I read on Ultimate-Guitar.com once that Gerard Way refuses to allow his band to be known as an emo group, which is fair enough. It’s not his fault, after all. I read another article in Kerrang! ages ago about a girl who claimed that “MCR Saved My Life“. That’s a prime example of what I’m talking on about. How can a band save your life? It’s not like they ran into a burning building to save her… Anyway, I’m losing track of my point.

A band is never really emo, are they? Sure, they can be depressed/depressing, but so was Kurt Cobbain, he wasn’t classed as emo and never will be classed as emo. He will always be classed by many (but not by me personally) as a rock god who dressed and acted like an everyday American citizen.

Now you may say “What about the music?“. If you listen to “emo” bands and compare them to a punk band, the structure and musicianship are essentially the same. Power chord rock, fast agressive guitar solos, hard-hitting 4/4 drum beats… Where’s the difference? What they’re singing about? Maybe. An “emo” band sings about hating themselves and the people around them, punks bang on about hating the establishment and wanting to destroy various things (I’m sterotyping, I know, but these are just examples). Essentially, both are about hating things, both are negative… There’s a pattern forming here.

Tokio Hotel, often called an Emo band

Anyway, onto another thing; Dress. I like some of the dress sense that comes with “Emo” (I wear black a hell of a lot and swear by Converse – I’ll never proudly wear guy-liner though), but how can your dress sense be set into a class of fashion that ultimatly decides your taste in music? Is it because your favourite band dresses like that or because you want to make a statement? Probaby both…

With punk, most people dressed the way that they did because they wanted to rebel and make a statement with it. Others just did it because they thought Johnny Rotten (or whoever) was a God, and thought that following his beliefs was the way forward. With emo, they dress like they do mostly because they want to copy the band they love so much (these bands have no real stature or oppinions that the fans follow – they just want to be copied – big difference) but when they do it, they emphasise one little thing called ‘emotions’, most of which include them crying in a corner somewhere, usually over the most trivial things. This really reflects onto the band (or bands) that they’re following. They may love the band, but they’re killing their reputation without even knowing it.

So, I will ask again, do you still think there’s a viable reason for creating a new style of music for something that is just Punk but… dressed up? Sure, you may think that MCR or whoever you happen to worship deserve a whole catagory to themselves just because they’re gods in your eyes, but they already have a catagory, and it’s called pop-punk.

That’s all the emo is. Dressed up punk, or (as I said) pop-punk for short. I know that an article like this one isn’t going to really effect the minds of the masses a great deal, but I just want people to take heade of the fact that emo isn’t (and should never be) a style of music. It will only ever be the dress sense that a group of fans have adopted – nothing more.

Photo by: Steve Wampler on Flickr

Thankfully for the more corporate enterprises, though unfortunately for the independent musician, the aforementioned big guys have started to see the benefits that can be reaped using the internet. Public broadcasting is a much wider option on the internet than it is in more conventional methods, such as television and the radio. General view counts will usually be lower on the internet, but only as long as popularity is limited. Once a broadcaster reaches a reliable, wide-reaching audience, the potential for reaching even higher view counts than television. One of the main reasons for this is that your chosen piece of music is constantly available, rather than being singularly broadcast. Much less money can be earned by showing off your music online, but once you reach a certain level of popularity the income begins to fly.

In taking advantage of this, some rather interesting stuff has found it’s way on to the internet. My main example here would be things like ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’. This is a web broadcast musical, forty-two minutes long and released in installments. Rather than just music, the internet allows the perfect tool for anything that can be created, regardless of budget, cast or preparation. Advertising in these manners is usually done entirely through word of mouth. However, since the company making the video or music file already have a considerable amount of capital behind them, they can put their work out for all sorts of international syndication. While they will undoubtedly spend much more money putting their work onto television, it could easily garner a much reduced reward when it comes to the outcome.

