Cielo Azul: Jeff's Corner. Episode 2 Return of the Rant

And I’m back! Time for another Jeff’s corner! Hard to contain the excitement I know.

This time I will be talking about music. And more specifically how amazing the new Menudo album is! And you thought the comeback tour would never happen!! See you in TJ bitches! Ok well I can dream. But alas this will be about music. Or what has happened to the quality of music. I will be the first to admit that I, on occasion, watch American Idol. And I find myself saying things like: “wow she was really good,” or “that was a great performance,” or “she has a really great voice,” all of which is true, but it’s always said with an obvious asterisk after. That being, that it’s good “for what it is.” It’s good for a reality TV show. The voice is good, the song is good, the singer has a unique style and sad life story so I can feel like they deserve their shot at the big time. But it just doesn’t have the “thing.” That thing that makes me want to EVER hear it again. It’s just a little too clean and tidy. There’s no soul. And then they get to record an album and there’s even less soul. With all the pitch perfect and auto tuning it sounds great. But it ends up sounding like everything else. And people love it!

Why is that? How can so many people be excited and talk about something that’s so, well, mediocre? What has happened to our standards of music? Not saying that American Idol is the end all of music. But it is the main stream. And beyond that it doesn’t get much better. Lady Gaga. I get it. It’s poppy, catchy, and sometimes she wears a wacky hat. Great. But I can pretty much guarantee that not even a super fan of hers will be telling their kids “ you want to hear real music, listen to 'poker face,' thats talent!” I feel like musicians are more like commercials of themselves rather than talented artists. It’s no longer about being talented. Its about being just talented enough to be marketable. You’ve got a great voice, but can you sell a smart car to a nine year old? And speaking of nine year olds, The F@*%ING Jonas Brothers playing live with Stevie Wonder. Are you kidding me!? I understand they sell millions of records to twelve year old girls, but that was the biggest tragedy in music history. Worse than Hendrix dying, the Beatles breaking up, and Mylie Cyrus becoming more than a sheet stain combined. Stevie Wonder’s manager should be sent to Guantanamo for setting up that musical terrorist attack. You just don’t pair up a living legend with a couple kids that spend more time spritzing their mini fros than they do learning the lyrics to the amazingly famous song they are about to perform. And I refuse to post the video of it here. If you’re a glutton for punishment youtube it yourself. Sorry in advance.

I just don’t see pop music today standing the test of time. We won’t be listening to K-Earth in 50 years and Justin Bieber will come on. It’s just not gonna happen. There is a reason Rolling Stones are still touring and kids are newly getting into bands like Led Zepplin and Pink Floyd. And why I’m into music that was made 30 years before I was born. It was music made to be music. Not to be rich and famous, or the next Sony spokesperson. Just talented people making great music. Playing real instruments and actually singing at live shows. And if you weren’t good you didn’t go anywhere. End of story. You suck, move on, and get a day job. Now it’s, you suck, but you’ve got the look and you can dance so we can mold you into a pop star! These “artists” shouldn’t get gold records and grammys. They should get employee of the month plaques from their sponsors.

Well I could rant for days about this but I’ll just add this little bit. Feel free to enjoy all the crap music you want. I know I do. I actually DIDN”T change the station when that Kesha song came on the other day. “Wake up in the morning feelin like P Diddy” what does that even mean? Wake up feeling like a rich black guy? Any-who. My suggestion to maybe weed out the weak of the music industry, is to use the technology of today. PIRATE all the crap songs you want guilt free! Why should we pay for mediocrity? And purchase only the quality music you really want to own. Clearchannel keeps all the really trash music on a constant loop anyways. And for qualities sake, if you have a friend that sings, but they aren’t that good and have high hopes of being the next American Idol: It’s your job to tell them they suck! They should never be on national TV acting surprised when the rest of the world is laughing at them. Imagine if these people put that much energy into something they were actually good at! So I’ll leave you with some music that in terms of quality, soul and talent is the polar opposite of pop music today. Enjoy and thanks Alex for letting me banter for a bit!