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Welcome to Chris's Home Page IV, the first of the Chris's Home Page series to be featured on Fortune City. Now that I've got another page up, I need something to have it based on. So you people tell me what you want to see on this page. About myself, I am a huge rock fan. Modern rock, classic rock, whatever, I like it all. That is, I liked it all until it started to get boring. Rock is pretty crappy right now. I don't like all the bands out there, but I like some stuff from some bands, just not the band itself. Thats confusing, but it makes sense. I'm a huge fan of Live, The Smashing Pumpkins, Metallica, Queen, and Led Zeppelin. But since Queen and Led Zep both broke up, I wont have any info about them on this page. Live and SP will probably be my main focus. Metallica is a great band instrument wise, considering Kirk Hammet and James Hetfield are two brilliant musicians, but Metallica lyrics really suck. SP and Live both have great lyrical talent, and I consider Billy Corgan to be the most ingenius musician of the 1990's (even though Live's Ed Kowalczck has a much better voice). If you like these bands, then you and I would agree on music discussions. To read my comments on the state of music today and the direction music is headed, continue reading. Music news is just below, and I'll have links up as soon as I can remember my friends addresses.
MUSIC NEWS5/00- Metallica sues Napster... loses ground with thousands of fans... sellout process complete. These guys are over for me. No more of my money will be going to Metallica. I'm not buying you're crappy merchandise, either!! You'll never see me wearng a Metallica FOOTBALL JERSEY or a Metallica medallion. Jewelry, guys?? Geez, just don't sue me for writing your name on my page, please.
1/20/00- Rumor has it that Billy Corgan, lead singer and basically main force behind the Smashing Pumpkins, is reportedly claiming to quit the band after the band completes their promotion of the new album, MACHINA/the machines of God, due to be released Febuary 29. This is according to netphoria.org which apparently got the information from dotmusic.com. This is JUST A RUMOR!! Remember that, OK?? The Pumpkins and Corgan have been talking about breaking up as far back as the Siamese Dream days, and its been seven years since and the band is still together, even though the band members have changed several times over the years. Chamberlin, the bands drummer, was kicked out of the band in 1996 following the drug overdose and death of touring keyboardist Johnothan Melvoin. The drummer was accepted back into the band last April 1999. In September of 1999, bassist D'arcy Wretzky quit the band to pursue a career in acting. I hope the band stays together, but perhaps its for the best if the guys call it quits.
1/10/00- The new Smashing Pumpkins album will be out in a little less than 2 months. The new single, "The Everlasting Gaze" is being played on the radio nationwide. The new Live album came out in October. It is brilliant. I'll talk about it on this page soon.
Where is rock going? Here's my answer, at least:
As i decide on the basis for my new web page, I have been considering many different subjects. One of these subjects is music. I have based pages on music before, and have enjoyed doing so. However, I have a problem with the popular music industry today. My problem lies within the quality of music. Now I am fully aware that everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I do not care to have anyone point this out to me once I get my guestbook up and running. This is merely my opinion, and if you do not agree with me, nobody is forcing you to read this.
I would personally like to welcome myself back to writing on this page. I haven't written on here since October or something like that, so I am glad to start up again. Anyway, I write to you today with a message not written of disgust for the conition of the rock industry, but with a message of hope for a new revolutionary force to free rock fans from the current cesspool of boy bands and rappers which dominate the music industry today. Before I go any farther, I would like to give some credit to my sister for this point she brought up a few days ago. This point is, since rock first became mainstream in the late 1950's, a pattern had developed. At the end of nearly evey decade since rock has existed, the music industry had shoved rock into a minor position as far as sales are concerned. In 1959, when Buddy Holly died, the music industry became a world of Frankie Avalons and other teen heartthrobs, which for five years or so dominated the industry. It wasn't until 1964, when the Beatles took the US by storm, that rock went for an upturn. Rock continued to reign king of the charts until the mid-1970's, when disco and other crap took the stage. Obviously it was a passing fad, because in the early '80's, punk and new wave entered the mainstream and, for a time, brought rock back to glory. However, in the late 1980's, rock sort of fell apart again, at least saleswise. Luckily, a new form of rock, grunge, was developing around 1989. By 1991, Nevermind, the most well-known Nirvana album, had set the stage of rock the next five years. Once again, in the late 1990's, rock had fallen off the charts and it remains that way today. Now we are in the year 2000, and a new decade has been born. And I will tell you this right now. I do not make predictions normally, but I will say this now, before it happens: There will be a new revolution in music. Rock and roll will return, probably within the next 3 or 4 years. It will not be anything like the rock we are listening to today. It will be more electronic, more technologically oriented. I'm not going to go any farther. I can't predict what exactly the music will sound like, whether or not it will be good, or whether or not I will like it. But I can say right now that the guitar will, as it always has been, be the backbone of the future rock bands which will dominate the industry. And I can say one more thing: This will be big. As big as the grunge scene was in the early 90's. Rest assured rock will return. And I hope to be a part of the rock industry to come. Rock fans across the world, we will see our day once again.
Something I wrote a long time ago:
Anyway, my problem is with the condition of the rock industry. Rock and roll today is in a severe drought of creativity and innovation. When I turn on a modern rock radio station, all I ever hear is a band whose name I do not remember, because the song the band is playing sounds almost exactly like every other song that is being produced today. These songs are decent the first few times you listen to them, but they are by no means different from everything else created by the other post-grunge bands. These new bands are still trying to cling on the the magical sound produced by the Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Live, and other prominent bands during the period when "alternative" rock became ironically mainstream. This music was great, don't get me wrong, but the alternative sound is basically dead, and it does not look like it is coming back. I'm not trying to revive it, no, the death of alternative music is not what is bothering me. In fact, I'm in support of changing the direction of rock. The problem I have with the rock industry is the direction it is going.
If you've ever bothered to watch MTV, you'd know that rock is gaining popularity once again, after it faded away for a couple years. The last big rock band before 1999 was the Smashing Pumpkins, whose Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness album was a monster hit. There was no truly big rock hit since this album, until Korn released its album, Limp Bizkit became a big hit, and Kid Rock finally got a hit song after having a couple no-name albums. These bands all are the new face of rock. This is what my problem is. These artists are creating a pseudo-metal image, trying to act like they can really compare to great metal acts like Metallica. But the bands just scream. I mean, at least Metallica could scream in tune. These guys just yell like they are agruing at the top of their lungs. The new rock artists also have developed a sort of "rap 'n roll" blend of rock and rap. The sound consists of rock guitars and rap vocals, developing a surprisingly bad sound which makes me question how these bands ever got a record deal in the first place. If this is the direction in which rock is heading, then the industry is in trouble. Many think that these bands are going to save rock, but in reality the bands will destroy the industry.
When Nirvana came out in the early '90s, the band opened up a new doorway for rock bands to enter and dominate the charts. Some would say that Korn and Limp Bizkit are like Nirvana because they made rock popular again. However, Nirvana and the other bands which came with it had songs that you could tell apart. Korn, Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit all sound the same. They are not creative at all. Just throw in a couple rap verses, a stupid chorus, distort it all, and you've got a song which is pretty much every Korn song ever made. If rock continues with this uncreative sound which has taken control of the industry, it will inevitably collapse once people get sick of the pointless, shallow music being produced. This seems to be happening right now, and if a revolutionary force doesn't arrive soon to keep rock from dying for good, rap, R&B, and the boy bands will forever take over music.
You heard what I think, but what do you think? Vote on your opinions below!!
More to come on this topic... keep visiting!!
