I'm going to avoid quoting This Is The New Shit, because, um, I don't wanna be too obviously obsessive. Popular music has lost it's meaning. Hollow anthems of sex, drugs and whatever musical fad is in are the new order of the day. While I can enjoy dubstep, it's a sign that music is regressing so far backwards it's becoming completely meaningless. The only meaning dubstep can ever have is "Party, fuck, etc!" It has no emotion, no message, no point. Even pop music and boy bands had hollow, meaningless vocals born of an executive's need for another solid-gold dildo to watch his hookers use on each other. The most depressing part is that pop music wasn't always like this. It used to be that actual talent went into it, because that was the only way. Other genres, too. I consider Trent Reznor to be more impressive than pretty much almost every other rock and metal musician, because on Nine Inch Nails' studio albums, he plays every instrument and just edits it together. It's not synths, and it's not a band, either. He's just extremely skilled with just about every instrument you can think of. There are no modern day Trent Reznors. I don't fault bands for doing studio albums as bands, no problem there because it's logical. Trent's insane. But, additionally, he's a better producer than all of the idiots producing now. When he had Nothing, he was signing real talent, and additionally, never fell into the Loudness War. Perfect way to see that is to compare Marilyn Manson's first two albums and his later work. Reznor mastered the first two alongside Manson. The rest were done by standard Interscope/Nothing lackeys (except Born Villain, which still was mastered utterly horribly, showing that Manson needs better Hell, Etc staff), because Manson and Reznor were and still are acting like children towards each other. But, returning to pop music, pop music from anything before the 1990s was good, because you still had to work at it. You still had to be good. You had to at least have a functional band and singer. Now, all you need is a producer. That's not to say all modern music sucks, just pop music (and dubstep, while fun, is like birthday cake, you devour it and forget it). There's still good bands starting up, like Taking Dawn, The Treatment and Picture Me Broken. Just, pop is dead. Rock, meanwhile, seems to be undead. I guess the Zombie Rawk Machine is going good. So, find bands that will rock the hell out of you, and additionally, stick to the good classics. And, attack anyone running a classic rock station that plays Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana and other stuff that, while awesome, is not classic rock. Because, it's not classic rock. It's awesome, but get your damn definitions straight.
