Things I Can’t Stand Part I: When People Trash Mainstream Music Today and Cherry Pick Great Artists From the Past Who Were Underground Artists That Weren’t Even In the Mainstream
This is going to be a series of rants I’ll post on tumblr of things that I can’t stand and things I hate, and people will read them. When people read them, they might even go viral and be reblogged and they’ll agree with what I say and maybe even show these rants to people who do these things I complain about.
Nowadays, it’s become an all-too-common thing to say that music today sucks, specifically mainstream music.
However, one thing that I REALLY cannot stand is when people rant about how today’s mainstream music sucks and then they cherry pick great artists from the past who were underground music artists that weren’t even in the mainstream.
One example of this is I found this video of a teenager on Youtube ranting about “why the 90′s are loved”.
Some of the things he praised were things that weren’t even from the damn 90′s, like “Rambo” and “The Exorcist”, and even he admitted to that. So why the fuck is this kid getting off topic by praising how we had great horror movies like “The Exorcist” or great action movies like “Rambo” or great music like Led Zeppelin, which are things that weren’t from the 90′s?
Actually, I’m getting off topic myself here.
At the end of his “why the 90′s are loved video”, he then started ranting about modern music.
He then starting listing all the horrible crappy modern popular singers and groups and rappers like Justin Bieber, One Direction, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, and Nicki Minaj. The ones people always bring up in “modern music sucks!” rants.
Then, he said “Back then, you had some good stuff like Slipknot, Slayer, AC/DC, Metallica, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, many other good stuff”.
Look, I have nothing against Metallica and Slayer, at least their 80′s music, but back in the 80′s which was their “golden ages”, Metallica and Slayer were bands that weren’t even in the damn mainstream. Their music was very heavy and harsh and un-radio friendly.
I hate it when people bash today’s music and they’re only looking at “today’s music” as what’s in the mainstream, and then they vent about how great music was in the past and they pick UNDERGROUND music artists that weren’t even in the mainstream. And this kid is a great example of that.
Plus, I thought his video was about “Why The 90′s Are Loved”, and then he cherry picks and chooses things that weren’t from the damn 90′s. While Metallica and Slayer were still making music in the 90′s, the 80′s are considered their golden years, plus, the 90′s was when Metallica started going downhill. And Led Zeppelin, that’s 70′s. AC/DC is late 70′s and early 80′s. I thought his rant was about why the 90′s are loved. Why are you praising things that didn’t even come out in or weren’t popular in the 90′s?
Not only that, but that kid is also the pure definition of a cherry picker, someone who cherry picks good things from the past and forgets everything else, forgetting that there was bad shit back then too.
Look, I don’t hate old music, there’s plenty of older music I enjoy, like Pink Floyd who are my favorite band, but there was awful music back then too. The Captain and Tenille, Barry Manilow, Vanilla Ice, Color Me Badd, Limp Bizkit, Air Supply, REO Speedwagon, Stacey Q, New Kids on the Block, Tony Orlando and Dawn, Toto, Survivor, Milli Vanilli, and others all say hi.
There’s a guy on Youtube known as Filthy Frank or Papa Franku, and arguably his most famous video is his video ranting about these teenagers on Youtube videos ranting about how “they were born in the wrong generation”. They’re known as “le wrong generation” kids and teens.
Well, he was posting these various comments that these kids and teens have said, and one of them was this, in his/her own exact words: “FUCK THIS FUCKING GENERATION! 60, 70, 80, 90 YEARS WERE THE FUCKING BEST! AND I’M SO PISSED THAT I NEVER SEE NIRVANA, SONIC YOUTH, SEX PISTOLS AND OTHER AWESOME BANDS! NOT LIKE NOW, MILEY CYRUS, SELENA GOMEZ, JUSTIN BIEBER AND OTHER STUPID MOTHERFUCKERS!!!”.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Sonic Youth. I’ve reblogged and uploaded pictures and gifs of them. I’m supposed to be a famous singer right now, and if I was like I’m supposed to be, some of the songs I release this year that I imagine would become huge hits would be influenced by Sonic Youth songs and meant to sound like SY songs. I would even induct SY into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame this year if I was a famous singer, and then there’d be these rumors that I’m Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon’s daughter.
However, during Sonic Youth’s heyday in the late 80′s and early 90′s, they were an UNDERGROUND, indie band. I consider Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon to be the King and Queen of Indie Rock.
Underground and indie music is music that isn’t really in the mainstream.
Yes, they did have a few songs that were on MTV’s “120 Minutes”, which was a show originally showcasing alternative and indie music in the 80′s and early 90′s before Nirvana made alternative music “mainstream”, they even had a few top 40 hits here and there that were on the Billboard Rock Charts, they performed on late night talk shows, they guest starred on “The Simpsons” and were signed to Geffen Records, a mainstream record label, but during SY’s golden age from 1988-1992, they were mostly an underground/indie rock band. Especially in 1988-1990.
I wanna ask this kid when he thinks SY were at their best. There’s the “no wave” Sonic Youth of the early to mid 80′s whose music was absolute garbage and total noise, there’s the late 80′s/early 90′s Sonic Youth which I think is when SY were at their best, specifically 1990, and then there’s post 1993 Sonic Youth, and a lot of people hate what SY made after 1993.
I guess he thinks SY’s best era was in 1988-1992, especially in 1990, because that’s when SY started sounding like music. If that’s when he thinks SY were at their best, I agree with him.
Even though they were a great band then, like I said before, they were an INDIE/UNDERGROUND band. Their music was not in the mainstream, for the most part. They might’ve appeared on TV a few times and were on a mainstream record label, but they were an indie/underground rock band then.
On WatchMojo on Youtube, there was a list of the greatest indie rock bands and underground rock bands, and Sonic Youth was on that list.
And do you know what WAS in the mainstream back in 1988-1992 during SY’s heyday?
Shit like Vanilla Ice, New Kids on the Block (the American One Direction of their time), Color Me Badd (a group with an appropriate name), Debbie Gibson, Milli Vanilli, C&C Music Factory, Nelson, Warrant, Bon Jovi, Gerardo (the “Rico Suave” singer/rapper), Seduction (a terrible girl group from the late 80′s/early 90′s), Wilson Phillips, Poison, some crappy 80′s hair metal bands who’ve been forgotten about, there were even bands and singers who decided to turn themselves into hair metal-esque bands like Cheap Trick, etc.
These people I’ve mentioned are considered to be music industry jokes and the worst things about music during the late 80′s/early 90′s.
I want this kid to listen to those people, because THAT was what was mainstream during SY’s heyday.
And the most ironic thing about this kid is that this kid strongly hates his/her generation, yet in this person’s Youtube avatar image is a picture of Boo, the World’s Cutest Dog, who is something from this current generation.
If you hate your generation so much, why do you have an image of Boo the World’s Cutest Dog as your Youtube avatar? Boo is something from this current generation.
I can’t stand people who trash today’s mainstream music and then they cherry pick good music artists from the past who weren’t even in the mainstream. That’s so hypocritical.
Those types of people need to read this rant and see what big fools of themselves they’re making on the Internet.
If you know someone like who I ranted about, show this rant to them and let them read it and weep.
