The Rocket

Issue date: 9/14/07 Section: Opinion

Music has shaped my life and plays a major role in many things I do. I produce a television show based around music and spend my weekends going to concerts. I wear a leather jacket with the logos of my favorite groups painted on it. When someone walks up to me and asks what I thought about Britney Spears' comeback performance on the MTV Video Music Awards, I want to strangle them.

The music industry, along with the media, has destroyed the concept of music. They have taken something filled with emotion, talent and beauty and have replaced it with a dull, lifeless product to toss to the masses.

When a musician's only role is to take a record label's song and sing it, you can tell. Companies will actually mass produce songs to appeal to the public's ears. Once the one-hit wonder is created, all you need to do is toss a voice onto the track and rake in the cash.

The media doesn't help with this either. If you read an article about a musician, you hear more about the clothes they wore, the choreography and how everything looks. Granted, I can understand why reporters cover these things. Ninety percent of the time, there is no musical talent to showcase. When you don't have anything to work with, I guess you have to switch gears and decide whether the performer should have bought a different hat.

But if you look at it, performers don't even have to sing their songs as long as they can get the lip-synching down. I read an opinion piece by Miki Turner on MSNBC about the Britney Spears performance, where the only mention she made about the actual music was about how the lip-synching was off. These are the things that make me bash my head off a table until I lose consciousness.

Even the most simplistic punk group has more talent then these hacks. They might play a simple three-chord song rather poorly, but at least they're playing it themselves, singing it themselves and creating a song with emotion and feeling.

I've grown up around jazz musicians who have performed for more than 30 years. I've seen local groups with incredible talent spend all their cash on a shoddy van to tour the country. These people have devoted their lives to music and no one notices.

Turn off "American Idol" and quit supporting these tabloid-trash idiots. Try listening to something without it being accompanied with a dance number or music video.

Buy a jazz album. Heck, just go out and discover a music genre you never knew existed. You're supposed to try new things in college, and expanding your musical horizons is much more beneficial than picking up a new drinking game.

You don't even need to leave campus! Get a schedule of performances at Swope Music Hall and attend. Local shows are hosted around campus every once in awhile too. Turn off the radio and quit listening to garbage.

Tony Maiocco is a senior journalism major and a regular contributor to The Rocket.

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