Out driving I noticed on the sign for one of the local honeymoon resorts their big push for a Journey tribute band the end of this month. When did cover and tribute outfits win the war for venues? Where did the interest in new original music go? Granted originality doesn't have much left in it for the world of music, most rock bands are content to sound just like Nickelback and metal bands all aim for Slipknot... to the point of every metal and rap/metal fusion act copying the mask thing too.

Most of this is aimed at up and coming big label bands, but there are plenty of unsigned and independent label bands doing the same. Stop saturating the genre with "compose-by-numbers" crap that sounds like it could get radio play alongside the rest of the Top 40 copy and paste music most stations play right now. Be original and find your own words, your own sound. Experiment and see what you can create, remember what made the classic rock bands famous and part of the culture... they were original and made things their own.

Stop making yourselves clones of Nickelback, Britney, Slipknot, etc. ad nauseum, make a statement! Be fearless! Be creative! Be original!

It may never make you famous, it may never make you rich, but at least if you're going to call yourself an artist remember you should be making art. Art should be self-expression, not "they made money with this so let's get as close to that as we can without getting sued!"

 

Start thinking outside the box, or at the very least try seeing all four walls along with the ceiling and floor at once; squeeze out the last few drops of originality the box has. Otherwise we're in for a full return to the homogenous bubblegum and boy band elevator music that ruled the charts from 1998 to 2002, without any other music in the background waiting to give us freedom.

 

2009 saw a true upswing in the almost forgotten Single Release. Several bands, spanning several genres, have returned to releasing singles as opposed to the expected yearly album.

Not surprising, labels have steadily been losing money for their short-sighted attack on the digital download frontier back when they banded together to take down Nappster in the early years of this decade. What is surprising is that it took this long for labels and the bands they've made huge to jump back on the Single track release, after all with iTunes, Nappster, Zune, not to mention the millions of illegally ripped MP3s out there; is there anybody that still buys full albums?

 

Record labels have forgotten how to innovate, this excludes some indie labels I'm personal friends with, I speak of the "Big Guys". But truth is truth, big labels are going down, it's a slow death granted but the vultures and flies are looming. More bands are self-representing, taking pride in being unsigned, and some even create their own label. True these routes may never see your band playing a sold-out stadium world tour, and then again it might, but bands are able to maintain more control over their image, their creativity, and their money.

New resources pop up every day for self-promoting, self-repped musicians... cdbaby.com, Snocap, Myspace, Facebook, Reverbnation, Punkrockers.com, Skullsnbones.com etc. etc. etc.

So many ways to expose your music, sell your music, build a fan base, and get name recognition; all without a label acting as lead dog on a sled team keeping your view eternally the same... it's ass.

 

Perhaps by re-embracing singles and fully embracing digital download technologies, albeit a decade late, major labels are making a step toward equality with the bands in expanding and innovating the music industry rather than attempting to reinforce the traditional choke-chain hold they have enjoyed for four decades.

 

What ever happened to rock songs that celebrate life? I know that times are hard, on a global level of a hundred different fronts... but when did the love of just being alive leave rock?

Yes there are still songs that celebrate love of course, but I am speaking of the songs that make you want to get out your front door and live! Enjoying every breath to the fullest, we've traded "Born To Be Wild" by Steppenwolf for "I Hate My Life" by Theory of A Dead Man. I understand the sentiment, over the last few years especially, but where is the balance point? On the radio I hear songs about lost love, pain, loss, drug addiction, wallowing in apathy, elevation of self over caring about others more and more. Powerful emotions and situations they are indeed, and much more prevalent in every person's day to day lives yes, but in times like these the fact that we are alive and have the ability to change the world for the better, if we choose to, should be celebrated in song as it was in the '60s and '70s.

 

This small editorial is very preachy, and for that I sincerely apologize. But when hope leaves the majority of our music does it not also leave our spirits?

 

In closing I ask this, who else wants to get their motors running, head out on the highway, and take this world in a love embrace once again with me?

 

Let us remind ourselves that Rock 'n Roll can save the world.

 

 

 

Maybe I haven't embraced seeing people as wallets with legs enough in my life but I still think you should at least pretend to care about the millions of people that love your work enough to make it part of their lives, and in some cases their whole life.

Music has been integral to humanity's existence, we use music to make tedious drudge work move a little faster and to take hold of our spirits, launching them into ecstasy during spiritual and religious ritual and ceremony.

What would a Spirit Dance be without drums? What would Buddhist meditation without chanting? What would a Witch's Sabbat without Circle Songs? What would Christian services and masses without psalms? There would be no energy, no focus, no joy, and no point.

 

History itself was passed down orally through word and song for centuries the world over. By Bard, Shaman, Healer, Priestess, and Priest was song used to teach the laws, both mundane and spiritual, to their people.

And today in a world of fear bought and sold by governments trying, and succeeding, to turn citizens into sheep bleating at their shepherd's heels for protection; where our Mother Earth is trying to purge us like the infection our pollution has become; music is our freedom.

In an age of worry, strife, and disconnection where we find it more comfortable to communicate via e-mail than face-to-face when we live only minutes away from each other, and keeping gas in our vehicle is almost the same cost as keeping a roof over your head, music is our bond.

 

Music takes the worry and stress out of our lives if only for a few minutes leaving us refreshed and easier of mind. I've personally seen music ease tempers and avert a fight, and I've seen music end racial tensions. Living in an area where I have sat and listened to  middle school children say they wouldn't sit near a couple of kids that were alone because they weren't to be trusted for no other reason than the color of their skin. And then seeing that change as soon as they all could talk about music says very much I think.

 

Before this editorial becomes any more messianic about the virtues and importance of music in peoples' lives I close with the hope that music will always be found in every home, school, spiritual endeavor, pub, vehicle, act of love, celebration, bond of friendship, peacemaking, welcome, farewell, joy, pain, heartbreak, breakdown, and declaration of freedom in the world.

 

Music belongs in every life, in every heart, in every soul