HEyHEY takes tongue lashing (In letter form) from 14-year-old music fan

[HEyHEY]

Yowza, I wrote a column about how much music sucks these days and get back to the office to find a nasty letter on my desk...... fucking Nickelback fans.

[Blue-Jay]

1. Apparently, he/she never made it as a wise man.

Nickelback is only slightly less-sucky than Kenny G.

[HEyHEY]

3. It's a she....one thing, she is an amazing writer for her age

Although I guess when you're pissed off it ain't hard.

[JVS]

36. you should totally hit on her!

;-)

[jimbo fett]

64. Does she have an older sister? An "easy" one?

What's her mom look like?

;-) ;-)

[JohnKleeb]

2. WTF is nickelback

[HEyHEY]

5. An awful Canadian rock band

[Blue-Jay]

7. Even worse than Creed

if that's possible.

[JohnKleeb]

10. Dear lord thats pretty bad

[snorkie]

33. Actually...

I don't believe that it is possible for anything to suck more then Creed! :puke:

You can now continue your Nickelback bashing as long as you keep that in mind.
:D

[flamingyouth]

13. I didn't know they were Canadian

Did know that they suck, though.

Now I'm going to hijack all your threads, saying, "This is how you remind me!"

[SmileyBoy]

4. Let's hear some details, man!!!

I bet his/her grammar sucks.

[HEyHEY]

11. No it as great grammer - she's a great writer

Here's a qoute or two:

"I was a bit irritated that you then went on throughout the rest of the article and pushed the idea that all of today's music is "Mind-numbing" and "Mediocre"."

"In defense of bands and induviduals that actually can sing or play an instrument, might I point out that these people did not get record deals by knitting socks and buying chocolates for a company director"

[CanuckAmok]

21. Hee hee...you should tell him/her that.. (warning: explicit)

They secured their contract in that time-trusted manner as fashioned by such 'angry young' Canadian 'artists' before them as Avril Lavigne and Alannis Morisette--by sucking the company director's dick.

That should calm him/her down.

And if that fails, just invite him/her to the newspaper office for a complimentary tour, and as he/she walks in the front door, *!BAMM!*, the ol' 'snowshovel in the back of the head' routine. By the time the snow thaws to the point the authorities find the body, you'll be back in comfy Vancouver. I don't believe there's extradition between Alberta and BC, so you'll be laughin'!

You could also make a public announcement: If anyone is still talking about Nickelback in two years, you will give the angry reader $500 cash.


Plus, I've said this before, but at least you know someone's reading what you bother to write.

[Kamika]

25. lol

Like the Simpsons

Moe: .. then WHAM the old fork in the eye trick

[CanuckAmok]

61. er, that's "grammAr", Mr. Professional Writer!

Just ribbin' ya, HEyHEY! :dunce:

[jimbo fett]

65. I love my "grammer"!

She's my dad's maw.

[HEyHEY]

69. AH!

Is my face red?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

6. Nickleback suck. How's that for succinct criticism?

[Kamika]

8. POST THE LETTER

man

[HEyHEY]

12. It's long and I don't feel like typesetting it

sorry! ;-)

[Kamika]

15. welll parts then

some juicy parts

[HEyHEY]

16. see just below Northwest's thread.

I put in a couple qoutes

[Sticky]

9. My kids have tickets for Nickleback next month.

I am torn....I want to like them cuz they're Canadian and all but as the Grinch would say, "I really don't like 'em, I really don't."

[qwertyMike]

14. I LOVE Nickleback

IN YOUR FACE ROCK

Think AC/DC

ZZ Top



What's that electric/garage/puck/techno/brit/ yada/yada/ yada/ shit that's passsing for music theses days?
XTC -- shake all night die..

Why not ......whatever.... JFK ...... Panthers

[TheMightyFavog]

51. <Sarcasm>Oh, yeah songs with lyrics like tese are a sign of real genius.

http://www.metrolyrics.com/lyrics/207187/Nickelback/Figured_You_Out/

</sarcasm>

[MrScorpio]

17. Tell him: Give me a dollar and I'll give you a Nickleback

That should shut him up.

