Remember about, oh, 8 years ago when disco made a comeback? There were disco parties everywhere. People raided Value Village just to fit in again. The scary part was that disco style stuck and strong elements are in the latest homme fashion designs. I say, cool, ya dig?
But this is a review of 2004. You know, 2004 was the year of crapolla fuck-all for new original music. That extra day in Feb didn't help one iota either. I spent the year relistening to the 2 year old albums from Matchbox, Sheryl, Blue Rodeo, and Tonic hoping they would have released new material. So I lament.
2004 was the year that didn't know what year it was. It felt like a mass battle of the 80's music styles. On one side we had all those unoriginal punkish new wave bands all called "The Blanks" that merely copied that trend of band names back in the rollerskating days. Plus it reminded us true music veterans of what really made the late 70's and early 80's so unique, so pure, so pre-MTV. In Canada, The Trews came out well last year, and the first time I heard them they were playing live in front of HMV at WEM. I thought I erely heard Michael Hutchence again. I guess I was "stuck in a moment" and I couldn't get out of it.
Then on the other end we have a strong hair metal rock comeback. Old bands from the 80's are cool again, they're touring and the cougars are buying tickets. And because of this, thankfully the classic and memorable single note power guitar riff hooks have returned, swiftly killing all the 4 chord drop-d unimaginative Theory of a Nickelfaults. And to me, the band that did it, ironically, is Velvet Revolver. For its lieutentants in Canada, we can thank The Tea Party for pumping out one of the best power albums in recent memory, "Seven Circles", making Chad Kroeger think about putting more into his RSP, or is that R.I.P.?
Jet is a band that smartly rode the fence like Paul Martin in drag at a business luncheon. A little Iggy Pop here, a bunch of AC/DC there. But how long can they keep regurgitating blended old stuff in a neat little teenage package, only time will tell. I'll give it one more album, then that's it.
I'm not even gonna talk about rap and hip hop - that's not even music to start with. The pop dance music of today lacks ... well it lacks everything. These songs don't last a week. It's a candy sugar high and not worth anyone's time in the long run. More people are worried how Britney's bellybutton looks than her, um, er ... lips, sing(c)ing. Whatever happened to Cathy Dennis anyway? But seriously, I'll put any Nelly Furtado song against all that pop crap out there and quash it, a la Forca!
If "video killed the radio star" well over 20 years ago (side note: aptly written by Geoff Downes, formerly of Yes and Asia), things have come full circle again and will likely loop many times through the generations. Value Village and keyboard synthesizers will have blips of record profits every 20 years or so.
The sad thing is, I just don't see us climbing back up the stairway of heaven, the mega hey day of music - that's right, the 70's (including 69, 80-81). The post-Woodstock pre-MTV zone that people forget. Homer Simpson even agrees: "1974 was the greatest year of rock n roll. It's a scientific fact." Of course, that's the year Rush debuted and Led Zep had already released five lasting albums. Rolling Stone mag, when ranking the top 500 albums of all time, the majority, I repeat, the majority were from the 70's. There was nothing to do but make music then. I was there! I saw my babysitters light up the stove burner and pull out my parent's LP collection. Thankfully, with Internet radio, I can listen to all that amazing psychadelic progressive music again and rediscover that place in the heavens when songs were true works of art. So check out www.radioio.com and go to 70's classic rock.
So there ya go. Call me a purist. But credit should be given where credit is due. The icing on the cake, and proof positive of my diatribe today was recently hearing that Sports World Rollerrink opened up again!!! Now where did I put my Jordache Jeans and Precision Dominions?
The winner in the end? Well, the end of the loop is the beginning of the next generation (what letter are we on anyway?) -- a generation that forgets, that needs the quick fix fed to them by the record companies like a dog on coke. True music lovers will see the whole "moving picture" and appreciate originality, creativity, imagination, and the true artists who take us to the next level, the next rung on the ladder if you will. They are the winners, the explorers, who leave the tireless loop and forge forward to new frontiers, because then, and only then, can we evolve.
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