Creating music videos, at a low budget, is an incredibly common thing for any band or musician to indulge in. While some promoters are internet based, and can thus advertise your work all across the internet, but there are still limits to it. On the internet, everybody is on an even playing field. You put your work out there, usually in the same places as most of the more popular content, and hope that it draws attention. From there though, it’s out of your hands. The content can be passed, traded and downloaded, regardless of file size or type. This, though, is where the independent musician has an advantage.

For the independent musician, peer to peer file trading is the absolute best thing for their continuing popularity. If it’s just one or two people pooling together to throw out a track, it’s no big loss to have it traded for free between a few dozen people. For the big company throwing it’s weight around, they’re looking at a gigantic loss between the flight of thousands of free copies.

In a digital economy, big business still loses millions, while the independent musician has nothing but gains.

Tom Colohue is a fiction writer and music instructor from Blackpool, England. Though his main works are in the realms of fantasy, he also writes modern fiction for multiple websites, as well as theoretical and practical music lessons for magazines.

Read also: Effects Of The Internet: Musical Mobility, The Effects Of The Internet: Contract Giveaways, The Effects Of The Internet: “Making It”, The Effects Of The Internet: Music Distribution

Josh's mega, mega justification

Ohhhhhh Boy! I can’t wait for it to arrive! It matches my yellow and black Nike’s (courtesy of my mama)

“Doc, is it bad that I bought a guitar to match my shoes?”
“No, son, it’s called having an image.”

I can no longer justify guitars as tax breaks, even though they are. I am writing this one off in my mind as a necessary expense of visibility, which is what I’d like to discuss today.

I learned a lesson the easy way last year when I was playing my first stadium gig. OK, I was one of many local musicians playing at a sub-minor league stadium for a charity event, and only a smattering of people noticed me, but – there were close to three thousand people there, and I did get to say “What’s up, Waldorf? Are you ready to ro000ccck?”

One of my buddies said he showed up, and saw my rig set up from across the stadium. He wasn’t sure it was mine, but then saw the Plutonium orange Ibanez RG and said “oh yeah, that’s Josh’s setup.”

Visibility, be it literally, such as highway safety colored guitars, or from a multitude of positive interactions with people, is something worth boosting. Get out there and shake hands (and don’t give ‘em the dead fish grip), look people in the eye, and say “Hi, I’m here to rock your face off. Hope you enjoy!”

What can you start doing right now to boost your image in the industry and the scene?

Here’s what I’m doing – maybe you’ll get some ideas (remember, I have an over-the-top persona, blending close to a musical comedian). I know they’re specific, and may only work for me. Take it with a grain of NaCl2 (salt).

• Zany colored guitars. I’ve got the M-16 (photos coming soon; friend me on Facebook in the meantime to see it there), and the Tiger is on the way. I plan on spray painting a strat, and that’ll be my AK-47. Add that orange Ibanez, and I’m literally visible from space, bro!
• Shoes. Talk about a great conversation starter, and something for people to remember you by. My current favorites are a pair of Nike’s that match the Tiger guitar (yellow, with a black swoosh). I’ve gotten money playing street music because people liked my lime green wrestling shoes. Ironically, they walked away when I started playing, which was discouraging, but hey, I got the buck!
• Positive, professional interactions. Be polite, be on time, smell nice, thank people after the gig, and be that consummate pro that you’re striving to be.
• Talking to the crowd. It’s just fun! People seem to like it, too. Hey, it makes me feel like a million bucks. For all my cynical comments, I genuinely like people, and connecting with them from the stage, including them in the music, lifts the whole room to a better place. Are you ready to ROCK?!
• Stupid props. I’ve got a cordless drill a la Paul Gilbert (check it out on YouTube) that alternate picks really fast, and makes a cool sound with the pickups! Now that’s 9.6 volts of pure memories.
• Of course, playing good! I’m working so hard on writing, playing, and putting on the best show that I can. For me, time onstage has helped me a lot. Practice does indeed make perfect, or at least a good rock show. Well, I’m gettin’ there. I’ve come far enough to see how far I’d like to go!
• Free stuff. I’m working on my marketing strategy right now… OK, just pondering it. But it seems that an investment into free stuff like stickers, CDs, etc, is probably the best advertising budget. I’m not sure yet, and I’ll report back to you when I figure it out.

