I’ve been playing the iLike Challenge (much like Name That Tune) for the past two days and I’ve realized a few things. I can tell Panic! at the Disco and Fall Out Boy apart with amazing regularity. I am proud of myself for that. I also get every Pink Floyd and most Syd Barrett questions right which is an achievement as I never purchased any of Syd’s albums.

Unfortunately I have run across a problem. I cannot tell the difference between Simple Plan, Good Charlotte, Blink 182, and Sum 41 musically. I recognize the really really popular Blink 182 songs that played back in the days when Carson hosted TRL. I can pick out one of the members, Mark Hoppus, because he’s a looker. I also remember that they parodied the Backstreet Boys’ I Want it That Way video in one of their own. Other than that I am completely lost every time I hear one of the songs from any of these bands. If you could eliminate those four bands from the rotation in the game my accuracy would go up at least 5 percent.

It makes me stop to think about what was going on in the music industry when all of these bands were super popular on MTV and on the radio. I would probably conveniently assume they were all Blink 182 because Mark is cute and it’d be an excuse to buy CDs with his picture on them. Is that any way to buy music? Is this how the world felt when Backstreet Boys and were super popular? I never had any problems distinguishing bands by vocals, but with bands where everyone screams and hops around on stage how do you discriminate the vocals? I don’t get it.

I just came to the realization that I’m a closet Emo and I didn’t even know it. I was listening to Panic! At the Disco while downloading the most recent Dashboard Confessional album from eMusic and I got frustrated when I couldn’t find any My Chemical Romance albums on the site. I decided to search for more songs by The Starting Line while my iTunes playlist moved from Panic! to Fall Out Boy without skipping a beat.

My appreciation for Emo rock wasn’t really intentional. I guess I heard a few Fall Out Boy songs on some of the WB/CW shows, namely One Tree Hill, and decided to get the albums. One Tree Hill may be a lot of things but it’s not lacking for decent music. My Fall Out Boy purchases and interest led to my Panic! at the Disco fever because they’re like Fall Out part II but amusing in a completely different kind of way. After all of that Emo goodness, I caught Dan talking about My Chemical Romance. I started listening to some of their stuff and I found it to be even more melodramatic than the Fall Out Boy and Panic! stuff, but it was still amusing. My Chemical Romance led to Dashboard confessional.

I guess it was a natural progression for me since I was always a Cure fan and I liked Depeche Mode. Somewhere Robert Smith is laughing to himself when he watches these tortured Emo kids on stage. They’re trying to steal his schtick and they just don’t understand that no one will ever rock the fatalistic melancholy like The Cure. These young pups just want an excuse to wear black eyeliner and whine about failed relationships. The Cure owns them.

Antonella Barba, a Top 20 American Idol contestant was the most recent subject of a scandal. Nude and semi-nude pictures of her were recently published and have circulated around the internet. These pictures were leaked by people who knew Antonella and most likely done to make a quick buck rather than out of sheer malice. The American Idol producers allowed her to continue in the competition even though the pictures most likely tainted her reputation and had an effect on how the public voted.

A former stripper, Nikki McKibbin, was also allowed to compete on American Idol. Nikki chose to strip, so her unseemly career choices were just that, choices. The brass at Idol felt that it was ok to turn the other way even though the show is supposed to appeal to people of all ages.

A few years ago an enormously talented singer by the name of Frenchie Davis blew the American Idol judges away. She was later disqualified because she had done some nude modeling in the past. I remember seeing her audition when it aired live and when she sang it gave me goosebumps on my arms. She’s got a voice that is both powerful and controlled, and it moved all of the judges.

American Idol and various other reality shows have chosen to look the other way when the seedy pasts of various contestants has been called into question. I do not understand why the same kind of grace wasn’t extended to Frenchie Davis. Was it the fact that she was black? Was it the fact that she was full-figured? I don’t think so because we’ve already seen people of all shapes and sizes compete and be quite successful in the competition. Kimberly Locke made it quite far in the competiton while representing Lane Bryant, a plus-sized women’s clothing store. Ruben Studdard went on to win and he is bigger than the average bear.

Since it’s safe to assume that size and color were not an issue, what was the real reason why Frenchie Davis was not allowed to compete? The only conclusion that I can come to is that in addition to her color and figure, she had a very real chance of winning. She has a powerful voice and has been well trained as a singer. She has poise and is a born performer. Had she won and her past come under real public scrutiny, would some nude modeling have handicapped her career or kept her from selling albums from her to Mars? I think not.

How many huge stars do we know of who have made it through scandals rooted in sex and nude modeling? Off the top of my head I can think of Rob Lowe, Madonna, and a half dozen 80’s hair metal rockers. When I sit down to watch Rob Lowe Sunday nights on ABC’s Brothers and Sisters I don’t think about the scandals of his past. I think of how brilliant an actor he is and how he steals every scene he’s in. Frenchie’s voice to me is like Rob Lowe on screen — a scene stealer. I feel as though she has been robbed of a chance at a very healthy and lucrative career because of a TV executive with no grasp on reality. American Idol is the number one show on TV, period. It’s doubtful that Frenchie’s past would’ve even made the ratings dip. This is why I cannot and will not take this show seriously. It also makes me question what other mystery cuts and manipulations are happening behind the scenes.

What do you think of Idol’s double standard?

