice. Anyone who takes a gander at the endless supply of mediocre music on MySpace can tell you- that’s all there is. Band after band emulating their heroes rather than just appreciating them. You really can’t blame anyone but the bands. They own the records they’re copying, so of course they know what they are doing isn’t original. What baffles me is that these bands know they aren’t original. They know they are treading well-worn territory. They know that the artists they look up to so much have even changed their sound to try and escape the clone army and the supersaturation of the genre they helped create. These kids must know that they bring practically nothing to the table, and yet they still have the nerve to send out demos.
Of course, I understand wanting to chase the rockstar dream, but since when is it more gratifying to ‘make it’ as a completely unoriginal joke of a band instead of an innovator that carves out their own place in the history books? Perhaps we’ve made it look too easy. Perhaps the music industry being shrouded in secrecy was a good thing. Perhaps people should stop feeling bad for telling someone they suck and should get out of this business. Simon Cowell is onto something. Pull no punches and leave no delusions. Either they have it or they don’t and 99% of them don’t.
AJ, KOAR
New Found Pop Punk 2006 - Outdated.
Believe it or not we still get a handful of records created by 18 year olds who are still listening to New Found Glory and Blink 182. Guess what, New Found Glory went emo and Blink 182 broke up. THEY aren’t even into the music these kids are copying. Green Day is the premier punk band, the songs are far superior to those in that genre. It’s amazing that not one out of thousands of punk bands can pull it off like Green Day; It’s like Abraham going back to GOD claiming he couldn’t find one righteous person, hence destroy the City. Unless you can say with a straight face that you’re better than Green Day, don’t bother sending out kits.
Hardcore 2006 - Rebelling Against Nothing.
Even the scenester kids claim hardcore is dead. Don’t invest into hardcore, a dying genre that never even deserved attention. Have you attended a hardcore show recently? It looks more like ‘fight club’ than an ‘event’. Hardcore has become nothing more than a soundtrack for an ass beating. This is why the Ozzfest has been crumbling with poor ticket sales. These bands are dissolving left and right, or completely abandoning their ‘hardcore’ following, ala Avenged Sevenfold. We don’t need more bands in this genre churning out the same cookie monster vocals and lame guitar riffs. Do yourself a favor and sit on the side of the stage at Ozzfest and watch these ‘calculated cloned’ bands perform. These guys aren’t ‘rock stars’; they are dysfunctional kids getting high on crack. For goodness sakes, rebellion is all about originality. Today’s hardcore bands are sheep, certainly not goats with horns.
Folk, Indie, Starbucks and the Good Ol’ Acoustic Guitar.
You can thank Jewel and Sarah McLaughlin for inspiring every little girl to pick up a guitar and strum a couple of chords that put you to sleep. Don’t get me wrong, Jewel, Sarah, and Tori had their moments but their disciples failed. Myspace and the net are filled with acoustic coffee house females that still think the Lilith days are hip. Guess what, it’s not. People are beyond personal embellished dishonest diary notes accompanied with choruses that would people to sleep after drinking 2 shots of expresso. Again, think of something of original and help the industry. Don’t believe your own hype.
Put Down The Eyeliner.
What kind of a rock star whores himself for gap campaign and sticks up his thumb? This isn’t dangerous, this is Disney Land. Where do we start here? Rock is supposed to be dangerous, dark, and original. Nothing dangerous about today’s rock bands. In fact, the rap artists are bigger rock stars even though their gimmick is drying up. After listening to the unsigned and the more well known rock bands I realized that the inspiration level is dried up as the California desert.
The Suit, The Tie, The Stripes and the Monkey
Remember when America was helplessly attacked by the artificial demand from the Hives, the Vines, the Arctic Monkeys and the White Stripes? It’s over and you knew it was coming. When you hear something great, you know it, and these bands weren’t even ‘good’. The garage rock revival has come to an end.
Got Inspiration? Try
- AFI - Decemberunderground
- James Blunt - Back to Bedlam
- Blue October- Foiled
- Mute Math
- Cold Play - X & y, Parachutes
- Baumer- Come On, Feel It
- the new GNR single
To say music is struggling to reinvent itself is an understatement…
Blue October’s music has been the best thing to hit the airwaves in a long, long time. Talk about being original. Kudos to Blue October for getting it right.
Comment by REB — November 2, 2006 @ 7:33 am
First, let me say you’ve got a great site. I’ve found a number of killer bands out here (I’m adding Mute Math to that list today) and I’m a member of a former KOAR featured band, which brought us a great deal of industry attention. On to your post…
For the most part, I agree with what you’re saying – if you’re addressing those who are signing bands as opposed to creating music. I don’t think it’s entirely fair to criticize bands for lack of originality – creating something new, unique and interesting is one of the hardest things any artist can do. It’s like criticizing aspiring basketball players for not being more like Michael Jordan – it’s not that people don’t want to be legendary performers; it’s that it’s incredibly difficult and only a very small fraction of artists have what it takes.
