Air Pollution

I was watching Fuse this evening, the 'New MTV'. They were playing a series of videos for a variety of bands. One video came up that represents everything that is wrong with the music industry today. It wasn't a badly made video, or a bad song in anyway, it was just that there was absolutely nothing original about it. It was a pure product of the close minded music machine that is dominating everything that we hear these days.

'The Killers' came out a while back with a pop, energetic 80's sound which was great. It was a unique sound and had a lot of drive behind it. Good for them. I don't believe they will ever be one of the greats that people will look back on, but at least they had some originality.

The band I saw this evening was called 'The Editors' and if you closed your eyes would think it was 'The Killers'. Surely all the big music mega-companies could put aside a little of their cash that they have locked up in suing kids for downloading mp3's, and put it towards finding real talent. I have seen so many fantastic bands in clubs throughout New York City that can stomp all over some of the drivel we are forced to listen to on radio. I would guess 9 in 10 bands being released to the market are playing formulaic, fits the mold music ... basically playing cover tunes with different words and notes.

New York is one of the hubs of fashion, music and the performance arts, yet the radio stations that pervade the air waves are as tepid as the backwaters of the Hudson.