Music Evolution: Artists Evolving or Selling Out

I wasn’t sure if I was going to write this and it has been a while since I have been able to write in my spare time due to school and work. It has been a while since I updated this and my last two entries have been music related. I always thought if I returned to write here, it would be about Fuckface Von Clownstick, but he isn’t worth my time despite the fact that he will be here for four years fucking shit up.  I am a college student now, finally decided on Forensic Psychology as my major after wanting to be a geologist for a while (I can’t do math to save my life). I have not written political things in a while, my last entry here being about the Confederate flag and haven’t contributed my writing to anything since my junior year in high school when I wrote for my school magazine (I can’t remember the last thing I contributed)

But who knows, I have been laid off at work due to hour cuts and am trying to find a new place of employment and do have spare time now and will have even more during the summer since I am only taking one online course. So I may post here more in the future; politics or not. Right now, I am going to focus on music, something that is not stressing me out at all right now (unlike current politics)

Recently, Julia Pierce came out with new music and announced her new solo project, Pyrce. I was ecstatic hearing the news! It had been forever since Cherri Bomb and she is an extremely talented musician.

If you haven’t heard of Julia Pierce, then that is not surprising. Julia fronted an all-girl rock band Cherri Bomb many moons ago. In fact, she and Cherri Bomb opened for the Foo Fighters and Smashing Pumpkins before she turned 16. They released a great album titled This Is The End of Control (still in my top five favorite albums with BMTH’s Sempiternal, Green Day’s American Idiot, Avril Lavigne’s Under My Skin and Icon For Hire’s Scripted) Julia was later kicked out of her own band. I will not go into the drama of it because a lot of it is not confirmed other than it wasn’t her decision to leave.

Now, why did I go as far as to mention all that when this is titled music evolution? Two words. Hey Violet.

Hey Violet is what became of Cherri Bomb. Members Nia Lovelis, Rena Lovelis and Miranda Miller added Casey Moretta to the band. They still had potential. Rena took over on vocals and if you listened to her leads on Act The Part and co-lead on Raw. Real. You would understand that she had potential to be a good rock vocalist. I thought they could do well without Julia and they released a demo titled Middle Finger and it sounded really good. Rena had the good gritty vocals and if they kept that sound, they could really succeed in the genre.

But that did not happen.

They went a pop route. Their first EP I Can Feel It was pop. They were then signed by 5 Seconds of Summer (which I earlier wrote about, thinking it’s possible they could save Pop Punk, I was wrong). It was bad. Rena didn’t have gritty vocals but really bad pop ones. It was extremely disappointing, especially since they got a lot of attention because of 5SOS.

Now flash forward to this year and they are getting even bigger. Rena stopped playing bass and they got a new bass player, Iain Shipp who looks like everyone’s confused metrosexual yuppie cousin who is always judging you. (My family is weird.) Their music has got worse. Rena is not much younger than me. She is around 18-19 and what she is now singing about is nauseating. It is definitely not good for their young fans to hear. The last thing anyone 12-year-old should be singing about is about how guys her age don’t know how to touch her right and wanting someone to wash her "pure" away. It is gross, almost as gross as Blood on the Dance Floor. This is the kind of music that is getting them famous. Instead of producing lyrics similar to Too Many Faces, Act the Part or Paper Doll, they are producing sexual lyrics. They have a younger audience now because of 5SOS. They are no longer playing Warped Tour, they are opening for a band that got their start opening for One Direction and gaining young kids as a fan base. It’s awful. Not to mention the plagiarism they have been accused of. (Want more info, I will link you Here and here to a few blogs on tumblr about it) The one thing I noticed the most was how their song Fuqboi (like seriously?) sounds similar to Teenage Dirtbag (i'm only familiar with the Patty Walters from As It Is' version). It’s depressing and hard to look at Too Many Faces and then look at this shit they are producing. Hey Violet is awful. Miranda, Nia and Rena did not evolve as they aged, but sold out.

But a lot of artists are going to pop right now. Look at Paramore. They released some great Pop-Punk albums, Riot! being one that is amazing and full of great tracks. They had great energy and Hayley Williams has a great stage presence. But, their self-titled album…wow. It was awful. Ain’t It Fun is also an awful track, and not just because of the word (or lack of) “ain’t” being in it. Hayley will never be “one of us.” She has been in the industry since she was a teen and is the only one of her band even signed to the label. I will admit I do not know Hayley or her struggles, but she is definitely privileged. Moving that aside, their new stuff is pop also. Their new song “Hard Times” makes no sense. The lyrics and music do not match at all. This is no longer a pop punk band, but just pop and maybe power pop. This does not seem like an evolution of their sound by them maturing. Of course, no band or artist is going to sound like their first album, but this stuff is extremely different from their old stuff. It's just bad.

Recently both Good Charlotte and Sum 41 have returned to the scene. I love them both dearly. Fat Lip and The Anthem are definitely amazing songs that bring back memories. Their new stuff is also different from their early work.

Good Charlotte’s first single was Makeshift Love. It definitely wasn’t The Anthem but I still purchased the album when it came out and do enjoy it. It’s Good fucking Charlotte. Of course it will be good. They still have some of their core sound but have evolved. The Outfield is a great song. Although, it is a little weird to think it could be about either Cameron Diaz or Nicole Richie since they are who the Madden brothers have married, but still a great song. The song 40 Oz. Dream did have a weird sound but the lyrics still sounded like Good Charlotte. This album differed from their earlier stuff but listening to it, I could still tell it was Good Charlotte.

