Yeah, they were.

Oops, I just admited to liking something that was played on the radio. Whatever will become of my image? :/

As an addendum to Boo's last statment, I will further point out that record companies do *not* care what individuals buy. Not immediately anyway. They care what record stores buy!
When it comes down to it, modern music is simple, catchy, and easily replaced. Look at how many clones there are of a single band. Korn: Incubus, Staind, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, Mudvayne. Britney Spears: Christina Agulera, erm, whatever else there is. (sorry, don't really pay attention to the dance scene at all).
Now, I know the bands have their small differences, but I honestly could not tell you if the song on the radio was Slipknot or Incubus. It all sounds noisy and boring, with a chorus that makes you remember it forever.
Memorable and catchy are two different things. People would argue that it's hard to come up with a catchy tune, however, when you have hundreds of marketin execs and thousands of bands to pick from, the chances of finding one that's catchy and marketable are pretty damn good.
To most record labels, bands aren't artists or even people. They are commodities. I dislike making art a commodity. It cheapens it. That's like spraying a chunk of iron gold and calling it gold. If people accept it, it really cheapens gold's real value in the eyes of those who see it.
I understand fully that some bands can be veyr good and make it to the radio, however, the chances of that happening are very slim. Look, if you like boring radio rock, fine. I will be hoping that Iced Earth's next album will be released with a single that gets on the radio, but I doubt it. It's too intricate, too unlike everything else today. Radio markets move too slowly for metal to ever become truly popular.

As for disliking popular music, I love CCR, 50s and 60s pop rock, and even Beethoven. Remember folks, what we call "classical" now was once pop music.

In short, Indy Pete should be shot. Incubus should be under the pop/rock section, and I am happy with the fact that the "metal" section in a few of the local stores offer bands like Vintersorg, Blind Guardian, King Diamond, and Cradle of Filth, while keeping the mallcore bands to a minimum.

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Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants.

Oh, I meant to expand on one certain point, and since I know that all this text of mine is being devoured with relenetless enthusiasm...

What someone "likes" and what keeps them tuned in are two different things. Most of my radio listening is done in the car, on the freeway, so although I "like" jazz and classical, I find it gets drowned out by road noise. Also it's too cerebral for me to get into while driving. A lot of people use radio as a background to other activities, and so maybe they don't want to be challenged just then. Maybe if you asked them, they'd rate Coltrane above The Offspring, but you'd still find them tuning in to Z-100 Alternative Ra-ra-radioooo.

Then there's this matter of "taste." Without going on much longer (cue applause), what is usually going on when someone buys a record or tunes in a radio station is not musical "taste" in any recognizable sense. It's way more complicated than that. Briefly, I think a person constructs himself and his image-- positions himself in society and in the culture-- by way of these little acts of consumption. The traffic is in cultural signs and symbols more than musical "quality."

Billy Joel still sucks kangaroo root.

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What others say about boorite!

I don't mind Billy Joel.
Again, taste (or lack thereof) IS quite a factor in what decides something on the radio.
I have a CD player in my car, and refuse to listen to the radio. I have speed/thrash metal for the freeway, power metal for the city streets, and goth metal for when I'm just sitting in somewhere. :) So, yeah, it's not what drives you, or what you can listen to in the car, it's simply what 'artists' the companies can fuck with, and usually, these are the lowest-common-denominator.

Oh, we metalheads here in Chico have some people like Indy Pete in our midsts. They claim to be totally uber-underground, but then turns out their favorite band is Slipknot... :\

I don't care if you like the Backstreet Boys, just don't pretend you like something else. In my opinion, pretentiousness is a FAR worse crime than liking shitty music.

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Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants.

This post is a puke! In the big time!

Actually, I notice the same thing about the differences in what I would like to listen to in the car as opposed to sitting here at home. Of course, I also find that there's a lot of things I like that can be good driving music that you can't find on the radio either.

You could be onto something with the cultural signs thing. But, I grew to like my music in a sort of cultural shell... I do not know much about the "culture" or "style" of the metal fan, and I don't really care to. (Though I will admit that I've been a long haired freak almost my entire life, and have dressed in black for about decade... but that's well before I discovered all this music.)

Eh, and I'm neutral on Billy Joel.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

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"And Wirthling isn't worth the paper he isn't printed on."

*slaps writhling upside the head*
Wake up.

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Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants.

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Oh, we metalheads here in Chico have some people like Indy Pete in our midsts. They claim to be totally uber-underground, but then turns out their favorite band is Slipknot... :\

I don't care if you like the Backstreet Boys, just don't pretend you like something else. In my opinion, pretentiousness is a FAR worse crime than liking shitty music.

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Well, we barely have one, and it's all death/grind. It gets a bit boring, but I have friends who listen to and play metal.

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Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants.

Holy shit. There's nothing like a thread that catches people's attention and spawns several dozen posts in a day.

I only feel bad in that I really don't have anything to add to the fray. My outlook on music is pretty apathetic.

I listen to whatever happens to be on the radio, without much complaining. Unlike my wife, who feels the need to switch stations every eight seconds, I can listed to anything without too much trouble. I just don't have much passion where music is concerned.

