The Music Elitist

Source: re1000.wordpress.com

So I recently moved from Florida to Brooklyn, New York and I have been exposed to a bit of the local music around here. A lot of it were bands that I had already heard, but there’s been a few that were new to me.  I have for the most part enjoyed the music I have heard, but honestly, a lot of these bands (and their die-hard hipster fans) need to just get over themselves. I think I have less of a problem with their music than I do with how they act like it’s the greatest music ever created. It just seems like anything that isn’t neo-folk, lo-fi, electronic or psychadelic is considered to be inferior music by these people and it really pisses me off.

Don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of these “hipster bands”. Grizzly Bear’s record is great. I dug some of MGMT’s songs (though ANYONE can make songs in Garage Band on a Mac…it’s not that difficult). But I just can’t imagine listening to ONLY these types of bands. But if you ever mention a band that you like that is outside this little musical boundary these hipsters have created (or rather, websites like Pitchfork have created), you are instantly not cool anymore. Take Thrice for example. It’s not really considered cool to listen to a band like Thrice anymore. But those guys have consistently been putting out great music (especially their newest record Beggars) and most of their old fans have missed it because they have “moved on” so to speak. It’s not cool to listen to a band you may have liked 5 or 6 years ago. But that also has a lot to do with the music A.D.D. that the digital age has created (there’s a post on this coming soon).

I try to listen to all types of music (though country music has just never done anything for me), but my favorite kind of music is the kind  where you can hear the passion and/or emotion in the singers voice. Not necessarily emo, but just anthemic and powerful (Tim McIlrath from Rise Against, for example). While this hipster music is great for just chilling out and listening to in a bar or dancing to in a club, it is not inspiring to me at all. I like distorted guitars and a driving beat. That’s the kind of music that excites me. The only band like that right now that it’s considered “ok” to like is Them Crooked Vultures. And for good reason, they are amazing. But I honestly think most of these hipsters just give them lip service because if you ever talked badly about a band that a former Led Zeppelin member is in, you’d be ex-communicated from the musical community.

I guess the point I am getting at is, hipster music is a trend. Just like everything else that came and went before it. From the fact that all the music sounds generally the same right down to the fact a lot their names make animal references (Grizzly Bear, Bear in Heaven, Animal Collective…etc.), it’s all just a trend and its only a matter of time until it isn’t cool anymore. That usually happens right around the time they are widely popular and everyone in the mainstream is suddenly into it. It may already not be cool to like Animal Collective and I missed the memo. Bottom line is, I don’t care. I’ll continue listening to the bands/artists I like regardless of what some skinny jean, American Apparel hoodie wearing hipster has to say about it. You all just keep thinking you’re so elite and on the cutting edge and I’ll just stand back here and laugh at you like I always have.

I’M STILL ALIVE!!!! Sorry it’s been so long guys. This draft has literally been sitting here for 3 weeks waiting for me to finish it. I promise I am gonna try really hard to start posting more regularly.

Most songs on the radio suck. Even if those songs are being performed by great artists. The radio single typically has the stigma of being the worst song on the album. But, I find that it happens less often with the following bands.

Taking Back Sunday
Say what you want about these guys, but this will be the “emo band” that’s still alive and kicking in 10 years. They are probably one of the most consistent bands out there as far as releasing good music goes. They don’t usually get a ton of radio airplay past their first single, but that single is usually really catchy. Their latest single “Sink Into Me” was actually my inspiration for writing this post because I couldn’t get it out of my head for about 3 days after the first time I heard it. Their first single from Louder Now, “MakeDamn Sure” had a similar effect.

Foo Fighters
I don’t think I have ever heard someone actually say “I hate the Foo Fighters“. And there’s good reason for that. The most popular songs by these guys (i.e. the ones that have been on the radio) are all legitimately good songs: “Big Me”, “Everlong” “Learn to Fly”, “Times Like These”, “Best of You”, “The Pretender”…the list goes on and on.

Incubus
When this band first became popular, they were lumped into the nu metal movement with bands like KoRn and Limp Bizkit. If you listened to their last album Light Grenades, you would have no idea how that could have been possible. But no matter what their sound, they have always managed to write great songs and their radio singles were no exception (though I want to put a bullet in my head every time I hear “Drive”…overplayed).

The Killers
“Human” is definitely starting to wear on me, but otherwise I am usually delighted to hear a Killers radio single. Most of the indie dance nights I went to back in ‘04 managed to wear out the songs from Hot Fuss before they were even popular on the radio. But that album is still my favorite by them, so that says something.

Muse
So happy these guys are finally seeing a lot of mainstream success and I look forward to their next record. But I really honestly can’t think of a bad radio single from these guys. “Hysteria,” “Time is Running Out,” “Starlight”…all great songs.

Red Hot Chili Peppers
This one I feel I should clarify. I’m talking Red Hot Chili Peppers AFTER 1991. Mother’s Milk has a few good songs, but that’s about as far back as I go with RHCP. But the radio singles from Blood Sugar Sex Magik through Stadium Arcadium have all been pretty decent (though horribly overplayed).