Same with Sum 41. They have matured over the years, likely due to Deryck Whibley nearly dying of alcohol poisoning but they are still Sum 41. Deryck has described 13 Voices as Screaming Bloody Murder 2.0. it’s still a good album although I did not enjoy Screaming Bloody Murder. It’s Sum 41. Deryck is healthy and Dave is back. Fake My Own Death was a good first single. It wasn’t the classic “fuck society” song but it was still great. I can still hear Sum 41 in it. They really hit the nail on the head with War. It is a good song with a good meaning, kind of reminding me of Some Say and Pieces. There sound just may be harder than when they began. (youtube is being weird and only showing covers, but this guy is a good guitarist)

Papa Roach as also changed, I will admit I haven’t heard all their stuff and like their hits best. Some say that makes me a fake fan, but whatever. Last Resort is badass and so is Getting Away with Murder. I have noticed something different in their past few albums. Gravity on F.E.A.R has spoken parts and so does Born For Greatness on Crooked Teeth. They both sound good but are definitely different than Last Resort. I can still hear Papa Roach and know that the vocalist is still Jacoby (unlike Hey Violet since Rena does not sound like Rena anymore)

Sometimes sound does evolve as members leave. Icon For Hire is now down to two members, Ariel and Shawn and now have electronic elements. Same as Riot Child. First when Nicki left and Amanda took over as vocalist, it didn’t seem much would change but both Never Enough and Bullet barely featured guitars on the tracks. This may have been a reason for guitarist Hanna leaving and resulting in just Amanda and Alice remaining. Their song Liar featured heavy computer generated and electronic elements and was way different than some of their earliest tracks like Waking Up the Neighbors. They may be adapting or evolving.

Looking at what Julia has released, I am kind of disappointed. I guess I was hoping for something similar to the hard rock feel or Cherri Bomb but got Indie Pop instead. I rarely listen to that, and when I do, it's Lorde. I may have been hoping for Cherri Bomb 2.0 which I realized was a mistake. I can see this is Julia’s new sound and do hope that I will enjoy other tracks because Julia has so much talent.

The Many Works Plagerized by One Direction

The Many Works Plagiarized By One Direction

As a college student, in what little time I have, I like to watch some YouTube, and for some reason I like top ten videos. To get to the point, I came across top ten sound-alike songs by WatchMojo, a channel my coworker watches for video game top tens. One this list, something really angered me, I heard the beginning of a One Direction song that I instantly recognizes it, As someone who apparently is “out of the loop” with most pop culture events, only seeing what’s one Tumblr or Facebook that my friends share, I never know or listen to any One Direction songs, I can’t stand them. I see them as annoying “musicians” who sing basic pop garbage about whatever it is that the average teenager is obsessed with.

So when I heard the beginning to their “hit” “Live While Were Young” and realized it sounds just like The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” I realized the openings are identical. You can’t say that there are just so many chords out there that can be played like Pete Townsend said when referring to the fact that their song “Best Song Ever” sounds just like the Who’s “Baba O’Riley.” 1D (I hate even referring to them as that, but it’s short and to the point) or their songwriters -since they obviously don’t have the talent to write their own stuff- should be very aware of the Clash song since it is very famous along with the band Two of the writers were Swedish and one American but 1D is British, they should recognize the song.

Sadly, “Baba O’Riley” and “Should I Stay or Should I Go” aren’t the only songs they have ripped off. After doing more research, I was honestly shocked at how much they have ripped off of other bands, some of which are classic rock, like Def Leppard and Queen.

Yes, they ripped off Queen, to be more specific, they ripped of “We Will Rock You.” That is a song that you don’t even have to know the band’s name to know it. It is so common that I knew it when I was five. The opening is just like the Queen song, it’s annoying that of the 6 people who wrote the song “Rock Me” didn’t think that what they were writing was a rip off of Queen.

Also, yes, the ripped of Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” Although asked about it, Rick Allen (Def Leppard’s drummer) said it was more of a compliment, that they had been inspired by them, but it wasn’t the five boys who wrote the song, it was three dudes and just two of them, but all they had to do was say they didn’t like something, add something and maybe change a few words, and they could get writing credit, I highly doubt the two, Liam and Louis wrote it thinking about Def Leppard, but their song writers did. Hell, one of the writers Julian Bunetta co-wrote another song “Steal My Girl” which has been accused of ripping off the New Found Glory Song, “It’s Not Your Fault” which NFG’s singer’s girlfriend, Hayley Williams of Paramore pointed out which resulted in her getting hate from the rabid fan base.

Now, the one thing that angers me the most, is probably the music video they ripped off from one of my favorite bands, Sum 41. In 2002, the band released their single, and one of my personal favorites, “Still Waiting,” the music video consists of a record producer (hilariously played by Will Sasso) telling them that the “number bands are out” and they need to change their name, he wants them to be The Sums. He also says Deryck needs to change his name to Sven and tells them to start smoking. The music part is them playing the song, dressed up somewhat nicely in matching ties and plaid shirts (not flannel, short sleeve plaid) and then at the end, they break shit and shove over the sign that calls them “The Sums.” In the 1D video, the band is meeting with movie producers, who don’t know even know all their names, and then of course, another dude who is a nerd, tells them their movie is going to be a dance movie and then go over wardrobe, when the music starts, you hear them plagiarizing The Who. The difference is that they start breaking shit before the end. Sum 41 broke shit towards the end, and apparently did a better job at doing it since 1D barely breaks shit at all. The also did a better job writing since “Still Waiting” is actually a song that doesn’t appear to plagiarize other’s works and doesn’t have pointless lyrics about dancing, nor does the band dance terribly, not to mention, Sum 41 actually wrote the song. (well, Deryck did) the video somewhat looks like a set from a video by the Vines, but that was on purpose because the video was about a record producer trying to change the band, even renaming Cone as Thurston, Steve as Sergio and Dave as Holmes.

1D has also been accused of plagiarizing more, even by Zedd who instagrammed it, “What Makes You Beautiful” sounds like “Summer Nights” from Grease. One opening of a song sounding like Avril Lavigne’s “What The Hell,” but to me it is similar, not a total copy for me to scream “plagiarism” a lot with a song that sounds similar to Green Day’s “Good Riddance” and apparently they also have a been accused of plagiarizing Taylor Swift’s “Style.”