Hopefully these actions gave you a few ideas of your own. The point is – take action! All the World’s a stage… Own it!

Hey, maybe visibility can be my mega, mega justification of my new guitar on the way. Can you see me now? World, are you ready to ROCK?!

This is a guest blog post by Josh Urban. Josh is a musician with a unique perspective on music. Always a thinker, he gains insight wherever he can find it, be it in the clubs as a working musician, busking on the city streets, or teaching in the classroom. A naturally enthusiastic fellow, he is always fired up about bringing the lessons he’s learned to his readers. Maintaining a website, a blog, and a monthly newsletter, he aims to make musicians stop, think, and play with a little more intensity, integrity, and inspiration. You never know who’s listening.

Now, this links to the internet fairly simply. It starts with the computer link. You load your mobile musical device, or MMD, with whatever music you enjoy, through your computer. This is either done through a specific media player, or just through copy and pasting folder to folder. The internet comes in to play here through the availability of music through it. Before the internet, there was no reliable method by which to load yours MMDs, so there was no real need for them, and this is a fairly worrying fact.

Photo credit: weheartit.com

You’ve been able to buy CDs for a long time. Admittedly, not as long as vinyl or tape, but it’s a good trade off. Since the development of technology reached the point that CDs could be ripped onto your PC, MMDs have been under development to design, create and make profit from. However, they were nowhere near as popular before broadband internet and free, fast, illegal mp3 downloads became common. Being able to listen to a track on the move made particular tracks much more desirable. Something that you’ve heard on the radio is something that you might go out and buy, but it’s less likely that you’ll buy it if it’s something that you won’t listen to often. Being able to listen to it in the back and forth between point A and point B has convinced people that, instead of merely wanting it, they need that track to be available.

There’s also a certain danger when it comes to listening to music on the move. After all, your ears are already under complete distraction, so you can’t hear what’s coming behind you. You are so consumed with your chosen distraction that you’ve lost interest in the safety. This is exactly the same as the moral implications when it comes to track downloading. You’re so absorbed in the smaller picture that you don’t even know that there’s a bigger one to overshadow it.

The money is obviously made with the sales of MMDs, but with iPods in particular, there are other avenues. With an iPod comes a copy of the media player iTunes. This is a clear advertisement of Apple software, even on a Microsoft operating system. In addition, iTunes software brings several other types of software with it, all of which has paid money to Apple in order to have the advertisement. Having their software installed, alongside iTunes, onto as many computers as possible has no viable downside when people are proven to use the product.

Without a doubt, the internet has pushed the advertising and development of MMDs, as well as offering them additional financial possibilities. You can never really doubt how useful these little things are in travel, but it’s also fairly clear that the distraction that they offer have downsides too. Most people might swear by them without a question, but in reality it’s yet another accessory that the internet has made essential.

Tom Colohue is a fiction writer and music instructor from Blackpool, England. Though his main works are in the realms of fantasy, he also writes modern fiction for multiple websites, as well as theoretical and practical music lessons for magazines.

Read also: The Effects Of The Internet: Contract Giveaways, The Effects Of The Internet: “Making It”, The Effects Of The Internet: Music Distribution

During the week, I have discovered three brand new movies that I take the liberty of describing as “inspiring” even before actually watching them (yet). Here they are, for your consideration:

72 Musicians

72 Musicians asks the question, “Why the hell do we chase this music dream, anyway?” The film was made and released by Topspin’s VP of Product Design Bob Moczydlowsky, so the creation, pretty obviously, uses Topspin platform for marketing and distribution (which is a unique and a promising collaboration on its own).

The documentary chronicles the struggles of 72 Kansas City musicians, “speaking with a single, anonymous voice about art, poverty, booze, lies, class, hardship, food and failure. Oh, and day care. And rock ‘n’ roll.” It features interviews and/or performances from members of Spoon, White Whale, The Architects, Coalesce, The Get Up Kids, The Republic Tigers, Mac Lethal, The Life & Times, Roman Numerals, SSION and more.

