The Day The Music Died (a little more)

I recently became aware that Pete Wentz (he of Fall Out Boy fame) has succumbed to releasing an EP on his Decaydance label by a band called Millionaires.
Who pray tell are these Millionaires? They are three girls who figured that an abundance of synthetic pre-programmed keyboard melodies and talking over the top of said synthetic melodies would be an incredible idea. Which in reality creates something so overly ridiculous, you would like to stab your own eyes out with something blunt, because the sound is so atrocious.

There has been a lot of things said recently because many bands have spoken out against this trio while they have played Warped tour. Most notably Hayley Williams, lead vocalist of the band Paramore. She had some words to say about the band, which has led to a split in opinion – should she really have the audacity to state publicly how she feels about a band who are on the same management roster? Should other bands lash out at others who are making music?

I believe that when people such as this trio are allowed or are given the chance to rise up onto a public platform then people should definitely speak out about how they feel. The more notable question however is not why they have been granted this opportunity to get to where they are but how they came to achieve it. Clearly this has something to do with the (mostly) negative press that the trio have received, and this just shows you how the media works and how the record companies use this to their advantage.

The trio themselves have said that they have no talent for either playing instruments or singing – even saying that people should look up to them. Which for all intent and purposes begs the question why? Their so called music is atrocious, they can't even talk over the melodies without sounding like drowning cats, their lyrics are obscene and blunt and basically something that you could imagine someone like Manson or Eminem wailing on about not teenage girls who have less talent than your average piece of household fluff.
But they are not the only band doing this, there are many others who have lyrics so atrocious and who are so talentless, but who seem to have suckered people in, it makes me quite sad knowing that the music industry has allowed this tripe to filter through into a sort of mainstream platform.
People can criticise boybands and girlbands all they want, but at least you knew that for the most part they had talent (this doesn't mean all of them did, I can think of a few bands who were talentless), they could at least hold a tune, dance and at least their songs had meaning. The rock bands – hair metal, classic rock, whatever. Their lyrics at times or for the most part could be deemed as atrocious, or said to be in the same light as these new “crunkcore” bands. That may be so, but lets not forget that these classic rockers wrote about what they know, they wrote about their own experiences, not about being underage and getting drunk and whatever other tripe people are writing about these days.

Honestly, I find myself becoming more and more disillusioned with the music that is being released these days. It seems that there are only so many artists who continue to make good music. Green Day are one, AC/DC another. Then the likes of Fall Out Boy, who were doing well up until their Folie A Deux record when they completely ruined it and have slowly gone down hill (Wentz I am looking at you for this one). The lyrics of bands such as FOB have slowly, especially for Folie A Deux, they have slowly started falling short. Where once we had multiple layers of analogies laced with a bitter facade and an underlying meaning, we are being given some ridiculous tripe that doesn't hold the same fun and meaning.

Thank God then for people such as Mark Read. I'm holding out hope for him and that he can get back into the charts. He deserves it, he's worked hard at what he does.There's none of this overblown tripe and over produced and ridiculously synthetic music, nor are there any lyrical nuances. It is just him, his music, his words, his thoughts and you get that, you can hear it in the songs. Pure emotion and pure feeling and experience.
That is what music is missing these days, sure you get the occasional song which may be catchy as a cold, and may be nothing but pure fun, but if its done in the right way it is not offensive. Personally I am craving the day when a band sort of sits up and thinks, 'oh we should write about what we know, what we've experienced'. But it's doubtful if anyone will do it with any amount of skill.

So, I suppose in conclusion there isn't a lot any of us can do except hold out hope that things will change, so until then, I would like to suggest that you all go get a copy of or at least listen to Mark Read, and get to know how songs should be written.