Like mentioned earlier, I agree with Pete Townsend, there are only so many chords that you can play and eventually songs will start sounding the same, but this is too similar to the point where it is plagiarism, and multiple accounts of it. They ripped off “We Will Rock You” with a song called “Rock Me.” That wasn’t at all subtle. I know a lot of musicians I like, (like Green Day) have been accused of plagiarism or pointed out how songs are similar, (Warning or Brain Stew) but it isn’t something they do over and over again, they write their own stuff and have original stuff (there is nothing that sounds like American Idiot except for Weird Al’s Canadian Idiot).

This stuff isn’t even sampling like some songs do, the writers who wrote them claim that they are their own, and are not copying other artists, but that they came up with it on their own. You can’t listen to claim that the opening of “Best Song Ever” sounding like The Who is only coincidental along with “Live While We’re Young” and “Should I Stay or Should I Go” or “Rock Me” and “We Will Rock You.” It’s not theirs and the artist who these were stolen from are not credited. The Clash isn’t given credit for “Live While We’re Young” and The Who isn’t given credit for “Best Song Ever.” It appears nothing One Direction will put out will ever truly be unique and not plagiarizing others, but what more would you expect from a boyband that got discovered on a stupid singing show.  

Open Letter To Walter Palmer

Open Letter to Walter Palmer

I am not going to start this off by calling you names and wishing you death. This won’t get us anywhere. Instead, I am going to be civil when I ask you the following questions.

Hunting is something I hate, but understand. Although I am a city girl, my father grew up on a farm in Montana. When he was in college, he went hunting to help him feed himself something besides ramen. But he shot deer. He ate the meat of the deer he shot. He didn’t leave it to rot. Hunting to feed yourself is something I understand. If you use all of the animal, you aren’t just killing to kill. That leads me to my questions.

Why did you feel the need to kill a beautiful, nearly endangered lion? Whether you thought the hunt was legal or not, why did you feel the need to hunt a lion? You aren’t eating the meat, you just shot it with an arrow, let him bleed for forty hours and then finally put the poor animal out of its misery. Why? What is so appealing about hunting a lion? I don’t know what else you hunt besides lions and the other pictures available online which include a majestic cheetah, and a beautiful rhinoceros. I also heard a rumor you wanted to kill an elephant. Can you somehow explain it to me why you feel the need to kill those animals?

Does it make you feel like a man? In order to feel strong do you have to end the life of an animal? But not just any animal, one that is nearly endangered and one of the most majestic things in the world. Do you need to kill a beautiful animal and skin it and behead it for a trophy to feel tough and manly? How is killing an animal with a bow or gun even fair? If you are doing it to feel tough, then why do you use an unfair weapon. Why not use a spear? That is the only fair way to go after a lion. That would be a fair fight. That would be proving you are a man. Shooting one with a bow, after luring it out of the park it lived in, then shooting it is not manly, it is cowardly.

So maybe next time you feel the need to show your friends that you are a man, that you are tough and big, do it without murdering an innocent animal that you aren’t using the meet for. Do it without shooting it with an arrow and letting it bleed for forty hours, and without baiting it away from its home. Instead go take some supplies as many or as little as you want and go living in the woods for a while. Live off the land. Go chop some wood, or catch a fish, gut it and eat it. Do something with nature that isn’t murdering an animal for sport and trophy.

Just do something that doesn’t end the life of a majestic creature for sport, because when you do, you are not a man.  You are a coward, and that is all you will ever be. 

Not Heritage, Just Hate

I was born and raised in the North. I am a Seattleite and Washingtonian through and through. I have only been to Orlando, Florida when it comes to the South.

With that being said, I was raised in an area that never had a confederate flag and was only seen in History books. With it being in history books, I knew what it meant. It was the flag adopted by the confederacy in the civil war. The Civil War was fought when the Southern States committed a mass act of treason by seceding from the union when Abraham Lincoln was elected, many due to the fact that they were afraid Lincoln was going to abolish slavery. The War was fought to bring the union back together.

The confederate flag has nothing to do with rebellion unless you want to consider the treasonous act of succession rebellion and in that way, being proud of that heritage is nothing to be proud of.

According to civilwar.org, when it comes to the states of Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, and Mississippi, slavery was definitely a reason to succeed. For all states but South Carolina, it is listed overwhelmingly as the reason to succeed. Lincoln’s election is also listed but not as much and state’s rights is only decent percentage in South Carolina. Reasons stated are that the North was reluctant to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Texas expressed dissatisfaction with federal military protection and Georgia accused the Northern manufacturing interests of exploiting the south and dominating the federal government.

It is time to end the myth that this war was started and fought for state’s rights when in reality, it was because people didn’t want slavery to end. They didn’t want to stop owning people and treating them worse than the dirt under their shoes. There is nothing to be proud of when it comes to the confederacy. They committed and act of treason and fought to keep human beings enslaved. There is no pride in that. If you are proud of that being your heritage, then you have issues. I have a lot of German heritage when I dig back enough. There is no doubt in my mind that I have relatives that were Nazi’s. That would be my heritage. You don’t me going around with a fucking swastika saying “it’s my heritage, not hate!” when the only thing the swastika represents in the west is Nazi Germany and all the Jews, gypsy’s, handicapped and gays that were murdered by Hitler’s regime. If I want to be proud of my German heritage, then I shouldn’t be proud of one of the most heinous acts in modern history. I should be proud of great things that came from Germany like gummy bears, great beer, or pretzels. Not the genocide of innocent human beings and everything that happened because of Hitler.