[corporatewhore]

18. Nickelback stinks.Thats how i would of writen the column

[lovedems]

19. I would agree, Nickelback does suck

I don't know that I would agree with you about Creed though. I like some of their songs.

[qwertyMike]

20. show us the letter

and doesn't music SUCK these days?

oe maybe you can give us examples of 'Boring White Boys' like Mayer, Folds, Matthews, Johnson

[Colin Ex]

34. Ben Folds rules, you punk.

DO NOT put Ben Folds in the same category as John Mayer, Dave Matthews, and Jack Johnson. Ben Folds a) has a sense of humor, b) is a good musician, and c) is awesome. Which are three things the other three definitely do not have.

-C

[qwertyMike]

22. Maybe that's how 'music' sucks

these days?

[qwertyMike]

23. Show us the article you wrote.

Please?

[DrWeird]

24. While Nickelback does indeed suck...

...if you wrote about how much music sucks these days you did indeed deserve a tongue lashing.

Yes, pop music sucks, but it always has and will always continue to suck.

It's just that you are now no longer a stupid fourteen year old kid, you are now a belligerent old fart.

There's good music now, just like there was good music then, it's just that you still have to dig for it.

[Blue-Jay]

27. Wrong!

i never had to "dig" for the Bay City Rollers and they were ......ummm...... OK. Point goes to you.

[qwertyMike]

28. Old Fart

I spend a fortune buying Indie songs for my 15 yr old son.
Some of them would blow you awyay.

Maybe you were right in your original article. 'Pop Sux'

Cyndy Lauper

[brainwashed_youth]

26. not all music sucks today

There are a few good ones like Outkast, Evanescence, White Stripes, Slipknot(see my avatar), and others

[Blue-Jay]

29. You had me until you mentioned White Stripes.

Good ideas, but TUNE YOUR FRIGGIN GUITAR! Good Baby Peanut Jebus, it ain't that hard!

[CanuckAmok]

30. Shouldn't that be the "White Hypes"?

Most over-rated cacophony since...well, since ever.

[Blue-Jay]

31. Testify, brah!

[mitchum]

38. since Sonic Youth?

in the category of "over-rated cacophony"

[CanuckAmok]

39. Sonic youth had two albums I'd describe as "brilliant".

FTR, they're "Evol" and "Bad Moon Rising". The White Stripes are just unremarkable, cloying proto-pop from the "ain't it weird?!" cookie-cutter. They are "Beck".

[Screaming Lord Byron]

40. Ahem. Beck? The White Stripes? Not in the same sentence please.

Note to Jack White. GET A FUCKING BASS PLAYER, PEDANT!
As for Sonic Youth
Evol
Sister
Daydream Nation
Goo

Four classic albums

That will be all.

[mitchum]

66. 4 out of how many?

Not a very good batting average. I certainly rank "Evol" and "Daydream Nation" as brilliant. They were/are a good band, but not the hip second coming. I used to call them "The Emperor's New Leather Jacket"

White Stripes will NEVER make a brilliant album.

[FrankBooth]

67. There are ton of good bands

problem is, these bands don't get played on corporate radio.

Nada Surf
Low Flying Owls
Guided By Voices
The Shins
My Morning Jacket
Interpol
The Stills
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
Yo La Tengo
Built To Spill
Magnetic Fields
James Hall and Pleasure Club
The Long Winters
Apples In Stereo
Pernice Brothers
The Wrens
The Thrills


And plenty more if you know where to look and listen - try www.kexp.org -

[RandomKoolzip]

70. Thank you! Now, here's more:

Ted Leo
Cheer Accident
Sleater Kinney
K. McCarty
Clear Lake
The Postal Service (only good synthpop band ever)
Karate
The Features
The New Pornographers
The Coup
Elp-P
The Decemberists
Cotton Mather

I could go on, but you get the picture. There are SO many great artists/bands out there, and it's YOUR job to find them if you don't like what's on the radio. The corporate media won't touch these artists, because they're good. Stop whining and get out and do some research, fer crissakes! And support independent music/film/art wherever it may grow!