The movie has been released in a variety of formats, from an $8 iPhone version to HD downloads and DVDs with T-shirts and posters, to 50 DVDs in bulk, all the way to a $400 version which comes on a hard drive with all the assets, Creative Commons-licensed to edit and release your own version. Go read more at Topspin’s Ian Rogers‘ post here.

Don’t Quit Your Daydream

Don’t Quit Your Daydream was created by Los Angeles-based musicians Clark Stiles and Nathan Khyber from the band The Good Listeners and was produced in association with JLoar, Inc and Adrian Grenier’s Reckless Productions.

“It is a story of two musicians approaching their 40th birthday unwilling to relinquish their love of music. Not wanting to give up the dream of being rock stars after hitting 40, the duo set off to do what most said they couldn’t – record the album of their dreams on the road and document every second creating this film. Leaving their day jobs behind, they set off on a 24-day cross-country road trip in an RV recording and filming both the album and documentary, Don’t Quit Your Daydream, while spanning 12 cities across the heart of America.

“Stiles and Khyber were on a mission to find the answer many musicians search for: why risk it all for a pursuit in music? To answer this question, Stiles and Khyber set up their recording studio in each city, collaborated on a song with a local musician and asked them why, like themselves, were they drawn to do what they love most… which is to play music.”

The Runaways

The Runaways is the music-fueled story of the groundbreaking, all girl 1970s rock band, with Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning starring as Joan Jett and Cherie Currie. The film is written and directed by Floria Sigismondi, and Apparition will release it on March 19, 2010.

“The two teenage valley girls with punk in their blood, meet and become the heart and soul of the seminal all girl band, The Runaways. Floria Sigismondi brings The Runaways to the big screen in this story of a group of extraordinary young women as they rise from rebellious Southern California kids to rock stars of the now legendary band that paved the way for future generations of girl musicians. Under the Svengali-like influence of rock impresario Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), the group evolves into an outrageous success and a family of misfits. With its tough-chick image and raw talent, the band quickly earns a name for itself — and so do its two leads: Joan is the band’s pure rock’ n’ roll heart, while Cherie, with her Bowie-Bardot looks, is the sex kitten.”

The Runaways is produced by John Linson, Art Linson and Bill Pohlad. Joan Jett, Kenny Laguna and Brian Young serve as executive producers.

Have you had a chance to watch any of the movies? (Or have you decided that you should go to The Runaways premiere?) Share your thoughts in the comments!

Well, there appears to have been some confusion in the last post about the record label that I’ve started. This article is aims to clarify any and all confusion brought about by the last article, which itself was simply a general outline about the way one runs a record label. If you have any questions about the general mode of operations, refer back to the first article.

The in-depth look at this organization starts with a look at the original idea. In our case, the idea originated in a business class, in a group whose goal was to come up with an original business proposition, and thereafter to draw up a business plan. The idea floated around to create a record company, niched in such a way as to reach previously unreached consumers; in other words, we believe that there is a latent market that remains untapped by any other record company (at least in our area). To that end, we decided to create a structure around the idea, to probe the market and find out if our idea is feasible on a large scale.

Our situation is enviable: we have access to a couple local bands, all of whom are friends with some, or all of those of us on the team. We also have ready access to a Pro Tools rig and have familiarity with many of the bars and restaurants in our area. In other words, we have all the equipment needed for physical recording readily available to us, as well as a deep and talented stock of already-established musicians. With these assets openly available to us, we have an easy way to determine if our idea could survive in the fractionated music industry.

Photo credit: ~colorless on at deviantART

With the idea set into context, it’s important to take a look at the team behind the idea. In the minds of venture capitalists and serious investors, the business team that’s working to implement the idea is the second most-important factor in deciding whether or not to fund a business, a fact that works to our advantage. Greg is a musician who used to be involved in some of the aforementioned bands. He’s played in numerous locations around town and is personally acquainted with some of the owners. Jill doesn’t have musical experience per se, but she is very intelligent and usually plays the devil’s advocate role. If an idea has a flaw, she’ll probably spot it. Hector is a graduate who’s been involved in small business, so he has experience in some of the role multiplicity that plagues these sort of ventures. Lastly, what do I bring to the table? I’ve spent hundreds of hours researching music business so that I have an understanding of the costs and procedures involved, as well as a very concrete knowledge in regards to recording music.