If you want to be proud of being from the South, then that’s great. It’s where you are from. I sure am proud and love the region I call home. Since Starbucks, Nirvana and Chris Pratt are from Seattle (Chris Pratt is actually from the same suburb North of Seattle that I am from) I usually use those as symbols of my love for the Puget Sound. Be proud of the good things that have happened in your area. Why use a flag that stands for treason and the enslavement of innocent people when you could be proud of corn bread, all the food that apparently can be fried and your sweet tea. Literally anything that does not have to do with slavery, even if it is country music that you are proud of. You guys gave us Aziz Ansari, Jennifer Lawrence, Ellen DeGeneres and the flawless Stephen Colbert. Be proud of that, not the enslavement of a race.   

Germany does not glorify the Nazi era. Swastika’s along with other Nazi era stuff is illegal in Germany. I am not saying outlaw the Confederate flag even with as much as I hate it. But know that Germany sees Nazism and everything that happened as a dark time in history and are ashamed of it. It lead to genocide. Slavery may not have been genocide, but it was horrific enough to be known as a tragedy and one of the worst in the United States history. Don’t be proud of an era where people owned human beings. Don’t be proud of a flag that represents that. It’s awful.

And for those of you who claim that as history, it shouldn’t be removed from the capital, you need to understand that it wasn’t always there after the war. After the Confederacy surrendered, they folded up the flags and they were put away.  It made its comeback when the civil rights movement started and when people were rebelling against the president in 1948. 1958, the year my father was born, it was made a crime in South Carolina to desecrate the confederate flag. In 1961 on the 100 year anniversary of For Sumter it was hoisted above the capitol. Not only this, but it made its comeback during the civil rights movement to protest integration and black Americans gaining the exact same rights as white Americans.

Did you know that in Europe in places where the swastika is illegal, the confederate flag is flown instead? That is because it has this evil history to it. A history of slavery and treason. There is nothing to be proud of when it comes to that.

I am not saying it should be outlawed like the Swastika. I do believe in free speech, but that flag should not be on government property. It’s great they took it down in South Carolina. I personally don’t think anyone should have it at all but free speech exists. Just understand that when you are flying that flag, it doesn’t represent “southern pride,” or “heritage not hate” it is representing treason and the enslavement of an entire race, and if you are proud of that, then fuck you, you are what’s wrong with this country and why I am moving to Iceland. 

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/secession/?referrer=https://www.google.com/?referrer=http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/secession/

Josh Duggar Is A Child Molester

I always knew there was something wrong with that family. No one acts that perfect when they aren’t trying to hide something. But I never thought it was this bad.

As much as I can’t stand the Duggar family and see them as annoying hypocrites who are one of the many reasons we can’t have good things such as LGBT equality and just the acceptance of people despite their differences, I would never wish for this to happen to that family or any family. I am not talking about having a child molester for a son, (although I wouldn’t wish that upon anyone either) but I am talking about having your own children sexually violated, especially at a young age. This is just sad, but it gets ever worse.

If you know me, I hate two kinds of criminals the most, Molesters/Rapists and terrorists. I think they are the scum of the earth and deserve punishment. (Terrorists if not lone wolves with the death penalty). Josh Duggar fits into the first category. He molested five girls at age 14 and some were significantly younger than him and most were his own sisters. Yes. Josh Duggar, Mr. Conservative Christian who hates the LGBT Community, pre-marital sex, and women’s right to choose molested his own sisters. He acts all high and mighty when being against the LGBT community and hating them when he did something way worse. All a gay couple did was love each other, that hurts no one. Josh Duggar did hurt someone. He hurt five young girls. How is that anywhere near okay? Reports say his father did turn him in, but that was after a year of knowing and after they sent him to a treatment program. They didn’t sent him to a treatment program, they sent him to a family friend to help renovate homes for a few months. As someone who is interested in psychology and how the human mind works, does research and does happen to watch Criminal Minds at least twice a week knows that that is not counseling. I also know it is not exactly something someone just decides to do, it has to do with the way their brain is wired, but that never makes it okay and it is never an excuse since they do have the choice whether to follow the way their brains are wired. It is a fact that “some pedophiles will suffer through their lives without hurting a single child.[1]” But the thing that I am trying to get at is that simply sending Josh Duggar to do house renovation for a few months is not going to “cure” him and neither is praying. If they took him to an actual therapist that specialized in helping with those urges, he could have gotten help. It definitely would have taken longer than a few months and would have been hard, but it could have helped. Instead, his parents lied when saying that they sent him and his victims to counseling when they didn’t.

The hypocrisy of this family irks me almost as much as the fact that they didn’t get their son the help he needs and put his needs over his victims. This is a family that makes a living off of preaching Jesus and putting down everyone who doesn’t believe their bigoted belief system. Josh made a living speaking against gay marriage and gay adoption saying that is damaging to children when in reality, it doesn’t and what he did is what actually hurt children. His mother called transgender people predators when in reality her son is predator who hurt her children. HER CHILDREN! Any mother would do anything to protect her children and do what it takes to keep them safe from a predator but she didn’t. She sent him away to renovate homes and didn’t send him to the counseling he would need. They are acting like praying to God fixes everything and made everything better. She claims her son made a mistake, but a mistake is when I put a shirt back on the wrong rack at work, what he did was a crime and they are not treating him like someone who commited one. People are acting like this is something that can easily be forgiven and hasn’t hurt people, yet they hate LGBT individuals and act rudely towards people that don’t follow their beliefs. This family, including Josh act like they are the perfect Christians when they have done something very unchristian like. People like Mike Huckabee are supporting Josh Duggar since Josh confessed to it. He and other conservatives are willing to forgive a child molester who molested his own sisters since he confessed yet they still continue not to see the LGBT community as non-predators when they haven’t hurt anyone.