J.Lo got married yet again. This time the lucky guy is Marc Anthony. I give this one 18 months max. The sad part is the media madness surrounding her has taken a nap since she broke it off with Affleck. I think the media adored him and tolerated her for the most part. I don’t doubt that she’ll eventually decide that Marc is not right for her and start chasing someone else. Apparently no one ever explained the difference between dating and marriage to her.

Apparently someone heard my desperate pleas, because Creed broke up! I am so excited. I doubt that there is anything that could make me happier at this very moment. I was excited when I heard that they might be breaking up but I dropped by their official site and there is the official message that they’ve decided to call it quits. Such beautiful words. Apparently (and this is according to Jason) the drummer and guitarist have already moved on to a new project while Scott Stapp has found himself a new band. Anyone else find it funny that the drummer and the guitarist stuck together and Stapp is off alone with the remnants of another group? I smell ego issues.

I realize that there is a lot of deep rooted psychological manipulation involved in the writing of a pop song. Furthermore, putting those simple (sometimes inane) lyrics over a catchy hook is the work of purely evil producers and writers. I have a problem escaping from the hook of a certain Outkast song. I hear it in my head when other songs are on the radio, I hear it in my sleep, I hear coworkers singing it, of course I hear it on the garsh darned radio, and Jason has it on his Tibook. I simply can’t escape, and believe me I have tried.

I have considered forcefully jabbing my thumbs into my ears with the aim of penetrating my tympanic membranes (eardrums - see I’m using my degree). Of course I don’t think I’ll be able to get my thumbs in that far. Of course I could use sharp implements like pencils or pens, but the effect wouldn’t be the same. I will figure out some way to make the song stop penetrating my existence even if it involves mutilation or attacking several electronic devices.

With all of the RIAA hoohah, it might make sense to find out where your money is going before you purchase any shiny new CDs. No one in their right mind wants to support an association that would have the audacity to attempt to sue half the country because they shared some music. If you want to make absolutely sure that your next new music purchase is not going to go to the hands that will sue you, visit the RIAA
Radar Search Engine to find out whether or not the RIAA had a hand in the creation of the album you want. If the album is RIAA fodder, I would highly suggest purchasing it used from Half.com or Amazon.com to avoid feeding the fat cats.

TechTV was kind enough to round up the first list of Kazaa aliases who will be hunted down and prosecuted in their witch hunt. Any of the aliases look familiar to you? Are you one of the “chosen” few? Know someone who is on the list? Just generally pissed off about the matter?

If you are any of the above, feel free to sound off here. I’d love to hear more of what people are thinking about this whole debacle.

I want to know why the RIAA and the record companies aren’t getting the bejeesus sued or beaten out of them for price fixing. Certain music stores, like Virgin Records, are selling CDs for pennies less than the price of CDs after they were first introduced. Maybe that’s why they’re suffering and on the brink of going under?

Seriously now, the CD has been around in the neighborhood of 20 years. Why should I be paying upwards of $16 for a new cd? Didn’t other major companies like Nintendo and even Microsoft at some point get sued for price fixing? The economy has changed, the value of goods has changed in the past 20 years, technology has changed to allow for faster and higher quality mass production of these items… why should I be paying such an antiquated price for an album that might not even be over 30 minutes long. Furthermore, only pennies (that’s right.. PENNIES) are actually getting to the artist. All of the rest of my $16 is going to record executives, agents, lawyers, and a laundry list of middle men and lackeys.

Now if you want to get into the quality issue, this is a whole different can of worms. Think about the last ten CDs you bought. Can you honestly say that you enjoyed even 80% of the tracks on those CDs? Did you buy a CD (or maybe even a few) for maybe two or three songs? Maybe you even had to pay for the entire CD just to get one song because it wasn’t released as a single? We have all been there and it sucks. I know not every album can be stellar, but why has it become so difficult to find an album that has more than one good track on it? Actually the answer is simple. If every artist only puts one or two purchase-worthy songs on each album and fills up the rest of the disc with the stuff that should be on the cutting room floor and flashy “multimedia enhancements” then the record company can charge a higher price for the disc and get the artist to turn out a new album every 12 to 18 months. Have you noticed that the only artists that aren’t trapped in this factory formula are established artists with creative control, artists on independent labels, and a lucky few that get mentored by established artists?

Now if more of those artists that aren’t under the proverbial thumb of the record industry brass would speak out about all of this RIAA induced hysteria, maybe we could get somewhere.

If the RIAA has their way, everyone caught sharing music online will be fined to hell and back. If certain political factions have their way, file traders will be jailed.

Having established that, did these factions ever stop to think that if you put a bunch of file swappers in jail and fine the rest to oblivion, there will be no one left to buy music? Seriously. Who in their right mind, after having been fined or spent time in the slammer because of sharing music is ever going to give their money to the music industry again? I wouldn’t. Hell I’m not even buying new cds now because of this RIAA induced brouhaha. Furthermore, after having been sued and put through the ringer by
the RIAA’s legal mob, why would you ever give any of your money to the music industry?

Music sales were lackluster at best before the RIAA waged war against everyone in their way. File trading was blamed for the sluggish music sales in the past two years. Did anyone stop to think that maybe the quality of the music being released is pathetic? Who needs another friggin’ Ashanti album for $18.98? Furthermore, did the music-warmongers forget that the whole economy is crappy right now? I think the Bush Administration’s blind-eye/deaf-ear policy is rubbing off on other groups across the country. What do you think?