To read past installments of South Florida According to Brooklyn, click here.
This week I would like to talk about the bleak future of music. The state of things is pretty shitty, and every band gets ripped off by the common man. As the old cliche goes, trends and styles go in circles.
I remember when everyone thought Vanilla Ice was the best thing ever, and everyone ran out and bought his tape. (That's right, kids, I said "tape" -- yes, I am that old.) Then I remember when everyone suddenly was like, "Wow, this guy fucking sucks really bad." Now it's almost 2010, and New Times just had Vanilla Ice on the cover, and it seems somehow retro cool to admit to liking him back then.
After Ice's reign of course the same thing started happening. There was Nirvana, which signaled a change in music and fashion, and also the indirect resurfacing of punk into the mainstream. Eventually even my beloved hardcore became cool when bands like Hatebreed and Poison the Well signed to major labels.
Nowadays, though, we have this fake-ass DJ shit. I don't understand it, and maybe that's why I'm hating. I always thought that music involved singing and playing the drums and guitar and going nuts while doing it. The superstar DJ crap has none of that.
The other major problem is that people refuse to admit it, but they are ripping off the bands they like by going online and downloading music for free. A lot of these bands work their asses off and are really making less money because of these bit torrent sites and illegal downloads. Getting music this way also completely skips over the fun of going to your local record store, like Radio-Active in Fort Lauderdale and of course Sweat in Miami, and randomly discovering something new, or just new to you, on the shelves. The next time you download something think about all of that.
Five Albums I'm Listening to This Week: 1) Avail, Dixie. 2) Converge, Axe to Fall. 3) American Nightmare, Background Music. 4) Where Fear and Weapons Meet, The Weapon. 5) Most Precious Blood, Nothing in Vain.
