Many college students can appreciate a new sound in music, breaking the molds on what is considered mainstream.
There’s a reason why the punk, techno, goth, and other so-called “anti-industry” movements have been so popular in the 18-24 crowd.
It is because of the ideology of this demographic that leads to many appreciating non-standard musical masterpieces, while ignoring the proverbial “same ol’ thing” on the Top 40 and popular music charts.
In a nutshell, so many of us are sick of “N’Stink” and “Britney Speared” and their cookie-cutter made, assembly-line produced music that we’ve found a way to scratch our musical itch with more obscure, and infinitely higher quality, bands that actually put some artistic effort into their creations.
When referencing the current state of popular music, I use the term “musical masturbation.”
The industry has given us something that satisfies us only for the three minutes, 45 seconds that it plays, and it might get stuck in our heads for a few hours afterwords.
Compare this to a less immediately satisfying musical work, one that grows on you, with you, and around you, which is more of an aural relationship with the beats and melodies and rarely, if ever, gets old and tired.
Of course, part of the problem is that bands who produce these tones rarely make money. Only the giants in the industry will ever prosper, because of the way the recording companies have adopted the “immediate gratification” model of music production and distribution.
Enter now the site Beatallica.org, a parody of Beatles music in the Metallica style. This genre, amusingly referred to as mash-ups, is gaining ground as a grass-roots movement.
The bands, operating with the power of the Internet, can produce their sonic masterpieces and distribute it to their fans for little expense.
But, in traditional mega-corp style, Sony BMG, along with the other recording monstrosities, have tried to assimilate what it does not understand. What it can’t assimilate, it sues into oblivion.
The Beatallica people have been fighting a war with Sony, who claims that they own the rights of the Beatles and the copyrights cannot be infringed.
Ultimately, Lars Ulrich, drummer for Metallica, stepped in on the side of the band.
He threw his considerable industry heft into the ring, prompting Sony BMG to retract their Cease and Desist and allow the band to do what they enjoy — actually act like real artists that do something new to what laypeople think art is for a change.
The industry has an important lesson to learn from the Beatallica debacle, and that is that fans are not as dumb as they think.
Beatallica has been wildly, inexplicably popular, even to Ulrich himself, who has already publicly admitted his fanboy status.
If the industry would stop absorbing bands that members of the smaller, more vocal subcultures actually dislike, as a misguided attempt at reaching out to these groups, perhaps these subcultures could actually flourish in the way the industry could truly profit from on a long-term basis.
So, I hold to my original hypothesis that t.A.T.u. is not techno, Evanescence is not goth, and Blink 182 is not punk.
Here’s to doing away with one-night stands with Avril or the Backstreet Boys and a long, prosperous relationship with real, honest, aural artistic creations.
Originally printed in the Daily O’Collegian, March 22nd, 2005.
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