I like a pretty broad spectrum of music, though. I've currently got about 400 or so songs in my Winamp playlist, including such artists as:

Barenaked Ladies
Charlie Daniels Band
Steve Miller Band
Macy Gray
Billy Idol
Bee Gees
Cat Stevens
Moby
Crystal Method
Deana Carter
Johnny Cash
Lyle Lovett
Van Morrison
Eric Clapton
Jamiroquai
John Coltrane
Loreena McKennitt
Meatloaf
John Denver
Orbital
Pink Floyd
CCR
Elton John
Rolling Stones
Fat Boy Slim
Sting
U2
Chris Isaak

And I used to have that record that came with the Bloom County book, 'Billy and the Boingers Bootleg', but I lost it.

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100 pounds of shit in a 25 pound sack.

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thats why indy pete is sooo funny. i hate him and he gets burned bad! what we will now refer to as IPS or Indy Pete Syndrome really pisses me off

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Yeah, but in your defensiveness you're accusing people of being like Indy Pete just because we don't think Incubus is one of the best bands around, and our favorite music is hard to find in a store.

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Boredom is so passe.

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What others say about boorite!

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As an addendum to Boo's last statment, I will further point out that record companies do *not* care what individuals buy. Not immediately anyway. They care what record stores buy!

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go on just try and tell me about the underground sukaaaaa

and if you have no idea what the hell Mr T's helluva night is or even MR T's helluva nite 2 Valentines day massacre or even T£ the return are then dont bother yourselves

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And a few things I should mention.
Just because people like it doesn't mean it's good.
Just because people don't like it doesn't mean it's bad.

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I don't question whether or not taste is subjective. I question whether there exists anything resembling what people think they are referring to when they say "popular culture."

Read enough sociology and you, too, can talk like a tweedy old twat.

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What others say about boorite!

Sociology is for people who can't deal with history.

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I wanted my half in the middle and I wound up on the edge.

My post rules!

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Lots of people think anonymity brings them at a higher level of power... I just think it makes them larger dickheads than they really are in person. :-D

I don't understand what the heck you people mean by "I cant get into the music because its too cerebral/its background noise" etc. So ill just reiterate a conversation I had the other day.

Music is dying, in a way. Over the last 200 years we have seen tremendous advances in all forms of technology, in political systems and different sciences, and also in music. In the US, a “primordial soup” of music gathered, especially in the black southern culture and in New Orleans. Out of this came blues, jazz and a few other styles, and from that a family tree of music was developed, branching of into rock, country, reggae, soul, disco, fusion, rap, hip-hop, acid, techno, industrial, heavy metal, and pop (when I say pop I mean people like Backstreet-boys and 98 degrees, Brittany Spears and J-Lo). But through the last 5 decades, the main veins have been Rock, Jazz, and R&B. In these, virtuosos have developed amazing technical advances in those styles, leading to new directions and branches that are unique to their style. Most of the time this music has been the popular style (popular, not “pop”).
But now, popular music is technically stupid. It has repeating themes, sometimes NO melody, simple beats in the most popular songs, and usually a lavish devotion to the Star- the vocalist. She/He is what it is all about, and music can go the moon in the meantime.
So as I was saying, musical development is dying in favor of showbiz.

As I see it, art should be for, in this order: Your own self-expression, your devotion to the art, your devotion to your fans, your devotion to fame/getting laid, money.
Those who go for the former get MUCH more respect from those who have any taste than those who go for the latter.
Classical is making a comeback and it's called metal.

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Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants.

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But now, popular music is technically stupid. It has repeating themes, sometimes NO melody, simple beats in the most popular songs, and usually a lavish devotion to the Star- the vocalist. She/He is what it is all about, and music can go the moon in the meantime.
So as I was saying, musical development is dying in favor of showbiz.

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May I present a personal favourite: Comic 5401.

[ Posted comic does not exist ]

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I wanted my half in the middle and I wound up on the edge.

I would be remiss if I did not add that a lot of the impetus for this approach to rap was due the fact that a lot of black artists who forged this music that many love so dearly were fucked sore and silly by their white management and died without a sou.

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I wanted my half in the middle and I wound up on the edge.

Hot damn... an actual comic on this page. And a drop-dead funny one to boot! Best of all, it hasn't been all colored in yet.

Um, what was this thread about? Music? I'm for it!

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"You'll burn for this. Burn in jail!"

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But now, popular music is technically stupid. It has repeating themes, sometimes NO melody, simple beats in the most popular songs, and usually a lavish devotion to the Star- the vocalist. She/He is what it is all about, and music can go the moon in the meantime.
So as I was saying, musical development is dying in favor of showbiz.

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Actually, it's just a backlash against the white man appropriating black musical form. All of the brothers that are "keeping' it real" had to go back to the most tribal form of what is, after all, described by musicologists as "Tribal Music"; (I.E: Rock and Roll) that is: Rap. It was the last form that the man hadn't been able to ape properly. The problem with it, from where I'm sitting, is that yelling about your dick and your $80,000.00 car and what "a bunch of bitchiz and ho's women are and how they better get on your dick if they don't want to get slapped" and how you "be killin' motherfuckers if they look at me cross-eyed" - over top of a drum machine and somebody else's songs- and grinning back at the nice man in the suit who smiles from side stage every time you say "Muthafuckah!".... thus selling another 10,000 units.... isn't exactly keepin' it real.

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