21Six.net

While, in the past few entries about music I’ve made, I’ve kept the comments more or less juvenile, or humorous quips that could be taken the wrong way if people don’t understand how I am whenever it comes to these things. This is a matter that is, comparably, serious.

I don’t like Avril Lavigne. I like Chester Bennington, when he’s not dressed like he’s in an 80s metal band. I like The Foo Fighters. But I don’t like her. Period.

But a lot of people don’t, that’s nothing really new. Since she first showed up on television however-many-years ago she’s been stirring up trouble from various fans of various genres. I noticed mostly the problems seemed to stem from the people of the “punk” crowd (whatever that is these days) and how she wasn’t “really punk”, how she didn’t write her songs, how she didn’t really play her guitar. Things that, to people who are deeply vested in that genre, are important. Whether or nor she actually is responsible for the stuff isn’t what I’m here to talk about–mostly because I try to avoid listening to her music whenever possible, but MTV and VH1 seem to make it their purpose to only play music they know I don’t listen to, and sometimes the remote runs out of batteries. Of course, whenever I do crap like this, I like to actually look at the thing that I’m going to be writing a lengthy piece on, so I have to swallow my pride and suffer through music that I generally avoid.

As I said, her authenticity as a punk singer/guitarist isn’t the issue here. Her issue here is more to the notion that I think she’s utterly lifeless in her videos, and the absence of emotion, regardless of the music, is generally a disturbing thing and this is no difference. The only time it’s appropriate is whenever the song is, by its appearance, a rather emotionless song. Something could be said that New Order’s Blue Monday would be akin to the what I’m talking about, but Orgy’s cover the song made it more of an angry song. Lavigne, however, sings songs that require a presence of emotion–especially in the videos. Which is really the only experience I have with her.

This idea really came to me whenever I was flipping past MTV Hits and the video for Hot, off of what I assume to be her most recent album, was playing. A mediocre quality of the video can be viewed here. It’ll certainly help explain what I’m talking about.

Look at the video, turn the sound off or leave it on, I don’t really care.

The woman, to me, just seems to be going through the motions of making an attempt to be sexy. Whether or not this is an intentional thing, brought on by some since of irony that the album and/or song projects is beyond me, however, I have my doubts as to that being the case. Dead eyes are not sexy. They aren’t. Especially whenever you don’t really do anything to back up the attempts at being sexy otherwise. Alicia Keys is sexy–What? She is.

Avril, however, isn’t the only one who’s part of those whole mess of irritating music that’s come out in recently months and years, so I’m not going to spend this entire time taking about her.

Vh1, frequently, airs music videos with the header You Oughta Know, “Featuring artists on the rise.” However, these musicians all…sound the same. They are all, in essence, women playing simple piano and singing love songs. If they aren’t playing simple piano, they’re playing something else that’s equally simple and singing a love song.

For example: The woman named Sara Bareilles and Love Song. This is the epitome of what I’m talking about with what’s wrong with music today. While I cannot say, right now, if ALL of her songs are like this, because I don’t really examine music I don’t like beyond what I don’t like about it (wow, tautological much?)–I will assume that there is at least one song on her album that doesn’t sound similar to this. That’s being lenient. If she does, in fact, have better songs, that’s dandy. But I don’t like her so I’m not going to listen to them.

The song, Love Song is a simple piano piece. It’s not a love song per se but it’s simple, and offers really nothing beyond being a catchy first single.

Another song that I hated almost instantly was Colbie Caillat’s Bubbly. This, like the previous, is a simple song. But this one IS a love song. And it’s played on guitar. Ooh, variety is the spice of life. One of my main objections, besides the obvious, is that this song has almost no lyrics. It’s almost entirely that “It starts in my toes/Makes me crinkle my nose” chorus bit with maybe one or two lines thrown in to separate the two. I get it, she’s all “bubbly” inside or whatever.

Then there’s Fergie, Rihanna, and others.

Of course, these women aren’t the only things that are wrong with music. And women themselves aren’t the only things. This isn’t some kind of sexist rant, this is just something that was inspired after a conversation I had with a friend.

Rock music, too, suffers from it’s share of problems. I have noticed a sharp increase in the number of male singers who seem to sound entirely too whiny about various things. This started back when I was still in high school (not as though it was such a long time ago) but bands like My Chemical Romance, and whatever band the singer from Blink 182 has decided to be with, both have a voice that really grates me. AFI, too, is another one of those bands.

I don’t really see the appeal of these bands. They sound the same, sing the same stuff, and what they sing about isn’t worth singing. I’m sure that fans of the music (who, y’know, enjoy the music. I’m not going to pretend like there’s something wrong with them because we disagree on music. Music is a matter of taste and interpretation. I just happen to not be pleased when I listen to this.) have experienced something emotional while listening to the music. Whenever you like a band, you tend to focus more on the things, so you are more likely to experience it.

Just like people may like the other stuff I mentioned for whatever reason.

But back to the bad rock music.

Mudvayne, especially after the release of their album Lost And Found seemed to take a completely different turn than their previous two albums, LD 50 and The End of All Things To Come. LD 50 was, for the most part, a ludicrously complex sounding album. Just watching the video for the single Dig, and seeing the bassist, made my hands hurt–well, the view times they show him playing during the verses. Slapping and plucking and all but raping the damn bass. They seemed to sound a different, and that was great. Different is always a good thing, especially in the times of modern music where everything begins to mesh together.

However, End of All Things To Come, while still a good album in its own right, seemed to step away from some of the obnoxious complexities that the previous album showed. The lyrics were different, “softer” in a sense. Then Lost and Found, more or less, turned them into an every-band. Their first single Determined sounded like, in the beginning, that it was going to be something promising, something worth listening to. However, after the first five seconds, I realized, quickly, that this was really just like the average guy-screaming-into-a-microphone song.

They became nothing more than just average people. They also looked a lot cooler with the makeup and stuff. It was something that set them apart. By the time Happy? came out, I basically lost faith in the band. There isn’t much to set them apart aside from what they used to be.

Of course, older music has the same problems: A lot of the “hair metal” bands all have the same sound, and the same look. Modern metal tends to all have the “guy screaming incoherently into a microphone while people murder their instruments” sound. It makes it difficult to discern who is playing unless you’re intimately familiar with all of the nuances that these bands go through–and I assume that “nuance” really isn’t the kind of word that should be associated with metal.