It's not that kids don't rock today, it's that they can't get to the masses: What I've learned from my "Spread the word of good newer grunge bands" page

So from having my Spread the word of good newer grunge bands facebook page, which now has 700+  bands that have been posted, I have realized certain things. Mainly, that there are SOOOOOOOO many really good and amazing and incredibly talented and really hard rocking and totally revolutionary style bands today. There are also tons of modern grungers, tons of whom really want grunge to come back, tons of whom have good and genuine ideals and the same ones that folks like Kurt Cobain had, tons of kids who hate generation Y and feel alienated by today, tons of kids who want to rock out and rage against the machine and want some sort of revolution etc. Us modern grunge kids grow up hating our generation and thinking the ever-present thought, "Why doesn't today/my generation rock? Why do the kids of today sound softer than the older people of the rock generations when rock has always been said to be for the youth? WHERE'S THE FREAKING ROCK!?!?!?" Well, there are tons of bands today that totally freaking rock and kick ass, they just aren't getting to the masses, and aren't getting much attention at all.

It only takes so many really good modern grunge bands that could totally knock all the pop people off the charts, and really make you feel like moshing, and totally connected to their music, like all the best bands of the 90s do, before you start to realize that there is NO lack of hard/heavy/rocking/actually talented and good/revolutionary/unique etc. etc. bands today. So...what does this mean? There must be some sort of barrier stopping people from hearing of them. I think this has to do with the way things are today, and the internet. We have developed a generation that has less and less actual word of mouth and sense of real-life community, no more MTV,  a zine culture that has died down, less record stores etc., more and more older people enabling kids liking the garbage of today and not telling them of actually good things because they figure it's the special "technology" generation and they'll like what they like and they don't really speak their opinion on how much they think it sucks, more people being apathetic and thinking "well it's all there is today, so what can you do? we have to like it/but into it/accept it", and people being more and more shackled to the internet (which has many flaws.)

The average person on facebook, for example, isn't like me to where they friend hundreds of music people and can see updates of music things from time to time or checks out tons of pages for mentions of things (which is really the only word of mouth that exists on the internet) but rather people who have average friends and do average things, so since the outside world doesn't tell them of things and they are friends with people that also don't know of these bands, they won't end up hearing of them. Like I tell people all the time, the internet has many flaws, some being that you have to know of what you are looking for before you look for it, you can't just type in a question mark in the search bar and have everything you would have wanted to know about come up, not everything gets put on the internet in the first place, tons of stuff gets taken down off the internet all the time, you have to do tons of advertising for something if you want it to get even the littlest bit of attention, but even then, lots of other comments and things will bury yours, things are actually pretty hard to find on the internet, search functions miss a lot of things and don't have them register, post tons of things that have nothing to do with what you searched for, and post only the most popular things, making the smaller things hard to find. If someone makes a page and doesn't advertise for it or tell anyone of it, it will never get any likes or anyone knowing of it. You have to do hours of searching on the internet for something you might like in order for it to actually be worth it and to find anything, and most people don't have that kind of time. The audience of bands is now limited to the fans who specifically search for them, and try really hard at that, and somehow find out that they would exist in the first place.

Then you have the media and music corporations today pushing all that pop garbage, so the only thing that ever does get spread out there is the pop stars that are already as famous as can be, which leads to kids only knowing of pop. I have a feeling the people in charge of that have a big hold on what music ever gets anywhere. It seems like the mainstream media is pushing out a smaller and smaller amount of different types of music. I keep hearing that in the 90s, there were all sorts of styles of music that had mainstream success simultaneously (grunge/alternative/pop/r&b/latino/rap and hiphop etc) What do we have now? Pop, maybe some rap still, then the "underground" is the hipster indie which I'll get to next. All of this has made it very hard for anything new to come about in any sense where it gets attention. It's like there's a middleclass has disappeared so now it's poor vs. rich/99% type of problem in music where the underground is really underground and the mainstream is really mainstream, and the crappiest quality and smallest amount of music is getting the most amount of attention and the people behind them control all.

So then you have the false "underground/indie" made up of those popular, overly atmospheric and soft, hipster, "indie" bands that don't sound anything at all like rock and roll and sound half-dead, to give the people a sense of some sort of underground/indie "cool" culture when really these people are famous and I think a lot of them are signed to major labels anyway and they are probably being controlled and marketed as well, so it ends up in a level system for the underground, where the actual underground bands are really underground and no one's ever heard of them, because when you go looking for non-mainstream bands or bands that sound like 90s indie, you get the not-as-popular-as-pop-but-still-kind-of-mainstream "indie" bands.

Being the type of kid I always was and before I started this page and all that, you start to get fed up with the world and think "Ok well if no one's going to rock today or form a revolution, then I'll do it!" while also simultaneously thinking that maybe it would end up happening because you don't see anyone that wants to rage or has passion like you do and you know there would be a fanbase for it if you ever did do it because now would be the perfect time because polished pop has been around for so long and people would want raw and your thoughts are the same as Kurt Cobain's, and that it'll never happen because that'll never happen to you, let's get real here, it doesn't happen that often anyway, no one's ever going to pay attention to you, it's just not going to happen, but it's about the music anyway first and foremost, so it doesn't matter that much. The page also made me realize that there are so many bands that are so much further along at this game than I am, so much better, and would totally form a revolution before I do. It really makes you think, even if someone did form a band or help push a band thinking they would be totally revolutionary, they probably would just end up in the pile of bands that are already like that and haven't gotten there yet.

