The local music scene in my hometown of Youngstown, Ohio is really terrible now. It used to be good. I started playing guitar about 10 years ago and I just remember thinking it was the coolest thing and someday wanting to get famous playing in a rock band. My favorite bands when I started playing were bands like Nirvana, Green Day, Blink 182, Incubus, Metallica, Deftones and Linkin Park just to name a few When I started High School most of my time was spent playing my guitar, buying CDs, and attending local concerts. It was really great going to local concerts. They were always packed. It was around this time I started getting away from pop punk bands like Green Day and Blink-182 and getting into heavier indie bands like Poison the Well and Norma Jean. When I went to these shows I noticed that the kids weren't decked out in designer clothes and peircings. Kids were just having a good time, no one seemed to care what they were wearing. Everybody was just having a good time and was their to enjoy the music. It was always real fun to get real hurt in a mosh pit or circle pit and get picked up you when you fell by the nice kids also enjoying it. Somewhere around when I was in 10th grade the scene started getting shitty. Kids started getting really out of control with what they were wearing. Concerts became less about the music and more of an event to show off bands' shirts you bought, torn up jeans, tattoos, and peircings. It became an event for kinds to be seen at and look "cool". Kids who didn't even know how to play instruments started bands that were awful and overshadowed good bands that deserved the attention. It really stopped being fun to go to shows. It was also at this time that it seemed like everyone in attendance started smoking and could only talk about leaving the concert to attend a party to get drunk and high. It was also around this time that MySpace came out and in my opinion "ruined music forever". On paper the concept of MySpace is good, you know let anyone post their music to be heard all over the world, but in the end it causes more harm than good. First, it takes a lot of the hard work out of being a band. You can start a MySpace page and send out an unlimited number of friend requests for people to check out your band. It usually doesn't even matter how good your band is, if you do this you will (or at least you did when MySpace first started) get many fans instantly. I used to hear about bands starting out going through hard times and playing to empty places. While it doesn't sound that great at first, it becomes a positive thing in the long run because it is a big learning experience for the band and creates a stronger bond with the members. When you playing to nobody in an empty space in really makes you question your own ability and motives. Therefor it would strengthen you and make you work harder. MySpace kind of took that part of being a band out. So what we were left with was a bunch of kids or couldn't play being overly supported by their friends and MySpace friends. This made them unaware of how bad they actually were because of their instant overwhelming support. So there was no motivation for them to get better because in their own minds and their "fans" minds the were already great. That brings up another question. What ever happened to constructive criticism? It seems now a days no matter what you do musically the response is either overwhelming positive or overwhelmingly negative. Anytime I write a song or play a show I'm never satisfied. I always think it sucked or it could have been better. I'm not saying that being that way is the perfect or correct way to be but it is certainly better than being cocky and being satisfied with everything you do. Sometimes you need someone to tell you that you suck or you need to get better. It just seems that because of sites like MySpace and Itunes it is basically impossible to strive for an actual career in music. They have polluted music so much that it's so hard to even find a good band because you have to shift through so much shit. It seems like most music these days is more concerned about appearance than what they are actually playing. Nobody seems to go to to concerts and if they do its usually people so polluted that they could care less at what they are listening to, because of this many of our local venues have had to close. I spend a lot of time and I used to spend more time trying to find great music and my new favorite band. Anytime I found something great, I always knew that there was another band or artist out there that would blow them away and it was my job to find them. It seems these days kids listen to what they think they are supposed to and what they are expected to and they give it right there. I feel that any music you listen to that you think is great, keep looking because you can always find something better. Anyway I made this post in hope you can check out my band. We have a MySpace which I knpw seems odd because I just spent a lot of time trashing them, but I'm afraid I don't know any other way to let my band's existence be known. So I'm afraid it's all I got. I feel that I'm at a good place musically now I don't write music to suit a style or appearance. I just do whatever it is I want to do and I hope that I can play it to some people who hopefully enjoy it. So please check out my band. I can't necessarily tell you that we are great or even good. If you don't like I can't in all honesty tell you that you are wrong, but I can tell you that we aren't playing anything we don't want to play and we a being very real and being ourselves when we do it. Anyway if you read all this thanks. I just felt like venting and at the very least having some of my thoughts organized in something other than my brain. My band's site is www.myspace.com/fatandersonjam
Here's some pics......
I may post pics of our equipment and set up later. Thanks for reading.later...
Posts