Rise Against
Though I felt their breakout single (“Swing Life Away”) was not a very good representation of the band’s true sound, I still think it and every radio single they have released since are all pretty good songs. They are one of the few tolerable radio bands out there right now and I have actually had quite a few of their songs get stuck in my head.

Death Cab for Cutie
Obviously these guys are just a great band, but as I have said before, even great bands can release terrible radio singles. Not these guys though. I know there are probably some hardcore Death Cab fans out there that probably don’t care for “Soul Meets Body” and “Crooked Teeth,” but I like those songs a lot.

Jimmy Eat World
I can’t include these guys without a little disclaimer. Let me start by saying that when Bleed American came out in August 2001, I didn’t really have a huge problem with “The Middle.” It wasn’t by any means my favorite song on the record, but I had no issues with it. Fast forward to spring of 2002, it was quite a different story. That song turned out to be the song that introduced Jimmy Eat World…to the world. I personally feel, that was the worst possible song on that record to be their breakout single. “Sweetness” did pretty well on the radio which made me happy because that was by far my favorite song on that record and still is to this day. My point is every other radio single by this band has been better than “The Middle” (including the ones before it that were not successful: “Lucky Denver Mint” and “Bleed American”). Ok, I’m done.

AFI
There were a lot of hardcore AFI fans that were probably pretty pissed off around 2003 when Sing the Sorrow was released. But for some reason I have a feeling it was a very small group of them. I had a roommate my freshman year of college who was a HUGE AFI fan. I can’t tell you how many times I heard The Art of Drowning and Black Sails in the Sunset regularly being played from his room in our dorm. When Sing the Sorrow first came out I remember him being a tad skeptical before its release and even saying he wasn’t thrilled with it at first. But then he ended up liking it after a few listens. And then a couple years ago when Decemberunderground was released his Facebook status said something like “Trying to hate the new AFI, but it’s actually pretty good.” He’d still say to this day (and with good reason) that his favorite AFI stuff is pre-2003. But even their old fans can appreciate the music they have made since breaking into the  mainstream. That being said I’ve approved of pretty much every radio single they’ve released.

I’ve lived in Florida my whole life and something I hear from people constantly is “I hate the radio” or “The radio sucks.” If you’ve ever listened to radio in Florida, you know those statements aren’t an exaggeration. But while all radio does in one way or another suck (no matter what state you’re in) I want to focus mainly on rock station formats in Florida.

I never listen to the radio in Orlando because the only rock station I get here is 101.1 Real Rock. This station is absolutely deplorable. Just take a look at the songs they have played in the last hour:

• Sixx A.M. – Life is Beautiful
• Silverchair – Tomorrow
• Sublime – What I Got
• Papa Roach – Lifeline
• Foo Fighters – My Hero
• Marilyn Manson – The Beautiful People
• Saving Abel – Drowning (Face Down)
• Third Eye Blind – Graduate
• Saliva – Family Reunion
• Nirvana – Lake of Fire
• AC/DC – Rock ‘n Roll Train
• Godsmack – Awake
• Slipknot – Dead Memories
• Drowning Pool – Bodies

Now, with the exception of Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Sublime and Third Eye Blind, that’s a pretty awful hour of music. Like I said, I have lived in Florida my entire life and radio has pretty much been this way the whole time. Even when I was living in South Florida the rock stations just constantly played bad music like this (with the exception of 103.1 The Buzz, but they’re not owned by Clear Channel so that’s probably why). I assumed it was just the fact that big radio stations owned by Clear Channel all play horrible music. But when I visited California last summer, my eyes were opened. Here’s KROQ’s current Top 25 most played songs:

1. Green Day – Know Your Enemy
2. Silversun Pickups – Panic Switch
3. Kings of Leon – Sex on Fire
4. Apocalyptica feat. Adam Gontier – I Don’t Care
5. Kings of Leon – Use Somebody
6. Big B feat. Scott Russo – Sinner
7. Rancid – Last One to Die
8. The Offspring – You’re Gonna Go Far Kid
9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Zero
10. Incubus – Black Heart Inertia
11. Incubus – Love Hurts
12. Cage the Elephant – Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked
13. The Airborne Toxic Event – Sometime Around Midnight
14. Rise Against – Audience of One
15. The Killers – This is Your Life
16. Far – Pony
17. Anberlin – Feel Good Drag
18. Hollywood Undead – Undead
19. Asher Roth – I Love College
20. 311 – Hey You
21. White Lies – To Lose My Life
22. Depeche Mode – Wrong
23. Coldplay – Life in Technicolor II
24. The Offspring – Half-Truism
25. U2 – Magnificent

When we were driving around L.A. we listened to KROQ for 15 min and in a row I heard Foo Fighters, Sum 41, Atmosphere and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I was flabbergasted. Not one Nickelback or Godsmack song. Now, obviously Clear Channel wouldn’t keep Real Rock here in Orlando for so long if there wasn’t a market for it. If the amount of white trash I am surrounded by on a daily basis is any indication, there clearly is. And THAT’s why radio in Florida sucks. Because apparently the majority of people in Florida have horrible taste in music.