Junk Rock: What's Wrong with Music These Days?

I wonder, sometimes, weither or not standing apart from the crowd is supposed to make something happen? I've noticed that, especially in the last ten years or so, there's almost a plague of fake Goths, Punks, even fake Pagans which is, by the way, offensive. And in all this delicious faker-y, I've noticed a common thread - music.

The music today, and yes I know this makes me sound my age, is utter buffalo pucky. It's whiney, it's complain-y but it lacks the full, round note you get with music from the mid 90s, which ultimately lacks what the 80s had, and that lags behind the 70s and so on. I almost wonder if we're doomed to be listening to banshee screaming and dust cloud MP3s in the near future the way music just keeps getting worse and worse and it seems to be taking the alternative population with it.

Take, for example, Punk music. Now, most Green Day, Evanescence, Avril Lavigne and Sum 41 fans would protest this to their last breath but Punk is dead. It drew it's last breath in the first-ish year of the 1980s but it was on it's deathbed by 1978 and crap like Black Flag (which is just racism with a catchy jingle behind it), and Avril Lavigne (who's basically Britney Spears in Doc Martins) can use the term "Punk Sensibility" all they want and Buzzword their point into the ground, but it's not going to make them Punk.

And Emo's become kids dressing exactly like Pete Wentz and styling their hair just like his, and spouting his lyrics as if they'd come up with some great philosophy all by themselves, all the while insisting that they're 100% originals and refuse to be carbon copies like 'everyone else'. Since when do Emo kids not listen to Emo music? There was a time when the 'Emo' look involved skinny jeans, an argyle sweater and nerd glasses, now they look more like band roadies. Sad, whine-y band roadies.

Plus, music is no longer about enjoying music or making a statement, it's become so commercialized that even lyrics sound like search engine keywords! Buzzwords and phrases abound, take this for example:

SUM 41: Fat Lip - "Become another casualty of society. I'll never fall in line Become another victim of your conformity."

VITAMIN X: Shot Down - "I'm just another casualty, Casualty of this society."

It's like their trying to key into the Google searches of disenfranchised children and talk them into somehow buying something or clicking on something, but it's not - these are song lyrics. So what are they repeating each other for? I dare you to Google terms like that, terms associated with Emo and Punk, and see how many lyrics from different songs, from wildly different artists show up.

It literally makes me want to rip every hair out of their heads, one by one, or something equally as painful and gory. Just for screwing up my music, so much so that I can't even listen to the radio without hearing Kelly Clarkson or whoever else is a break out from American Idol right now. I'm lame and pathetic, I listen to Shivaree and Whitesnake, Cream and Velvet Underground and hug my bento, telling myself over and over, in my crazy voice, that the world hasn't really changed since I was a teenager - and also that I haven't gotten old. Don't tell me any different, either. If you ever see me walking down the street and look past my horrible outer shell long enough to talk to me, and I say, "Wow, I hope Gogol Bordello comes through our town!", please don't call me old and give me a wedgie. Just pretend like I know what I'm talking about, pat my head and help me find my way back to The Home. Humour the hook.