What the heck is the deal with the media these days?

First, music. I mean, current music sucks pretty badly right about now (then again, it depends on who you ask, I guess). It's just all the same crap. Everything's about "image." Hello! Can't anyone see that America isn't concerned with an artist's image? Even back in the early 80's no one really cared what the singer looked like. They just cared if they were a decent person who made songs that everyone would appreciate listening to. Today, that doesn't fly with the labels. They think they have to make a crapload of cash just because they can, and image does that -- endorsements, ads, and worldwide recognition. But it's so incredibly heartless that no one wants any of that crap anymore. I'm surprised we haven't seen an uprising of independent labels and distributors due to the internet. With such worldwide access, a single group could publish their own album, and people would buy it!

Scratch that. Not with P2P filesharing now. See, since major conglomerates have made these albums so horribly dull (mainly due to "image" artists, not "music" artists), no one wants a whole album anymore. They just want the good songs (which are few and far between). So, they go to the net. Dowload a relatively decent-sized file and bam, free song. "Hey, this is cool! I should get all my music this way!" This creates a sense of "forget the album, just use petty theft outside the store!" Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against downloading single songs for free. I frankly only feel slightly for the artists who put a lot of work into the song and don't get much of the profits. But other than that, ehh, it is illegal. But it probably shouldn't be.

"Watch out! It's the RIAA!" Yes, they're mad because people are taking away their profits. And so are the musicians, because they're slowly being withered away by the lack of incoming funds. So what do they decide to do? How about hacking into your computer with no real restraints! Yayy! WRONG. These people are trying to sue individuals who allow others to simply share songs that they like, something that could have been done anyway if the CD was just burned at a friend's house. I mean, we really need to get a service up and running FOR PCs!!! (sorry, VERY few people use macs, so iTunes is way out of the mass appeal area) that charges per song. A buck really isn't all that bad. I mean, most people just want to combine multiple songs onto a mix CD in the end anyway. This would solve the whole problem. Artists and labels would get profits back again (which they need to an EXTENT), consumers would have their favorite songs and nothing more, and the quality of the music would probably improve since an artist wouldn't be forced to do their songs in twelve three-minute blocks.

Second, radio. ClearChannel is the most evil thing of all. It takes your local radio station, bombards it with ads, and makes the entire nation exactly the same. Breaking news? Forget it. It's just the same old playlist when something really big happens locally or abroad. Ugh. I hate the radio. I hate current music. How the hell am I supposed to have something to hang onto from my own generation? The internet's constantly changing and so is TV. Music is the only thing I can associate with my decade, and it's dead. Damnit.