Sorry, but there's not going to be much of an intro today. I hope you can keep up.
So the cafe at uni has recently had Austar installed and as I result I'm constantly exposed to the music channel known as Channel V. Seeing as how I see the damn show almost every day I thought I'd discuss Channel V and the current music scene in general. So here it goes.
First of all I don't understand the actual attraction of Channel V. What's the difference between it and the radio or an mp3 player? All it does is play the same garbage you can't help but hear every fucking place you go. Just as an example Channel V alone are likely to play certain songs no less than 5 times within 24 hours. If I have to listen to Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eyed Peas one more time I think I'm going to flip out and murder someone (more on Black Eyed Peas later). In a world where you can listen to whatever you want whenever you want I'm surprised anyone still has time for music channels.
Channel V has this horrible obsession with Pink at the moment as well. They've got this competition running where Pink fans have to prove how devoted they are to Pink in order to win VIP tickets to Pink live. So far all they've proved is how boring and moronic they are. One girl actually just screamed on her vid. This other girl went into all this creepy detail about how she wanted to jump on Pink and hug her and touch her. Coming on a little strong there aren't we? Maybe you should hold off on the whole "I want to wear your skin" shit until after you got her tied up in your basement. And what's with calling Pink the greatest rock star on the planet? Since when? Did she suddenly become more talented overnight or something? Unless you mean another, far more desolate planet...then I MIGHT believe you.
Really though I suppose there's nothing exactly wrong with Channel V. It's using a formula that it's absolutely impossible to fuck up and I'm sure the people who like the music they play are perfectly happy to watch it. Which brings me to my main rant. Modern music is a little stale. I suppose I should say popular modern music because it would be unfair to group a multitude of talented musicians with the mediocre and shitty pop bands. The main problem I have is just how uninspired, predictable and manufactured it sounds. It succeeds because of market research as opposed to musical eptitude, creativity or talent. Just as an example the new Black Eyed Peas song Boom Boom Pow is about as vanilla as urban songs get these days. They make numerous claims in the song to be "very trendy and with it" but really all they're doing is pathetically trying to keep up with what everyone else is doing. Some simple rhyming couplets, a lazy semi-electro style beat, chuck in some product placements and then it's all aboard the auto-tune train for instant hit station. It's like if instant mashed potato was music and all you had to do was add your own name and vola, song made. Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not against auto-tunes or anything here. For example I thought Kanye's 808's and Heartbreak was an excellent album. But the thing is that Kanye put a lot of time and effort into that album. He had a vision and a passion for what he was doing and he went against the grains that he himself had helped to make great. It didn't sound as though his record label gave him a power point presentation showing what music was selling well. And really that's the crux of what I'm saying here. I can potentially like any genre as long as it's presented well. It might be interesting musically or vocally or it might have a great lyrical depth. It's hard to describe what kinda of music I like because I honestly don't know. But I can respect something unique, or even something that isn't unique but done really well. Not knowing what I'll be into next is an exciting adventure and I think that's how artists and record labels should treat their musical ecploits too. Then perhaps we'll start seeing some more fucking depth in this industry.
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