What makes this worse is that along with putting Josh first is the fact that the daughters weren’t given the proper treatment, is the fact that they used victim blaming. It was released online what chart Michelle uses in her homeschooling when it comes to sexual abuse. One of the things is “Why did God let this happen” and four options given are immoral dress, indecent exposure, being out from protection of parents and being with evil friends. The ages of the victims ranged from 4-12. No child that age or anyone in general is responsible for getting sexually assaulted. It is the person who does it who is to blame. There is even a section saying “if abused was not at fault.” This is only helping rape culture with the victim blaming, but anyone who says a child is responsible for being abused is someone who has no business raising children, being around children or being in a position or responsibility and power, let alone be a public figure with influence.

This whole thing is just awful. Not just the molestation but how it was handled. How the parents knew and said they would discipline him themselves but didn’t, the girls never got the proper help needed when having to deal with molestation, it went on for years and church elders apparently knew and when the police were going to do an investigation they lawyered up and then the statute of limitations expired. His wife knew and now they have one daughter and another child on the way potentially putting her in danger since once a molester, always a molester.

This family has the nerve to say gay marriage is America’s greatest threat when Josh molested children. It just shows that this life they live is not only hypocritical but damaging. This family deserves for their show to be yanked and for their fame to go away. You don’t get to act perfect, condemn others for just being who they are when they didn’t hurt anyone, and then do something a hundred times more awful then everything you denounce and hate.

Josh Duggar and the rest of the family needs to crash and burn and never recover. Their time of fame and “preaching” needs to end and people who are decent human beings need to take their place in the media. Stop writing about them, write about great people that the world needs more people like. Bill Nye or Neil deGrasse Tyson are amazing, smart human beings and the world needs more people like them. Focus on them and their endeavors to teach the world science. Focus on the two girls I look up to most in the world, Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina of Pussy Riot. Those two girls stood up to Vladimir Putin and are still fighting for prisoners’ rights after they were mistreated in prison. They are out there speaking out and being amazing human beings who are not letting Putin’s sentencing them to hooliganism stop them. Make these human beings and people like them more famous and stop it with the anti-gay hypocrites whose son molested his own sisters and the family tried to cover it from the media and didn’t help their own daughters and instead worried about their son instead.

[1] http://gawker.com/5941037/born-this-way-sympathy-and-science-for-those-who--want-to-have-sex-with-children

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People Are Saying 5 Seconds of Summer can save Pop Punk, But Is That True?

                I honestly have no idea when I first heard of this band, all I know it that the people who liked them were obsessed. Like obsessed, a girl I go to school with literally stayed up all night so she could download their new single. My first thought was probably “5 Seconds of Summer? That is probably the worst band name since Nickelback or Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.” All I knew at the time was they were Australian, their faces did not look hideous (this is my way of saying someone is good looking, that and “decent looking”) they had tattoos (something I find very attractive) and piercings (another thing I find very attractive) they were a four piece band and opened for One Direction. The One Direction thing is what got me thinking, oh, they must be a pop band that sounds just like everything else in the world and somehow was different enough to get people to notice them.

When I heard it was a band of four boys who share vocal abilities, I instantly thought, “oh, it’s like a male Cherri Bomb,” but Cherri Bomb’s debut album had songs that didn’t blend together.  Yes, a few breakup songs like Heart Is A Hole along with Better This Way but both are different, one is saying “I admit I miss your face/but it’s better this way” and the other saying “now that you’re gone/my soul’s turned cold/nothing to fill this heart that’s a hole” they aren’t “baby come back” songs, but instead “It’s better this way” or “yeah, that sucked, my heart feels like a hole.” Other songs can be seen as non-romantic relationships like “Too Many Faces,” “Paper Doll,” “Sacrificial Lamb,” “Act The Part” and “Drawing a Blank” because “you say you will never go that far/ you’re not who you say you are/ you’ve got your heart in too many places/ you’ve got too many, too many faces” you’ve got “I’m not here to break your fall/ I won’t be your paper doll,” along with “now I’m drawing a blank” and “you don’t understand/close off shut down/sacrificial lamb” and then there are songs are their album that don’t appear to be about any human interaction/relationships at all, like “Raw. Real” (this is life, this is death/this is right, this is breath/this is true, how I feel/ this is raw, this is real) “Shake The Ground” (I won’t do what I’m told/ I will break you down/take you down/shake the ground) and “Let It Go” (it won’t die/this dream’s alive/and I won’t let it go) Cherri Bomb’s album isn’t all about some boy or romantic relationships, it has different songs with different meanings involving life and the people in it.

Now when it comes to 5 Seconds of Summer, their debut album consists of 12 songs that are either love songs or a song about wanting a girl back. The first song is actually decent. I heard it when my mom was watching the Billboard Music Awards. I will admit it is catchy and a nice song and then I noticed one of them looked like he was a young Billie Joe Armstrong. Even me, a cynical bitch who hates the world and all who inhabits it and would rather be watching Seth Rogan and James Franco kill Kim Jong-Un or my personal favorite thing, Star Trek likes a love song every once in a while. I enjoy Boys Like Girls “Hero/Heroine” along with Halestorm’s “Beautiful With You” and Rise Against’s “Swing Life Away” and my personal favorite “With You” by Sum 41 but I can’t listen to love songs nonstop, I will punch something. It goes that way with break up songs, I can enjoy stuff like Avril Lavigne’s “My Happy Ending” and Flyleaf’s “So I Thought” along with The Pretty Reckless’ “Make Me Wanna Die” or Three Days Grace’s “I Hate Everything About You” but I can’t listen to them nonstop all the time or a bunch in a row. You need diversity. When you look at the track listing for their debut album it consists of:

1.   She Looks So Perfect
2.  Don’t Stop
3. Good Girls
4. Kiss Me Kiss Me
5. 18
6. Everything I Didn’t Say
7. Beside You
8. End Up Here
9. Long Way Home
10. Heartbreak Girl
11. English Love Affair
12. Amnesia

As I stated, “She Looks So Perfect” is a good song, I like it, I downloaded it off iTunes, and I listen to it. Are their specific things about this girl that make her seem like it was written about someone or is it vague enough that any fifteen year old girl can pretend it’s about her? I will go for the second one.