So far we’ve got a rough business plan in place, and we’ve been having preliminary talks with an investor that we’re connected with through a mutual friend. If the preliminary talks succeed, that should bring significant resources to bear on solving our entrepreneurial problem. Should our talks succeed, we’ll be able to create an almost perfect replica of our vision, one that would be able to expand our small entity almost instantaneously into something more substantial. What this leads to in the meantime is an almost wait-and-see attitude among our team. We’re not exactly sure what resources we’ll have available to us, and hope to plan accordingly.

With our idea and business still at a preliminary stage, we’re little more than a team and an idea, the nucleus of a business. We have our resources in place, and we’re slowly beginning to mobilize them. We’ve talked to bands that have pre-existing music recorded, and they are more than willing to let us handle their music, now and in the future. What’s needed now is action, which is going to happen this week. What are the plans? Well, We hope to be able to post our company website, in whatever form it is. On it we should be able to see our logo and hear clips of some of the songs that we have in the bank thus far. The goal is also to expand our roster of available bands by talking with some other local groups to see if they’re willing to be a part of our team. Slowly — progress.

Ben Histand is a fourth-year Business student with an interest in finding out how pop culture works, and has spent entirely too much time finding out how Marvin Gaye is the same as Led Zeppelin, and why Led Zeppelin sold a whole lot more albums.

First off is the official formation of a business. Fortunately my location allows single proprietorships without any paperwork, so I don’t have to fill out any forms to operate a business.

Next up comes the more music-specific business items. I’ve got at least one act who is interested in recording and releasing music on my label, so I’ve got to figure out what I have to do legally to protect mine and their rights. We want to make sure that any music we make is going to be protected from would-be intellect thieves, so we’ve got to register with a provider who is going to issue and protect copyrights. Copyright registration can be done electronically (copyright.gov) for $35, a fee covering all of your works (as the songwriter — form PA). If you’re the publisher you also need to fill out another form, form SR. This doesn’t need to be dealt with until you’ve produced original lyrics, but you can’t forget this step. After a copyright is issued, the next step is to register yourself with BMI, SESAC, or ASCAP. They’ll do the dirty work protecting your copyright, but again you’re going to need to pay both a songwriter fee and a publishing fee to get protected for five years.

Photo credit: El Mariachi 94 on Flickr

Now, you should be protected by copyright! What needs to be figured out next is how to record the album, physically manufacture it, and how to distribute it. Here things have become much more streamlined in the past few years. It’s quite easy to find bulk suppliers of blank CDs, cases and CD labels. For a thousand dollars you should be able to set up a mini-manufacturing facility, ready to press professional-looking copies.

Staring you in the face is the prospect of distribution. Physical distribution companies are no longer nationally-independent — all nation-wide distribution companies are owned by their respective record labels. That’s one reason the music business is so domineering and top-heavy, because distribution channels are mostly clogged up.

The good news is that online distribution is a much simpler affair. There any aspiring artist can have an album distributed for anything from $45/year to a 9% royalty. After much research, I decided to use Tunecore to put up music available for download online. Other options are Songcast and CDBaby. Tunecore also provides a free UPC generator, something we’re going to need if we sell CDs in stores.

So what’s left is the task of promoting and distributing the CDs we make. This is going to require a lot of footwork on my part, but this shouldn’t be too hard. I’ve got to work at securing gigs and talking to individual store managers to get my physical product in. This is where I’m at right now — I know what needs to be done, but I’m a long ways from engaging in the entire process yet. That’s as far as I’ve gotten. I’ll keep you updated — I foresee a company web site in the future — but until next time, stay classy.

