to whom it may concern,
payola_off
>>>how many palms have been greased?
how many times has music played second fiddle to corporate agenda?
how many artists have been kept down because they didn't have the right look?
how much has gone unheard so that boy bands might be seen?
when was the last time someone spun a song just because they believed in its ideas?
watching_off
eyes aren't always windows to the soul
sometimes they are glorified kaleidoscopes,
misleading us with seductive images.
allowing bright lights to pass for bright ideas.
making "lip sync artist" a job title instead of an oxymoron.
how could eyes have done this to us?
how do we stop them from doing it again?
simple.
we no longer equate seeing with believing.
and we put a little trust in our ears.
faith, after all, is blind
commercials_off
music shouldn't be brought to you by a double espresso in a can,
or jeans that rise amazingly low
because with advertising come hidden agendas.
corporate sponsors want music that appeals to their demographic.
broadcasting companies want to keep the corporate sponsors happy.
and program directors want to keep their jobs.
real music gets fed into the marketing meat grinder,
and the next american idol comes out the other side.
sameness_off
music is about change.
the blues. rock. disco. metal. punk. new wave. hip-hop. dance. trance. house. garage.
these names we give to change.
and in music you change or you get left behind.
unfortunately the music sometimes gets hijacked and distorted for personal gain.
there are times when the entire industry holds the music hostage by pumping out more and more commercially driven clones.
there are times when we wonder if the music will ever struggle free.
the truth is this.
in the end the music always wins.
and those who stand in the way of music always lose
expression_ON
give us your censored,
your edited, your outright banned.
your pigeonholed,
your unsightly,
your unpromoted,
your unsigned,
your undiscovered,
give us your struggling artists
yearning to break through.
send these to us.
let them be heard.
live_ON
>>live music has an energy that can't be pressed into wax,
burned into plastic or recorded on tape.
it's soulful, spontaneous and totally unpredictable.
attibutes that might be considered liabilities in the corporate world.
maybe thats why a trip around the radio dial would lead you to believe that live music is dead.
radio_off
music shouldn't fade out at state borders.
a song shouldn't be repeated over and over and over until you can't take it anymore.
lyrics shouldn't fall silent because of a few words from some sponsor
the way music artists should mean more than the way they look.
censorship is more profane than a few profanities.
afterall,
a world without bounce,
trance,
or ska,
is just as bad as a world without rock 'n roll.