[southpaw]

68. Slipknot...

It takes NINE of them to suck!

[qwertyMike]

32. The 14-yr olds

were Nickleback fans?

[JVS]

35. Haha, we're getting old comrade!

Seriously though, you should tell this kid to go take a flying fuck at the moon. Show her how important her goddamned opinion is.

[thelocalkgb]

37. I'm torn

Who is the worst lead singer? The guy from Creed or the guy from Nickelback? I think they both have Jesus-complexes.

[HEyHEY]

41. here's some of the letter

It may seem a bit contradictory to write a complaint letter based on an article under the giant heading of "opinion," - it is, after all, your opinion and you're entitled to have it. But I felt it was it was neccassary to respond to a rather rash and unfair story. As a 14-year-old, I don't expect my attitude towards the state of the music industry to match yours entirely, but I am hoping that this letter will help you understand my point of view.

I am refering to your February 10th article "Musical Misanthropy." Now, I would like to admit that you had a lot of good points. The majority of punk rock is no longer punk: it is a commercialized cash grab made to appeal to legally blonde look aklikes that buy pink shirt with "Punk Angel" written on them. And I will admit that yes, there are a lot of new bands that sound alike. However, I think you may be going a bit far when you say that "all new music sucks."

Firstly, I am curious as to where you draw the line of "mainstream." Do you mean synthesized Barbie dolls like Brittany Spears and Jessica SImpson? (These ones are recognizable because they are known as celebrities not artists, and are priased relentlessly when they co-write two of the songs on their latest album.) As you may have gathered, I am not a fan of these induviduals: I think they lack musical talent and might better fit the niche of a model or dancer. BUt if you are also refering to bands like coldplay, bands that have made it on to MTV2 but still deliver what I feel to be exceptional music, then I am dissapointed that you aren't able to recognize what ability some popular musicians have.

Another point I would like to make regarding mainstream is that it is not the same all around the world. SOme of my favourite bands are virtually unheard of in Canada but are considered pop culture in places like the U.K.


IT GOES ON FOREVER

[Kamika]

42. Wow

I'd give her a job if I worked for a newspaper

[Screaming Lord Byron]

43. If it really is a fourteen year old girl.

I'm just saying.

[HEyHEY]

45. We do have the sneaking supsicion her mom helped her

:shrug:

[Screaming Lord Byron]

48. It's amazing how much effort kids put into defending what they like

For me, at 27, it's like - you don't like what I like? Like I care.

[HEyHEY]

44. As my co-worker said

"Too bad she's not 24, I think I'm in love."

[JVS]

55. Has anyone considered that this "14 year old girl" might be Nickleback's

agent?

[HEyHEY]

56. Well, they are from alberta

So it's possible.

[Redneck Socialist]

63. Dude she's kicking your ass. n/t

[wysimdnwyg]

46. OK, having read two excerpts from her letter...

I'm still wondering, where is the reference to Nickelback?

And while I agree wholeheartedly that Nickelback does indeed suck, there are plenty of great artists out there, producing exceptional music. To support this, I give you U2, Widespread Panic, Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper and Linkin Park. Sure, some of those artists have been around for a while, and maybe some of them aren't in a genre you enjoy, but all are making great music. And despite the commercial success some of them are having, none are a success just because the industry wants them to be. They are a success because they are talented musicians and songwriters.

So while the subsections of Pop and Country, and even Rock and Hip Hop to a lesser degree, are being dominated by fabricated artists like N*Sync, XXXtina and Shania Twain, there are plenty of others who really are making good music. You just have to know where to look for it.

[Kamika]

47. The thing is..

Most of those artists like U2 has been around since the 80s..

They won't last forever

[Screaming Lord Byron]

49. Didn't the Beatles? If you want another U2, buy a Coldplay record

Good records exist in a vacuum, they don't age or fade with time. I was listening to Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool last night, a fifty year old disc that means just as much today as it did in 1955.