To make matters worse, the industry is giving them no motivation to even try and be unique. If labels are signing cookie cutter bands (and not unique or original artists) and your band *really* wants to be signed, you try to give the labels what they want. The blame is in the industry for creating a culture (more accurately, a business) that rewards imitation as opposed to innovation, in order to make a quick buck. Not saying that’s the way an artist should approach their craft (it’s obviously not), but for a young performer who thinks the only way to ‘make it’ is to be signed, it’s hard to break that mindset.
Anyway, just felt like weighing in with my two cents. Thanks for introducing the world to some great bands and for your insights on the industry. Peace!
Comment by jalan — November 2, 2006 @ 7:56 am
bravo on calling out hardcore. As a patron of hXc growing up and watching as bands like 18v and Avenge Sevenfold have slowly erridacted any real hardcore music. I miss bands like snapcase, bloodlet and iceburn… all true hardcore originators who would be mistaken as prog-rock in this horrible climate of hardcore bands.
But hopefully with the end of this scene, will come new bands who care. There was hope with bands like Circle takes the square and hot cross. I am sure it wont be a commercial success for a long time, but hopefully it wont die completley.
Comment by tjw — November 2, 2006 @ 9:36 am
some very true statements here, i just have one thing i’d like to add: ozzfest was never the place to look for good hardcore bands.
Comment by vegard — November 2, 2006 @ 10:23 am
Very good article. Especially the acoustic/indie thing. I can’t believe how blatantly derivative these artists can be and how high in number they are. I can’t believe they haven’t figured this out yet.
Comment by Keith Freund — November 2, 2006 @ 10:39 am
In essence I’m in agreement. I hate derivative music. However, you lose all credibility when you reference Coldplay. Really? Coldplay? They might as well be postboys for derivations and boring music. Kudos to tjw for mentioning Circle Takes the Square and Hot Cross. Two amazing bands.
Comment by Sam — November 2, 2006 @ 11:20 am
So you criticize bands for getting dressed up and wearing make up, and then recommend AFI? I think you have your priorities a little mixed up. Ozzfest has nothing to do with hardcore or punk and is just an attempt to bring crappy metal bands to a wider audience. There is nothing “hardcore” about Ozzfest or any of the music at Ozzfest. There are plenty of bands in the punk/hardcore world that are doing new, interesting things and just because they aren’t written up in major music publications/seen on tv doesn’t mean it isn’t going on. Don’t act as if you know anything about a scene that you aren’t involved in, just because you saw something about it in passing on MTV2. Go ride your high horse to the next Coldplay show.
Comment by jason — November 2, 2006 @ 12:17 pm
“There are plenty of bands in the punk/hardcore world that are doing new, interesting things and just because they aren’t written up in major music publications/seen on tv doesn’t mean it isn’t going on.”
Took the thoughts right out of my mind. This article is ridiculously short-sighted.
Comment by Drew — November 2, 2006 @ 3:14 pm
Just because some friends of yours are in a band that you think kicks ass doesn’t mean they’re relevant to a national assessment of popular music.
While I disagree with alot of the details in this article, overall I think it’s pretty accurate. Labels can’t sign something that doesn’t exist, and most bands suck. I think that was the main point and that came across.
If you’re saying that people shouldn’t talk about things they aren’t elbow deep in, what are you doing commenting on an industry publication? This is a website that talks about the overall music landscape, particularly popular music, not some elitist genre-specific ezine only for people with the right clothes and tats.
I thought Ozzfest was supposed to be all about metal, but for the past couple years its been mostly bands who label THEMSELVES as ‘hardcore.’ Be pissed at the bands that are making you look bad, not the people calling it out.
Comment by sigh — November 2, 2006 @ 4:58 pm
sound like every band on the radio,look like every band in the magazines,and get signed and have maybe a life span of 3 years.the 14 year old buying public could care less about originality.
Comment by larry anderson — November 2, 2006 @ 5:57 pm
I actually completely agree with this article. Regardless of the genre of the music, the SONGS comprise the greatest bit of ARTISTRY on a record. The author mentioned Green Day; they could be a polka genre artist for all I care; but the one thing that is universal about them is that someone in the band is a real SONGWRITER. Take a band like THE EAGLES; before “Hell Freezes Over” in 1994 those guys had not done a single thing in 14 years! What happened at the release of that record? MULTI-PLATINUM STATUS! PEOPLE HAD ACTUALLY BEEN WAITING ON THAT RECORD FOR 14 YEARS BECAUSE THEY WERE STARVED FOR A GREAT SONG!!!!!!!!! They STILL play to sold out STADIUMS across the world at whatever ticket price they want and the list goes on and on and on for these guys…..
You want to “save the music” and have a big record; write a record worth buying. It’s not the producer, mix engineer, radio promoter, or whoever that makes a hit record in the end; it’s the songwriter. When we get back to that, maybe the world will find another EAGLE’S, GUNS N’ ROSES,etc and the genre will not really matter that much. That is the truth.