“Don’t Stop” is another song about a girl. Like the previous song, nothing appears too specific about this girl except they don’t want her to stop what she’s doing because they like her but why wouldn’t they, all eyes are on her.

“Good Girls” is somewhat different because it mentions things she does like study and may go to Harvard, but then it goes into the not as known but still stereotypical story of how “good girls are just bad girls” and I guess this specific girl is one of those who just doesn’t get caught, but the amount of times the word “girls” or “girl” are in this song and how close they are just makes it feel awkward. “Good girls are bad girls” that just feels like an awkward sentence. I know it’s not in the ten page essay I am turning in for my University of Washington English class at my high school (neither is this blog, so if there are errors here, again, I am not turning this in to my teacher attempting to get a college level A, I am not printing drafts out and butchering them and rewriting, and then butchering and rewriting until I get it perfect), and that it is in a song, it just still feels like such an awkward sentence. It almost bugs me as much as the word (or lack of) “Ain’t.”

“Kiss Me Kiss Me” wow, another awkward sentence, and there appear to be a lot of “oh’s” another thing I can only take so much of is repeated words in some one song and not to mention the lyric “tell the truth/and I’ll show you how to dare” is even more awkward then the “oh’s” feel to me. I know Alex Gaskarth helped write this, I know he is in a band I have been a fan of for four years, but this song  states “kiss me kiss me kiss me.” More repetitive words. (at least it’s not “Tonight, Tonight” which is full of “La La’s” the whole damn song) and again, there is nothing specific about this girl, making this song appeal to fifteen year old girls who can pretend it’s about them. (Which I know is probably the smart thing to do since the song will sell to that demographic)

“18”I have to admit, when I first heard the beginning of this song, I started laughing almost as hard as in the first scene of The Interview. “I’m not saying I want to be Charlie Sheen,” seriously? Later on there is “pictures in my private folder/I know one day that I will hold you/I’ll make my move when I get older” also is just kind of weird. Not awkward but seriously, this song makes me think they are obsessed with some celebrity or something and then it also reminds me of the story my friend told me where he was talking to a girl who he thought was 16 and turned out to be 25. (That was a very awkward moment for him)

“Everything I Didn’t Say” isn’t as bad as the other songs I heard so far on this album, but the opening line did just not feel right at all. It’s not a love song though, which is nice, but it is about wanting a girl back because they regret it or something. Also, more “ohs” but the chorus is actually decent. It doesn’t make me feel like they haven’t taking a writing class and actually know how to put words together without making the listener feel confused and laughing at the way it is worded.

“Beside You” another love song, wow I’m surprised. But I guess this is better than the others, it’s not something I would download and listen to, but I can see that it could have some personal meaning and isn’t directly there to make them money. It appears to be about leaving for tour or something and them missing their girlfriend who doesn’t want them to leave. They want to go home to their girlfriend and be with her but can’t. But again, it’s different and doesn’t appear to be written specifically as a love song with nothing specific about the girl just to sell records.

“End Up Here” does go back to that though. Some chick walks in and is apparently hot and said her name was Trouble (how not cliché) but apparently she has good taste and complemented his Kurt Cobain shirt so she can’t be that bad and now the vocalist is wondering how he could have landed a girl like her because she’s a ten and he’s a six and he’s insecure but she isn’t. Still just feels like another love song designed to sell records and after seeing all four of these boys, not one of them is a six.

“Long Way Home”  why am I not surprised this is another love song about a girl who he may have grown up with or went to school with back home which can make it more specific, which again, is nice. But I also feel that being nine songs in and it’s all songs about a girl makes me want something else. The only redeeming quality about this song is that they were listening to Green Day in the car when they were kissing at a stop light.

“Heartbreak Girl” just looking at the title, I know what it’s going to be about. A girl who broke his heart. How is this not getting old? I am at the point where I want to punch something or someone in their face because it is literally all blending together and are all about girls, but then again, how can I blame them when that is what sells? But I guess this one is a little different because it’s about how he’s friendzoned. At least it’s something different than being in love with a girl while you’re young or upset because it’s over, but also feels too cliché when it comes to being in the friendzone. The girl’s boyfriends a dick and he wants her but she loves the douche canoe she is with so she doesn’t realize the guy she put in the friendzone is the one. Literally like a romance movie or that old Hannah Montana song “If We Were a Movie” (I know this because I had to babysit a girl who was literally obsessed with this song). He wants her, she doesn’t know that she wants him until she finally realizes her dick of a boyfriend is a dick. Was this a storyline on Degrassi or One Tree Hill because it feels that familiar.

“English Love Affair” okay, there is now a really specific thing about the girl. She is from England! But why would they write that? Oh, they opened up for One Direction, a crappy yet extremely famous boyband from England, so they probably have a lot of fans from there, they have narrowed it down from every single girl on earth  to only girls from England, specific I guess, especially something about her being pale and it raining, two things that could be English/British. People are extremely white in England and apparently it rains a lot. This girl could exist though, but still unlikely. It could just be a marketing thing, write a song about an English/British/ whatever the fuck people who live there want to go by and sell a bunch of albums or singles or whatever there. It’s not a bad idea.

“Amnesia” another song about a girl. Do I even want to listen? Just from the title I am guessing he misses her a lot and wishes he could forget her and going into it, I am right and extremely bored and want to listen to something not about a break up. Maybe a good political punk song, I feel like listening to Rise Against’s new album. Maybe some Otep. Anything that doesn’t involve heartbreak would be good at this point.

Apparently according to Wikipedia there are so many bonus track versions in different countries that I just want to cry from exhaustion looking at them so instead I am going to relax and listen to some Rise Against for a while.

