Monday 16 July 2012

A Musical Ranting - Don't Judge A Song By Its Song Information

Everyone loves music. I don't think a lot of people would say that they dislike it as a whole, maybe the occasional grumpy old guy. But I hate listening to or reading about people who call out and spit on one type of music, claiming it "sucks" or whatever.

I'm just going to come right out and say that you CANNOT DISLIKE AN ENTIRE MUSICAL GENRE. "But country is terrible, it's all about losing your wife and your truck," some idiot probably just said. No, it's not. Country is a vast genre that actually takes aspects of all kinds of other music. There are different types of country music. You do not dislike them all. Maybe you dislike the country music that's "all about losing your wife and your truck."

The same goes with pop music, and this is going to send me onto another rant (thanks to you indie music people.) Answer this question: How can you only like indie music? Isn't it true that every band is looking to be signed so they can become popular? You cannot tell me that if your favourite unsigned band were to be signed and started getting played on the radio that you would boycott their songs.

And although I will admit that some (okay, a lot) of the music that's on the radio today is pretty much made from the same formula and the same clubs beats, but there are exceptions. I don't think its fair to assume that just because a song is popular, that it's "bad," or "stupid," or "fake," or whatever.

This goes for taking the artist into account when choosing what to listen to. Just because you maybe didn't like someone's songs before, or because you read about something stupid they did in the National Enquirer, don't assume that their songs will be terrible or refuse to listen to them. Other people worked hard to make this music too, so give it a chance.

So when it comes down to it, just like the songs you like and dislike the songs you dislike, but at least give the song a chance. Don't judge a song by its "song information." I'm sick of listening to people bashing an entire genre of music because one time they heard one crappy dubstep song and the whole genre must be just like that one. There's music out there that can hardly be placed in one genre. Honestly, there are no rules when you're making music. You don't have to stray away from hip hop if you're a rock artist, and you can add a little bit of rock to your country ( I'm terrified of the day that dubstep and country meet up, but you never know.)

To add to this I would just like to say that people on the internet can be the worst musical critics. While you're hiding behind a computer you can be as cynical as you like and no one can stop you. I would know, because I love shoving my opinion down people's throats on the internet (only in blog form, I try not to get into youtube comment arguments and stuff because I don't like being called bad names.) People will chirp any song they want with no reason. So don't go listening to what people have to say on the internet (except for me. Listen to what I tell you, all the time, definitely) just listen to the song for yourself and maybe you'll find something that you didn't even know you loved.

Saturday 14 July 2012

This Is Serious: Re-freaking-cycle.

Tonight we were on a mission. In Northern Ontario wildlife is everywhere, especially if you know where to look. Driving on the backroads near the dump, we came across a family of bears (we were in the car, of course.) This was adorable, especially because one cub was running around carrying a plastic container. Total YouTube cutie stuff, you know what I mean?

As it turns out though, the cub was not running merrily with a new toy. No, the plastic container was stuck right on it's head. We rolled the windows down, only to hear the desperate wails of the terrified little guy. To make it all even more heartbreaking, the bear ran blindly right into the side of our car. That sickening thump made everything worse. And there was nothing we could do.

So here's the thing, that little bear wouldn't have been in this predicament if some idiot had recycled his plastic container instead of throwing it in the dump or (even worse) on the road somewhere. Keeping a little blue bin outside your door is not a big deal. It's not going to kill you but as I've seen tonight, it may (more than likely will) kill innocent animals.

I keep telling myself "Winnie the Pooh got his head stuck in the hunny pot all the time." But this time Tigger won't be there to help the little guy and the Mommy bear won't let Christopher Robin anywhere near him. (Children's books often give the best life lessons, but in this case they didn't teach the unfortunate truth about real life bear's lack of knowledge about man-made items)

So "Shaaaame" (Mitch Pritchett, Modern Family.) Maybe think about it a little bit before you toss "just this one container, no big deal," into the garbage, because you may have just killed an animal.

This is a classic human fault. Who cares what happens to this piece of crap as long as it's out of your house ASAP? Recycling isn't all about cutting down on garbage or stopping global warming, etc. It can effect the world much sooner than you think it will.

And that's all I have to say about that. For now.

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Marilyn Monroe Didn't Even Say That Stuff

Okay, so if you're an internet using person (which I assume you are because you're reading this), you've seen all the ... I don't even know what to call them ... posters? all over the place. You know them, they're quotes posted on a nice little background. Some of them are funny, some of them are inspiring and all of them are stupid (according to me.) "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I think those things are totally neat!" you're probably saying to your computer screen right now. On some level I agree with you, they're nice the first time you see them. But once they get shared a billion times on Facebook and Tumblr and copied to statuses and tweeted and instagramed (myspaced? Google+ed?,) this is when they get terrible and annoying.

But I can ignore the little poster things, some of them are pretty hilarious. But I can't help but think, "okay, who actually said this?" So, being the professional Googler that I am, I like to Google these sayings. And guess what? Apparently about a thousand different people are credited with saying some of this stuff. Wait, what? Yeah, imagine that. The internet, the world's largest "grapevine," has reposted and skewed these things so many times that no one even knows who said half of them anymore. I believe you people are familiar with the game Telephone?

Let's take the beloved Marilyn Monroe for example. According to girl's tweets and statuses everywhere, she has said some totally awesome stuff. And some of it may have actually come out of her mouth, but upon further investigation, most of it did not. Sorry to squish your beliefs ladies. (Side note: MM wasn't even a size 16, apparently. Of course, this info could also be fake.)

I know we'll never live in a world where we only quote things that we actually heard come out of someone's mouth, but think about how nice it would be, for the sake of the actual speaker. Am I right?
Maybe I'm just a little grumpy because I spend tons of time thinking up my own interesting (maybe) stuff to put on the internet while other people just spend their time sharing fake quotes that they claim are "totally the story of my life," or whatever (This is exactly the reason I'm writing this, don't let anything else I say fool you), or maybe I'm just worried about plagiarism and the rights of the author but either way, I've had enough of this unoriginal crap that is spewed all over the place without a thought for who said it, where they said it, what the context was, and if they were really talking about what you think they were talking about. (And that, my friends, was a run-on sentence.)

So, to sum this all up, let's all try to be a little more original, okay? Or at least appreciate the stuff the little people (me) have to say on the internet, because they're (I'm) trying their (my) best to entertain you with their (my) brilliant minds. And for the love of goodness, please stop quoting "Marilyn Monroe" and just appreciate her for being super hot or something.