Comment by Brandon — November 2, 2006 @ 8:28 pm
Dean-
This is one of your best pieces I have read in the few years that I have been coming here. “Imitation” is the best single word to describe the current music scene. I feel bad for teens who are just now discovering music. They are offered plates of mediocrity that has been deemed “amazing” by a calculated marketing plan. Speaking of marketing, cookie cutter marketing wasn’t, in my opinion, such a bad thing…if certain things were working..hey, why not. But when the marketing plan became the glove the music itself HAD to fit into, well you can see where that has gotten us. ;-(
Just today I was thinking about Brooke Hogan. The public saw how she was “put together” on that VH1 reality show. Just get the right team in place, then “just add Brooke” and voila! Kinda hard to value something that is so shallow….or am I alone on this?
jamie
Comment by Jamie Rowe — November 3, 2006 @ 12:25 am
I agree with ALL of your points except for one.
14 year olds are NOT STUPID MUSIC FANS…they are listening to MORE classic rock than any other genre out there…PERIOD!!!!!
walk the streets..come one..how many 14 year old kids out there are wearing AC/DC shirts..listening and BUYING Led Zepplin…Black Sabbath!!!!saying what you said about 14 year old kids is really out of touch, aka the industry..
There is NO room for originality in the music “business” because it is going down like a hooker on the corner on a friday night!, theres just NOT enough time….A&R Guys are marketing guys who HAVE to sella product…
Whyis it not working? because they do NOT know how to handle originality!! The phrase “cookie cutter” comes from the way they promote these bands…sell them…..market them….there is no innovative ways to do this…Where are the NEW Floms, Eisners, Lippmons….Iovines????
How many out there have heard, ” we want a finshed product!” or ” we NEED a band that’s tour ready!” or my personal fav…”whats your numbers look like, how many units you scanning?” I mean i am IN a band right now that has sold MORE records than a crap load of Signed bands and that dont mean crap…..
The modern day music industry does not afford bands the time to grow and become great…it IS a bubble gum factory…
I mean, come on AFI = rock and roll WHITE STRIPES ARE ROCK AND ROLL!!!! How is Mars Volta NOT huge and Wolfmother is massive because they are friends with Bam Magera!!!!
Look at it this way…you can draft a guy in the first round…pay him a lot of money up front and you industry) HAVE to make sure they pan out no matter how bad your judgement was on that pick!(todays industry) or you can draft a guy in the 7th round, pay him absolutly nohting, but stick him in a system to grow and become something where they can show their true colors (years gone by, real A&R)this is something that does NOT exist in the business today…..you get 1 shot at radio…maybe 5 weeks at the most and if the single doesnt stick….bye bye
…modern rock radio….35 slots on a radio playlist are for the fattest kids in the lunchline….
this IS what we all signed up for…
I mean you cant be an architect and HATE houses!
it IS what it is….
Comment by gt — November 3, 2006 @ 5:32 am
Dean,
I love reading these things. Hope all is well.
Shane
Comment by Shane — November 3, 2006 @ 6:59 am
It all comes down to an idea, a tune, and a flat top. Write tons of songs, move people, be yourself…you’ll last.
Comment by Zach — November 3, 2006 @ 11:28 am
People .. listen up .. Ozzfest was an outlet for good rock/metal music back in 19 or whatever up until 2003 .. it has shifted into a “scene” that doesn’t make sense or sells for that matter .. its that simple .. its not a biased opin .. its from statistics online & magazine articles.
Comment by real mad — November 3, 2006 @ 12:12 pm
Look at it this way…you can draft a guy in the first round…pay him a lot of money up front and you industry) HAVE to make sure they pan out no matter how bad your judgement was on that pick!(todays industry) or you can draft a guy in the 7th round, pay him absolutly nohting, but stick him in a system to grow and become something where they can show their true colors (years gone by, real A&R)this is something that does NOT exist in the business today…..you get 1 shot at radio…maybe 5 weeks at the most and if the single doesnt stick….bye bye”
A FUCKING MEN.
Comment by Thom — November 12, 2006 @ 10:28 pm
Just read your article, well really I skim read it >_> but oh well, and found it rather interesting unlike most blog-like things I accidentally stumble across I found it interesting. (By the way, that’s quite the compliment from me.)
But yes, although what you have focused upon in this article is mostly what goes on where people can see, on the radio, Tv etc.. my main focus on what I do is merely making the music and shaping it into what I want it to be.
Myself and a few friends have teamed together, quite recently for they didn’t know that I could play guitar, and begun putting some form of lyrics to the little tunes I put together. Of course, it started off with just myself and one of my friends that I happened to show off to (lol).
For me music is entirely what it should be; just music. We haven’t recorded anything because I don’t want to get bogged down with this thing called “music industry” which seems to have become watered down. I create music because I want to; it’s how I express myself, I don’t want to create music to make money (although if I could it would probably help me alot for I’m not the wealthiest of people).
Perhaps one of these days I’ll get around to recording something and sticking it on a disk so I can remember exactly how it goes, and perhaps send it to a few friends as a christmas present or something, but personally this “music industry” is somewhat idiotic. To me, a true artist that creates music should do it because they want to create music, not because they want to generate money.
Comment by Yunners — November 17, 2006 @ 3:09 am