Music makes you lose control

Do you ever come across an old "mix-tape" cd that you made in college or high school, and become amazed by the randomness of it?

Right now I'm imagining all of you are nodding your head in approval. This morning while looking for my 2Pac greatest hits CD, I came across two unmarked/unnamed CDs. I threw them in my bag, wondering what possibly could be on them. I'll get back to the Pac reference later.

So I throw in the first disc, and I'm hit with New Found Glory, "My friends over you". GREAT song to start the drive to work. "Head on collision" from the same cd, Sticks & Stones, comes on next. I'm getting pumped that I found this lost album. Suddenly the mood changes severely. LL Cool J is track #3. No, we're not talking about "Mamma said knock you out" or "I can't live without my radio". But, the song "Big Mamma".

Yeaaaaa, I'm thinking, wtf is this??? I let it play through anticipating how random this can get. The final song before I arrive at work is Pantera "This Love". So there is at least a theme to this CD. Yet, when you go from punk to R&B to Heavy Metal, something just isn't right. In the words of the Ladies' Man, "that does not make sense".

Here's what else doesn't make sense in music.

-CDs are still being produced. Listen, the market for CDs is shrinking every year with services like ITunes, Pandora, and Rhapsody out there. The only way to counteract this attack is by having more tracks on a CD. Make it worth it for the consumer to buy a CD instead. Force artists to produce 20-25 track albums. You may think this is impossible, but most major artists record anywhere from 20-45 songs for a new CD, yet 12-14 make the final cut. Throw 20 tracks on a CD, charge $12 for it and call it a day. That's a savings of $8 over ITunes! It's time for record labels to think outside the box.

-The fact people still listen to Phish or Jimmy Buffet does not make sense. I suppose you can call their concerts entertaining, mainly because of the tail-gating and illicit drug use that I assume goes on. Why not just have someone organize a giant listening party for $20/person. You can drink all the booze you want and listen to the CDs, and basically have the same experience. Have you ever listened to them sober? I'm still amazed these two acts ever made it big. They continually sell out show after show, with basically no new material. Lump KISS in there with them. Each time I see those Dr. Pepper commercials, a small part of me dies inside.

-It's a play off of a Chris Rock joke, but I'm tired of Country music telling me just how "country" they are. Listen, when you're pulling in six figures, you no longer can say you're throwing around hay or bull riding. It's the equivalent to rappers saying they're smoking herb, dealing drugs, and shooting people. The only difference is, these guys are probably doing all 3 of those things as we speak.

-Speaking of country music, first they let in Hootie, which is ok b/c his music with the Blowfish wasn't too far from country-folk sounding. Now they're saying Kid Rock and Nickelback are "country" artists?? No, no, no, NO! Nickelback, you stay in your little pop-rock world, making catchy-as-hell lyrics with guitar riffs that sound all the same. You do NOT invade this genre. Your bastardization of "Saturday Night's alright (for fighting)" was enough, I'm drawing the line here.


One last item, as Gigs will tell ya I've been watching every documentary/movie on 2Pac and Biggie Smalls recently. Not sure exactly why, but the one conclusion I've reached is that 2Pac was a lyrical genius. People may laugh, but the man was thought-provoking, and well educated for someone raised in the streets. The fact he finally decided to stop producing new material in 2007, nearly a decade after his death is the most amazing fact yet. I mean the man predicted in late 1990's the nation wasn't ready for a black president and he was right. Hell I'm not sure if we are today.

"We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive"