Mikeala AxToGrind: Dear Music Industry...

The other day, I was with my grandmother, seated in the passenger's side of her silver mini-van. With one hand, I turned the dial of the radio, the other hand I used to punctuate my rant about the state of the music industry. After skipping past at least five songs that all seemed to sound exactly the same, my grandmother asks me,

"Well, what do you think of that Gaga person?"

It took me several moments to answer, being that taken aback with her query. My answer was something along the lines of, well, at least she's different.

But is different really enough?

My answer to that would be a no.

Although Lady Gaga's music is admittedly rather catchy, and her appearance alluring, it isn't a level of musical talent that really seems to justify the following that she's built up for herself. We call her a pop music star. But I wonder, can we really leave the word music in that phrase, sans guilty feelings?

We don't seem to care anymore about who has musical ability in the music industry. If it sells, if it catches mass attention, we, the society, deem them a star.

It no longer requires talent to be famous, just a shocking fashion sense and the Autotune application. The check list for a hit artist, let's see...

Must be able to:

-Dance around an award show performance, smearing fake blood on abdomen

-Steal microphone from and insult Taylor Swift on television

-Rhyme "Mick Jagger" with the word "swagger"

-Make hat out of own hair

The meager qualifications for stardom have created an entire radio dial's worth of monotony and a source of irritation among those who would like at least a side of talent with their so-called "stars".

To be perfectly honest, I do not hate Lady Gaga. I just wish that we had more of the rock, less of the shock. It shouldn't be your image that sells your album, but the album itself. Music for the sake of money, music to be famous for is what I'm sick of.

I want music for the passion of music.

Thumbs Up Michy!: Jeffree Star, Breathe Carolina and autotune

Well I haven't been blogging as much of late. Here's some music related updates of what has been feeding my ears.. (last.fm/user/raz0r_blades209)

I have been slowly drifting away from that alternative, hard-rock sound when I discovered Breathe Carolina's new album Hello Fascination. Their electronica tune mixed with screamo sounds appealed to my ears, and I wonder why I have never listened to them before. I sure have been missing out. So what was my first impression? Well, I love it. It's something new to my ears. Upon obsessing over their new CD, I went back and listened to some of their songs from It's Classy, Not Classic such as "The Birds and the Bees" and one of their songs featuring Jeffree Star. Another point: I have also discovered Jeffree Star upon listening to Breathe Carolina. His recent album Beauty Killer just struck me with its upbeat techno tunes and Jeffree's self-confident lyrics.

Singing along to BC's "The Dressing Room" and Jeffree's "Lollipop Luxary," I notice that new music is following a sort of trend here. That techno-y electronica sounding beat is just music to our ears right? Well to me, it's sort of magical. Autotune has never sounded so good. Will a new era of music use this futuristic vibe to their advantage? The autotune should be noticeable and effective if used though, because I don't mean that robotic voice T-Pain has. Because that's just autotune gone wrong. If used properly and effectively it can create some new, very catchy and likable music. Hm, I suppose this blog went from my Breathe Carolina and Jeffree Star mini obsession to how effective autotune can be. What do you think?

-More at thumbsupmichy.blogspot.com