Ben Histand is a fourth-year Business student with an interest in finding out how pop culture works, and has spent entirely too much time finding out how Marvin Gaye is the same as Led Zeppelin, and why Led Zeppelin sold a whole lot more albums.

Read more: Starting A Record Label. Part 2: Who We Are

The interwebs is very much a vast ocean when it comes to what can be accessed, what is out there, and how there are sites upon sites that I have yet to discover. Now as a publicist for the past six or so years, I have come a pretty long way. I was once naïve and felt that no blog could matter, no chance, no care, don’t tell me about your blog and please do not ask me to cover my artist – it won’t happen. Humans are evolving now to have one eye, as all the computer screen staring is starting to fit into natural selection. I can’t cite where I read that, but I assure I did not make it up or see it on The Simpsons. More people are reading news and gaining their information via the net, then people are reading hard, tangible media.

Photo credit: qwz on Flickr

Circa 2003, I read lots of print publications, from my university newspaper, to the local newspaper, and of course many music magazines (in high school, my walls were plastered with pages of Hit Parader). It seems in about seven years, I obtain just about all good tidbits of info – news – sports info – arts & entertainment scoops – all from the internet. Print has not completely gone the way of the buffalo though, as my reading of countless print publications has dwindled down to like three or four, including my town’s local newspaper.

Nowadays, I am happy to work with blogs in an effort to get my artist exposure. My recon will never cease in trying to find more neat music blogs on the internet now. Hell, I pitch them now. I hold them in high regard, and I have completely dropped my “any kid can have a website” attitude. Having been on a slew of blogs over the past few months, I notice all of them have a heart in common. Blogs are rather passionate, I mean case in point here, as I type this. I don’t know if this will reach one person, but you know I will finish my thoughts before wrapping this up. You know what blogs do not ask for, ads and money. Maybe they do, I don’t know, but my guess is they will be much more keen to cover an act, ad or no ad.

Rutgers University and Comm. 102 taught me about the outlawing of payola, yet, it runs rampant in so many aspects of life today. Will I provide an example here… no. But back to blogging, you know where else I have been learning about cool bands… yup… on blogs. I don’t really have any favorites but all and all, I am now a sound believer in the importance of the interwebbing of the interwebs. It’s the little guy that actually gives a shit and wants to say something – who cares if someone hears the message, it is out there and it will eventually be found.

Brian P. Rocha is a co-owner at Fresno Media, handling publicity for some heavy bands. When he is not working 25 hours a day, he dreams of taking a subway to Venus.

I’m afraid it’s just not that easy. There are many factors involved in being in a band. Whether the drummer cancelled on practice or the singer’s throat is sore, it’s always something. All the talent in the world means nothing if something as simple as scheduling conflicts can get in the way. Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Who’s to say you are even in a band yet?

On the photo: Rugged Fantasia. Image credit: Dave Shearn on Flickr

First things first – finding other members. Assuming you are the guitarist, you need to round out the other members of the band. Want a second guitarist? You better hope that he is on the same page as you musically or the fur will really start to fly. Next thing you are after is a bassist. It’s quite a shame that in this day in age most bassists consist of failed guitarists. Bassists were once aplenty; any music store corkboard you could find would be littered with bassists looking for a band. The days of Geddy Lee, Steve Harris, and Stu Hamm seem to be in the past. So now that you have your “bassist”, let’s move on to acquiring a drummer! YouTube certainly has made it easier to screen auditions; setting up those big drum sets in your garage can be a pain if the drummer is a dud! At this point in time you were going to look for a vocalist but realized most are all egomaniacs, and who wants to deal with that? You announce to the rest of your motley crew that you are going to be the vocalist as well! Let’s hope that sits well with them.

Now you’re in a band. Time to start rehearsing, recording demos, playing shows… the whole nine yards! It’s going great for a while. Your friends are coming to your shows week after week. Pretty quickly, the only people you’re playing to is the doorman, and even he doesn’t look happy. This unfortunately is the reality for most bands trying to get themselves off the ground. Is it luck? Is it talent? I don’t know what the key to being in a successful band is, but what I do know is that it takes a hell of a lot of patience just to stay in one.