[Kamika]

50. Yes good records hold up

The thing is, when there's no new "good bands" there's something wrong. The whole article is about new bands being crap.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

52. There's always good new bands, and always people who say there aren't

also, Pop Music is usually 95% crap. It's been like that since they pressed the very first 45. It's the 5% that makes the whole damn thing worthwhile.

[Kamika]

53. Thing is

I'm 21 years old.. And there has been NO new band during my entire Mtv life.

Maybe just MAYBE Radiohead, and that's that.

There were bands that got big like Spice Girls and Oasis but noone has ever gotten the status like bands from the 80s , 70s etc.. And I mean when someone from the MTV generation is saying that bands sucks.. they suck.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

54. I've seen plenty of good new bands. Again, Coldplay.

[tarheel]

57. I'm afraid I have to agree with

most everyone's assesment of Nickelback.


THEY SUCK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


That having been said. There is some good new music out, although not that much, but everyone has different tastes. Personally one of my favorite bands right now is Foo Fighters, but I don't know if they would be considered new at this point or not.

I love Green Day, again relatively old. I love The Offspring. I'm not saying that these guys are "musical genuises" or anything, just good old fashioned hard driving rock and roll.

I cannot stomach todays pop music though. I am 39 years old and still want hear that driving loud screaming guitar and those booming thunderous drums. Not speed metal but rock.

I'm sorry, any "band" that samples and does not actually play instruments, in my opinion is not a band at all, but rather a performer or entertainer, but not a musician. That is the problem I have most Rap and Hip-Hop.

Anyway, just my two cents worth.

[HEyHEY]

58. I wrote this back to her

Thank-you for your response to my column on music, and thanks for not rubbing in that "misanthropy" was spelled wrong.

One of your concerns was you weren’t positive I believed in what I said. Trust me, I do. I felt the column clearly showed I was referring to music within the last five years and referring to any top 40 music. When I say top 40 and mainstream, I mean everything from Nickelback to Justin Timberlake to Shania Twain. The reason I mentioned good music is in hard to reach places is because it is. Music companies have the capital to saturate the market with what they can sell. Hence the better bands are cast aside and not heard about.

However, I also added in I like Tupac and a few others because it is true. There is the occasional decent tune that comes out. A good example is Coldplay, they are a decent band. But if you add up the amount of decent groups to terrible formula groups these days you would find a rather tipped scale.

The basic idea of the column was that North American mainstream music is mostly garbage. But I’m not going to take away from those few groups that are good, which is why I mentioned them.

As for the underground scene, it is but a shade of what it used to be. I grew up in Vancouver, which had a great underground scene not ten years ago, I was about your age and used to have to wait for all ages shows before I could see some of my favourite shows. And there were a lot of awesome groups and a dirty little sense of rebellion when you got to go to their shows. Now, I am well above legal age and don’t even bother going to clubs anymore because the acts are no good.

Overall, my contention is major music labels are not going out of their way to find good talent. They are just manufacturing groups. And what I’m saying is, in order to hear good music all over the place again, consumers must stop supporting the bunk they are putting out now.

In closing I’d like to say you seem like a well-informed music fan. And being that, I think you’d like some of the artists I mentioned in the column, I recommend you check them out. As well, you are a phenomenal writer and should consider a career in the field.

I hope this cleared up any misunderstandings. If it hasn’t, or if you have anything to add. Feel free to write me again.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

59. Hot Hot Heat. That's my answer to all this 'no good new bands' talk

[HEyHEY]

60. Victoria Band they are

Pretty good...okay so that's one.

[wysimdnwyg]

62. I like your response to her

All too often these days, conversations that could easily remain cordial are broken down to "I'm right, you're wrong", "No, I'm right, screw you!" Thankfully, your discussion with this young woman is intelligent and respectful from both sides. Well done, HEyHEY!

I especially appreciated the bit of encouragement regarding a writing career.

[Beaker]

71. be careful when getting a tongue-lashing from a 14-year old-

the fun kind will only get you in lots of trouble...