so, here we are, at about 9pm on a sunday evening. rock and roll still lives on, this much is true. rock and roll still lives on, at 9pm on a sunday evening, and rock and roll still lives on, regardless of if anyone's listening to the music at 9pm on a sunday evening. although, i bet there's at least one someone in the whole world who's listening to some rock and roll RIGHT NOW. rock and roll, as i mean it in this blog post, is like every genre of good music. and believe me, rock and roll still lives on.
there are genres of music that some might have thought were gone, forever, because they didn't hear any new music coming out of that genre.
what's a genre? a genre is like a category of music, it's just a category, that's all, that you're "not necessarily" pressured to stay within as an artist, and that you're "not necessarily" pressured to listen to music only within that category, as someone who listens to music.
it's like picking a category on jeopardy! (jeopardy! is a tv game show). you might be all like, "i'll take famous quotes for 1000, alex", and thus you picked the category "Famous Quotes" with the subcategory of 1000 dollars. but that doesn't mean that you'll win the category you picked, in fact a different contestant than you could get the answer/question correct, and faster than you could.
to liken that to music, it's like, you could pick a genre of music you want to listen to one day, but that doesn't mean that you'll be able to appreciate the music you listen to, as much as someone who's more special than you are can appreciate that same music.
so, for artists, you might think that no one's listening to your genre of music anymore, that you're an "old-timer", and that your music is past its time. bullshit. if your music is good music, it's timeless. possibly what happened was, was people treated you and your music like it was "just some trend", and things that are just trends have an expiration date. if your music is timeless, someones will appreciate your music, if they hear it. although, not every someone hears music the same way, someones who are more special, can hear music in a more special way, and can appreciate your music more than someones who are less special.
unless your music itself is less special, then less special someones might appreciate your music, where more special someones might rather listen to music that's more special.
take billy joel, his music is more special, but people might have treated billy's music like it was "old-timer" music, and past its "point of use". bullshit. billy joel's music is timeless. now, i understand that i'm "supposed to be" an indie girl/hipster, and y'know what, being an indie girl/hipster, is part of who i am. but, being an indie girl/hipster, doesn't mean that i should act like good music isn't good music. on the contrary, being an indie girl/hipster necessarily means that i act like good music is good music.
it might have been "not cool, bro, not cool" to dig on music by billy joel, because billy joel is "assuredly not cool, bro, not cool." bullshit. billy joel is like a masterpiece of a musician. he might not have been categorized in the indie genre by fools who failed to call good music, good music. fools! and if you think about it, billy joel's music is indie/hipster music in a kind of way that stephen malkmus' music is indie/hipster music. think about the stephen malkmus song, "post-paint boy" and the billy joel song "we didn't start the fire". both songs, while being two completely different songs, have a similar kind of beat to their music, and have a similar kind of outrage about the way things are.
yes, yes, i realize "we didn't start the fire" was a radio hit, whereas stephen malkmus' music is a bit more obscure. but popularity be damned, rock and roll still lives on.
you "can still be popular" and still contribute to rock and roll living on, you know. and just because an artist becomes "popular" doesn't mean that the artist sold out. it means that more someones are listening to his or her music, vs it means that the music itself became watered down.
and y'know, an artist is "allowed" to try different styles of music, he or she doesn't "have to" play the same songs over and over again.
he or she can even - GASP! - play lo-fi songs on one album, and higher-fi songs on another album. playing higher-fi songs, doesn't equal "selling out". you have to be a damn fool to say that if an artist plays a different style of music from one album to another, that that's "selling out".
and while i'm at it, you have to be a damn fool to have been one of the damn fools that acted like the get up kids were "no longer cool", by or around the time that "on a wire" came out. and then you damn fools acted like you "never liked their music to begin with", because it was "embarrassing" to like the get up kids' music. the get up kids' music is special, and it's timeless, and it's more special than a lot of damn fools have the capacity to appreciate.
but, rock and roll still lives on.
but, rock and roll still lives on.
this blog post might work to vindicate those people mentioned, and might work to vindicate any someone who didn't act like a damn fool.
if you acted, or still act, like a damn fool, pick yourself up off the floor you threw yourself on. and wipe off the dust, and begin again.
rock and roll still lives on! i'm telling you, i seen it, i heard it, rock and roll still lives on!
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