In my opinion, being in a band can be a very rewarding thing. If you really want your band to get signed, it’s going to take dedication, determination, and time. So get ready for the ride of your life, but beware, it may be paved with a few bowling alley shows.

Taking numbers from the top forty groups, there are a grand total of eleven groups that are categorized as “rock” of some variety, and looking further down the list the trend continues, with a grand total of 26 of the 100 top-earning artists coming from rock groups. The aforementioned list covers a variety of rock groups, from the easy rock of Coldplay to the harsh metal of Metallica, but the singles list is even worse, with only 13 of the top 100 songs originating from the rock artists.

This news spells trouble to those looking to make rock a creative vehicle. Rock has been a driving force behind much of the creativity of the past decades, its influence omnipresent throughout the close of the century. The majority of pop music of the seventies fell under what we would classify as “rock”. Even pop music of the eighties was strongly indebted to this phenomenon. The emergence of grunge, post-grunge, and nu-metal seemed to ensure the commercial viability of the rock n roll genre, but those genres have slowly shriveled to only a few musicians still making a living. Nickelback, Three Doors Down and Creed have all experienced disappointing album sales over the past two years, and newer bands with smaller fan bases (Three Days Grace, Hinder, AFI and others) have also failed to match previous sales.

Photo credit: tamako sato

The challenger to the rock throne seems to be electronic-oriented music. Strongly influenced by the funk/disco branch that evolved from R&B opposite Rock n Roll, electronic music has dominated the charts over the past year. 70 of the top 100 singles trace their success to electronic hip-hop beats or dance music. Critically electronic music is enjoying increasing popularity, as three of the top album nominees from this year’s Grammys came from these genres and a club-driven single won “Song of the Year” for the first time ever.

Not only electronic, but country music appears to have sucked away some of the life from rock n roll. Many of the same people that were drawn to earlier forms of rock n roll have been lured in by the crossover appeal of country. Since the success of Garth Brooks, country music has increasingly crossed over to poach many of the easy rock buyers. Country music has had no qualms about emphasizing pop-rock guitars in order to bring in would-be rock consumers. This, coupled with a willingness to substitute pop instruments for more traditional country instruments in radio singles, ensures that country is enjoying a strong, cross-sectional appeal to consumers.

Rock itself is struggling. No new genres have emerged to revitalize the rock scene. Metal is successful, but consumers of metal have little love for the more radio-friendly rock genres. A few pop acts embrace aspects of guitar-based rock, think Cobra Starship and their hit “Good Girls Go Bad”, but by and large rock finds itself at a crossroads. Will it be able to reinvent itself in order to survive? Or will it linger as a genre that has its occasional practitioners but little mainstream presence? One thing is certain: if there is no new creative force to revitalize rock n roll, it will slowly fade into a shadow of its old self.

So this is where the challenge emerges to anyone wishing to be successful in the rock genre: how can you grow as a musician to make your music something more than a tribute to heroes gone by? How can you invigorate new energy into an old brand of music?

Now, more than ever, it’s time to break the box of the past. What’s necessary is a new way of thinking, a willingness to experiment and have fun. One quote that has stuck said something to the extent that rock and roll is the music of the people; they could sing along with it, and dance with it. It stuck in their heads, its rhythm made you move. That is what is lacking more than anything else in rock. No longer the music of the people, rock has become dominated by seizure-inducing guitar-play or mass-produced ballads. Either rock will find its rhythm, or lose it entirely to another genre that willingly embraces it. The upcoming years are crucial in the development of rock, as it deals with the twin forces of electronic and country music. Rock needs to recast itself if it wishes to stay above water in the riptides of the music industry; I hold out hope that it can be redeemed.

Ben Histand is a fourth-year Business student with an interest in finding out how pop culture works, and has spent entirely too much time finding out how Marvin Gaye is the same as Led Zeppelin, and why Led Zeppelin sold a whole lot more albums.