
My Fav Band
Punk music is in sarah's idea is Punk Rock. A genre that has been co-opted by the media and turned into today's radio friendly pop-punk. This isn't the way it used to be. Punk rock used to mean something. Stand for something even. The whole point of punk rock music is the message. Political, Social, Causal. This is what made punk rock great and this is what continues to drive the true underground punk rock scene today. My first experience with punk rock came in the form of my mother's younger brother. He was only 16 years older than me and when I was 8 or 9 he would watch me while the parents were out on the town. As soon as the door closed and the 'rents were gone, the stereo would be cranked up. "The Ramones", "Sex Pistols", and the "Plasmatics” were the mainstay for these evenings. Jumping around the house like maniacs and all the while soaking in this great “new” music. Or at least what I believed to be “new”. What I didn’t know was that this music had been around for much longer than the past few years. I was just learning about it through my cool uncle, but it was even older than him. Punk is not just about loud, raucous music. Punk is a state of mind. Today, artists such as “Green Day” and “Blink 182” are considered to be punk rock, but really they are just pop music dressed up as punk. An artist needs to have a cause to be true punk. With this in mind we can safely say that such artists as ”Woody Guthrie”, "Bob Dylan" and ”Ani Difranco”, although folk music rooted, were and are truly punk artists. They sing about social justice and politics and this is what makes them true punks. For more great information on the true meaning of punk rock, please click the lovely links below and remember, no matter what style of music you love, keep rockin’ out! Peace! Sarah Hardcore music is As a hardcore Iron Maiden fan I would like to repeat what many others say in classifying Iron Maiden as one of the best bands to hit the music scene. Not only as a "metal" band but also as a "music" band. I have one difference with many of you guys; you have been listening to Iron Maiden for some twenty years now whereas I discovered Iron Maiden's music just over a year ago. As I read the other rants I felt that maybe they were biased; biased by the twenty years of listening. Is it possible to judge Iron Maiden’s music of today without comparing it with the twenty years that have passed? I think not. But my generation (people born in the 80s) has an opportunity to judge without the past in mind. For years I had been forced to listen to "pop" music. The Spice Girls and Michael Jackson were all I heard, there was no "other" music. This was maybe a conspiracy by all parents to keep us away from what they considered as "evil" music. I do not blame them; it is partly their fault for being so ignorant but there is also a certain image that clouds metal music. Alice Cooper with the snakes is one example. Oh how wrong they were! When I first heard Metallica I was astounded, this was the "true" music that was missing from my life. It is hard to describe musical emotions, but I’ll try. I often compare pop music with a deflated beach ball; it fails to amuse, it lacks creativity and its like all the other deflated balls, it follows itself in a continuous pattern like lemmings. Metal music, however is a fully inflated metal ball with spikes on it; it is cooler, it is not what normal people would use, it excites, and it exhilarates. Having am amplifier smashing out glorious guitar music is a dream come true. Maybe that is what pop music lacks. Pop is too soft. It has a different meaning to people. Metal is elite, the sounds of a guitar getting along with drums and bass is true music isn’t it? Metal music has a mysterious pace to it. It stretches out to the brain and surrounds it, overwhelms it, completely swamping one’s senses. This is what Iron Maiden has accomplished. Their guitar music is unique; playing solos in front of one hundred thousand fans mystifies and remains a dream to any teenager. Every human is different. Every human brain interprets music in a different way, that is why it's no use screaming your head off trying to convert people to metal music. Every metal listener should be proud of himself (or herself), I am sure some of them are aware of this as they catch some pop music on the local radio. I am happy I have left that "pop" era behind. Some are born for classical music, some are born for rap, and I was born for metal. As for the changes, I think that Iron Maiden know what they are doing, maybe if they had carried on the great music throughout the 90's then we would have been used to them and they would lose that sparkle. Now though, after people got used to the less than good 90's Maiden albums a brilliant one, like Ed Hunter and Brave New World shines out like a jewel in a sack of pebbles. As for Metallica, with the new change in music style, they lost maybe 50 metal fans for 100 pop fans gained. This is heart-breaking for the metal fans who feel betrayed. Metallica have addressed the mainstream listener while leaving the metal fan behind. Is this good or bad? From a metal fan attitude, after being with the "true Metallica" for a decade this is bad. But for Metallica, this means more fans (although not so hardcore), and having more fans means being more famous, rich and glamorous. This is where Iron Maiden is different. They will not do such a thing. Maybe Bruce Dickinson’s return is the proof of this. Iron Maiden is as strong as ever, strong... in a Brave New World! Deniz Omer