Besides that, listening to this, it feels like there is no way this is at all pop punk. It is pop with a tiny edge. It was music written purely to sell to teenage girls who will fall in love with the band members and stalk them on the internet. As the beautiful and talented Taylor Momsen said about this generation’s music industry, “it’s all product, it’s not music anymore.” and that is what this album is, it is a product meant to be sold to teenage girls and gay teenage boys.

Many pop bands didn’t just release love songs or breakup songs or friendzone songs. When Hey Monday was out, they of course had love songs and breakup songs, “How You Love Me Now” being about a cheating boyfriend so “baby tell me how/ how you love me now” and “Candles” was about getting over the douche canoe that likely was the one that cheated on Cassadee in the first place making her write “How You Love Me Now” because she is about to “blow the candles out/looks like a solo tonight/I’m beginning to see the light.” Even with those being the two most popular songs the band has released, they didn’t just write about that. She have “Set Off,” and “Hurricane Streets.” Not about relationships but I guess one can argue that “Set Off” is about a relationship because “you and me/they wanna break us/ let’s shake it up/cause they will never take us” but it makes more sense as being about the band as a whole because “all their fears/watch em’ all come true/ all their words/ a world of hurt/can’t tell us what to do” and “Hurricane Streets” is the same. “the storm is rushing on me/ here’s the blinded flash/ I feel so locked and loaded/ let me out, let me out” turns into “I wake up in a wasteland/ where the trees are crashing fast/make or break or the road explodes/get out, get out of this town.” Not all the songs on their debut album were about relationships or lack of which was very nice.

Crystalyne does the same and if you haven’t heard of them, it is likely you are like me, an American. They are Canadian and appear to based out of Toronto. I heard their songs “Wolves” on the Stars in Stereo station on Pandora and it is not about a romantic relationship, but since it is about human interaction, it could be inferred as one but it would be one person’s interpretation, it isn’t about being in love “I needed you to surround the whole of me/ foolishly waiting for hours and now it’s nearly morning/ the wolves are wearing me down, I’d love to change the fact that/ I need you now, I’m not shutting you out.” It could be, but also be interpreted as a toxic friendship or relationship with a family member, the wolves symbolizing them while they are “watching me, all they want is to cut my breathing/ they’re the cause of my first collapse, this is the aftermath.” Their EP Navigate does have a majority of songs about a relationship, being “Deceiver” “Just Fine,” Never Gonna Look Back” and  “Weapon” but also includes “Wolves” and “Navigate” which is about life and getting out of that hometown.  They had other things besides relationship songs on the EP, which is what any band needs. You need variety.

Now, there is one thing stopping me from hating these guys forever. It is the fact that they have potential. They have a lot of potential. My one friend that is actually a fan of the band has a good theory about them. They are putting out this album, and then going to do some more writing and their next album will be better and maybe more towards the pop punk genre and just needed to use this album to get out there. This would be a good theory, not to mention it showed up on my Tumblr dashboard that they are writing their new album. (I follow user Alltime-fallout-atsix who is a band blog and he sometimes reblogs their stuff so it will show up on my dashboard)

I have heard that the band loves All Time Low and on their channel they covered a few All Time Low songs including Jasey Rae (one of my personal favorites) and A Day To Remember along with Blink 182’s I Miss You (again, an amazing song) and even Teenage Dirtbag but also One Direction and the two artist I hate most in the world besides  Iggy Azalea (or as Azaila Banks called her, Igloo Australia), Justin Bieber (the Canadian pansy who just needs to move back and get out of America) and human scumbag, Chris Brown. But other than that, these four have stated they are inspired by All Time Low along with Mayday Parade (a good band, but a lot of their stuff sounds the same and the only song I know is Miserable At Best) and Boys Like Girls. When it comes to Boys Like Girls, I was a huge fan. A couple years ago I found their album Love Drunk for four bucks at half price books and fell in love. I instantly went online and purchased their first album and damn, “Hero/Heroine” along with “Thunder” are some of my favorite songs (yes, love songs, maybe I am a hypocrite, but that’s not the only songs I like by them) I could really relate to the song “Go.” I went through a horrible time in my life and this song just inspires me to never go back to that dark time. I also love “Broken Man,” “The Great Escape” “Stuck In The Middle” and “Be Your Everything.” Going back to the subject and away from my rambling, if they are inspired by them, All Time Low, Mayday Parade and listen to Nirvana (if you don’t, then don’t wear the shirt, I am from Seattle, we take our Nirvana VERY seriously) along with Green Day and Blink 182, then maybe they will attempt to sound more like them and write songs about life, not just relationships and girls and they could be very successful. They don’t need to act like Taylor Swift and talk nonstop about relationships (at least since they aren’t very specific, they don’t sound like a crazy bitch who is immature enough to literally tell the whole world what happened in her relationship with the specific person they dated and how they screwed her over). These guys went to high school, there is enough shit that happens during those years you could write a whole series of albums.

Besides just being inspired by these bands, they can get their fans into them. I have never been to one of their concerts (and never would, the last thing I want to do is be surrounded by twelve year old girls who think they are going to marry a member and have his babies.) but I hear they covered “American Idiot.” If you know me, not only do I love that song, but that is my favorite album in the entire world. Besides it just being Green Day to me, it is an album that defines a time in the United States. It tells the story of post-9/11 America and the musical does a great job of showing the different perspectives of three guys in that time. This song along with “Holiday” is a big “fuck you” to George W. Bush, the man I hate along with his administration for invading the wrong country which lead to deaths of soldiers and innocent Iraqi civilians. (He didn’t have WMD’s, Dubya just wanted to finish what his daddy started in the Gulf War.) I don't feel that these four boys from Australia can really understand the "Redneck Agenda" let alone the "subliminal mind-fuck America" or the propaganda that is Fox News and i know they fully can't understand the age or paranoia that hit America right after that and due to that paranoia we invaded the wrong country. I will not go onto a huge rant on my hatred of Bush and how if Jeb Bush is elected next, I will stop threatening to move to Canada and will just head to Iceland where not only has there been one murder in the past few years, but is a country less than the size of Seattle and is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The point is, they perform “American Idiot.”

