Not Music To My Ears!

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Not Music To My Ears

Today’s current music scene has steadily become filled with pre-packaged assembly line bands and singers. This teen oriented pop phenomenon is repulsive. I see the so-called bands and singers for what they really are. They are passing trends made special, just for the teens, with all image and no real talent. For their own good, I can only hope these brainwashed teens will grow out of this horrible phase.

Fabricated bands such as O-Town, N*Sync, and The Backstreet Boys exhibit a minimum level of talent. The Backstreet Boys, referred to as BSB, for example were initially actors trying to get a job in Orlando, Florida, a virtual hotbed for aspiring young stars. None had any musical past history, however they were hired on an audition for a band because they are marketable. As we all know sex appeal has the power to market anything, and teens have money to burn on CD’s and any product containing the bands name. We have all seen teens at the mall buying boy band paraphernalia such as Calendars, mugs, and pens. They will purchase just about anything with the band name imprinted on it. The bands and record companies make their money not in record sales, but in revenue form this merchandise.

An article from the Montreal Gazette written in July 1998 states that boy bands are a “Mass-marketed phenomenon, manufactured for overnight success.” Not one of the five members of the BSB can play a musical instrument. I went to the official Backstreet Boys website and learned that out of over 40 songs they released, the band only wrote three of them. Is it just me, or aren’t bands supposed to write their own songs and play musical instruments? How they can be referred to as “boys” in the first place I will never comprehend, they are all men in their twenties. These posers show teenyboppers that it is okay to be uninspired.

Trans Continental president and music producer Lou Perlman has created such “Boy bands” as The Backstreet Boys and N*Sync. His latest project, an ABC network show in collaboration with MTV called appropriately enough “Making the band”, has tracked the weekly progress of his latest super group invention O-Town. I have had the unfortunate displeasure of viewing one episode where their voice coach scolds the five men; The coach told the members of O-Town they are “easily replaceable.

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