A way they can “save” pop punk is somewhat simple. A kid my age (18) who listens to Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus and One Direction could go to a concert and hear “American Idiot.” They could think “hey, this is a pretty good song” and maybe go home and listen to the song online and then maybe listen to the album. They could love the album, (probably not as much as me, but it is hard to love it as much as me) and start listening to Green Day, maybe it’s their older stuff like Dookie and Nimrod or maybe just 21^st Century Breakdown. After that, they could get into other bands in the rock genre or punk genre, maybe they will hear their cover of “I Miss You” and start listening to Blink 182 and get into Blink (although there is currently something going on with them and I still have no idea what the fuck is going on, they could still get into them and their old stuff). They could go from Blink to one of my personal favorites, Sum 41, hear Fat Lip and next thing they know, they are singing it at random times because it’s stuck in their head. They could get into Good Charlotte and there, what do you know, this band who opened for One Direction can help get people back in the genre and maybe (unlikely but maybe) bring the genre back into main stream and instead of listening to Kanye, a kid will want to listen to Green Day.

Well, at least that’s what some people are thinking about.

As much as I hate bands that sing nothing but love songs or break up songs and not songs that have actual meanings (like Weightless, I mean it’s not as deep as the stuff Rise Against writes but at least it’s not about a girl or breakup, it has a nice meaning) I have to say that this band has the potential to do great things. They actually play instruments so they aren’t some new boy band craze and actually play them very well so they have the talent. So maybe they can “save” the genre. Maybe they are doing what my friend said and releasing this album and after getting the solid fan base they will start writing songs with deeper meaning (it may not be Rise Against’s People Live Here but hey, no one really writes about the Israel/Palestine issue) and could end up becoming a band that will help bring attention back to the genre. They could actually help save pop punk and pop punk and punk rock and anything that has to do with rock is something I love, so if this band can help bring it back to the mainstream, then I will be forever thankful. 

Another Thing About The Twitter Incident

Now that this is mostly over and has calmed down, I would like to address this a little better with some new stuff.

I am absolutely owning up to what I tweeted, but I will say in twitter, you cannot fully say what you mean because of the character limit. The song I do not like, the person, I don’t know at all so how can I hate her if I don’t know her personally or have at least seen her/heard about her doing terrible things. I absolutely do not hate RaeLynn or Blake. They are both obviously talented since they got to where they are today. I am a musically challenged individual, I cannot sing, I can only play one song on the guitar and when I play the drums, it isn’t as pretty as I would like it to be.

This whole thing has also brought something to my attention that is just annoying. Being an atheist does not make me a terrible human being, and neither does liking tattoos and piercings. I am a science based person. I have to have evidence in order to make an opinion and change my mind on something. I was born into a Christian family; my father is religious but also believes in science and is a very smart human being. He just has a hard time believing how there isn’t a god and believes maybe he started the big bang. My mother was not a religious person and isn’t currently. She believes in a higher power, but not so much the typical god and my brother is a firm atheist and believer in science and evolution. I was first an agnostic before becoming a full on atheist, because you can’t just deny science.

Atheists have morals; we just don’t need a book to tell us how to be good people. To me, it is common sense and human rights. I absolutely LOVE the Constitution and Universal Declaration Of Human Rights. Those documents are amazing, but I don’t base everything off them, I base how laws should be off them. As a human, to me, morals are common sense and don’t need a god telling me how to think and feel and treat people.

I understand how some people want to believe in an afterlife and a heaven. I would love for there to be an afterlife. I think it would be awesome, but I don’t see any evidence supporting it. If there is evidence, I would change my mind.

What I don’t get, but sort of do is the personal attacks. Some people have called me ugly, one said I was a cow slut, one even inferred I was fat. I get you are defending your idol or person you love who’s music enjoy, but personal attacks like that are not only petty jabs, but they don’t get anyone anywhere.

I also don’t feel better attacking someone on twitter. I just wanted to get my opinion out about a song. Out of the thousands of tweets Blake Shelton gets, I am actually still in shock he saw mine. I don’t sit behind a computer screen and attack people online. I may make an entry to my blog about how I don’t agree with something or about my opinion on something, but I don’t say someone (unless you are the gross pedophile that is Dahvie Vanity) is stupid and say awful things about them, (okay, maybe Justin Bieber too)

Someone noticed a tweet of mine about the Kim Kardashian Game. I do play it, but not because I love Kim Kardashian and want to be famous, but because I am going to write a blog entry about the differences between it, Stardom and how bad they are for young girls with developing minds by teaching us how to be famous. (tip: buying new clothes will get you noticed, dating celebrities will get you more fans)

I would also like to say that sometimes I do enjoy confrontation and sometimes like to argue (which is why my parents keep telling me I should be a lawyer, not a scientist.) and, if I am offended, I tend to argue back, especially when it comes to people talking about how I need religion and they will pray for me. I get angry because religion has been a poison to me and I believe it can poison too many things. I turned away from religion and found it very freeing. Also if you just say something stupid to me and is a petty jab, I probably will respond sarcastically about how mature you are. What really bugs me is that not all were teenage girls which is expected, but some were grown adults, a few were even grown men. He called me a cow slut and said I have daddy issues. I still don’t fully understand exactly what a cow slut is, but I think it may have something to do with bestiality, something I DO NOT agree with or support in any way. Either way, I actually am worried for the GROWN adults that sent me mean tweets, they are grown adults, they shouldn’t be responding in a way that calls me a “cow slut,” “bitch” and telling me to find God along with other stuff that is just not even tasteful at all.

I am only human. I tweeted my opinion, I should have hashtagged not tagged. I own up to it.

So anyway, have a good day and as Spock would say:

Live Long and Prosper.