My page as of now has around 3,000 likes, 700 bands, and I'm sure it's not that famous.  I'd say that's pretty good for a small-time page, but it doesn't have any sort of mainstream attention on it. I bet most grunge fans checking out the hundred-thousand-like grunge pages have never even heard of my page. Imagine the impact if it actually got any sort of attention. There'd probably be millions of modern grunge bands posted on there!

Luckily, there has been a little bit of attention here and there for some of these bands, like Violent Soho going to Lollapalooza a few years back, and selling out the shows of their recent tour, and The Indecent going to the Warped Tour, and them and a few others having facebook pages that are in the tens of thousands of likes, or being produced by cool people like Steve Albini, and I think a few of them opened for some more famous bands, so perhaps there is some sort of revolution but it is only just beginning. One can hope. At the very least, we need to find some other way of showing people these bands, because they aren't going to learn about them elsewhere.

You know what, as I am writing this, I am reminded of a few points that this recent article brought up. I think this kind of proves a lot of my points, The 13 Most Insidious, Pervasive Lies of the Modern Music Industry...

This is Not My Generation Part 1

I have been thinking a lot about having a band diary, for when I flee to Seattle and try to form a band, for one thing, for myself, and for another thing, so that if I ever have any fans, they can read how it all went down, because as a fan of bands myself, that is always fun, and I always wish there were more detailed records of the early days of my favorite bands, and I figured why not write it in a little journal book as well as in a blog, so that people don't have to wait for me to die or something in order to get their hands on it, they can learn as we all go along, and so that someone who finds out about my band if I do become famous can find out stuff easily and right away (again, not that I'm destined to become famous and have lots of fans, just in case I do. I'm just determined to be in a band, and even if we have a few fans, it'll be worth it), and I figured I might as well start that in this blog when the time comes (I was always going to post if I did form a band here anyway), but I also kind of wanted to start a section about what it's like to be an outcast of Generation Y, and feel like you're part of Generation X, and struggles involving all of that. I'm always saying how I hate it how they never interview grunge kids of today when doing grunge documentaries and whatnot nowadays, and no one pays attention to us kids who actually don't like the trendy things of today, so why bother waiting for someone with a camera or email questions or something to come and interview kids like us? Why not just start talking about it and see if it can pick up some speed? So that's what I'm going to do. These are tales from a girl who never felt like she fit in with her generation, and then found one that felt like it ripped her off. I know, it might seem like a childish teenager thing to be pissed at your own generation, and feel like such an outcast, but it was never a phase-like thing for me, and hopefully, throughout my writing, you'll all see why. Sometimes I start to feel better about it, get advice on how to avoid it, and learn to laugh at it or try to ignore it, but I always end up back in my same old spot of hating it and feeling lonely from it, and having the urge to change it, and DO something. Though if anything were to ever happen, it would be from people like me, who just can't stand something, have a lot of passion, and can't just sit around being apathetic and accepting it like it's no big deal, so I guess it's not all bad. Hopefully, a lot of people will be able to relate to what I have to say. I'm here to tell it like it is.

What it's like to be a 20 year old in 2012 (that is if you don't like the stuff that is in the modern culture) (or really, a teen in the 2000s and little kid in the late 90s as well) .

Well, it is rather odd when you start to look up facebook pages of old friends, and they all are wearing modern 2000sey clothes, have those huge ear whole things, stuff like Obey shirts, say YOLO, and Swag, and talk all gangsta in posts, or talk about going to the show of the newest electronic or pop sensation, and you just can't relate, because they are all going about it in the weirdest ways, and seem to live for the trends of today, and there's always a sense of people not even liking music today. They just go to a few concerts of the newest sensations, because they think that's just what people do. Being a music person, I just can't understand either bands making music for any other reason besides the love of music, or fans listening to music for any other reason than the love of music. All of that really is the quickest way to make me feel like I have nothing in common with people, and like I'm standing on the outside, separated form all of the other people or something. I keep thinking "They know trends continually change, right?" It just doesn't seem worth it when you know you are going to have to latch on to something else some time soon, and I have seen some of these kids go from thing to thing with the coming trends. I hated it when people were shoving pictures in my face of Backstreet Boys or whoever, asking which one I thought was cute, and I hate it when they make me feel like an outcast in the same ways, after all this time, as well. Sometimes I feel like I should just stay off the internet. I know I shouldn't care, but it really is just incredibly hard to relate to. I hope all of this doesn't sound too pretentious. I would never act mean toward people. I just feel alienated by them, as I have since '98. I'm used to thinking I'm the one that's different though, mainly because that's what I was always told, but now I'm getting used to thinking they are the ones who are different, but still I would never act better than anyone. Oh and the stupid doing things for irony thing. I like irony too, heck that's why I got a facebook page in the first place (since I hate social media, but really it's the only way to get any sort of word of mouth out of this generation, so I have to use it now), but you guys have to realize that when you pay attention to something, especially when you BUY things, because it's so bad that it's funny or you like feeling better than it, you are making it FAMOUS, and contributing to the crappy culture we have now. I don't even think people like half the stuff that's around nowadays. They just pay attention to it because of the trainwreck/car wreck factor. It's so bad they can't look away, and then they are absorbed by it because of how bad it is. They listen to bad pop because it's so bad that it's funny. Yeah I actually heard a lot of people say they hated Hot Problems, but they spent money on it because they hated it, because it was so bad, or because it was so bad that it was funny. I have also come across a guy saying he was made fun of in school for liking music un-ironically. I want to check out of this generation NOW.

It's really annoying not liking the clothes of your own generation, so you have to resort to either thrift stores (which around here only have not what I'm looking for, or 2000s clothes), or online shopping. I so desperately want more of those cool 90s grunge black rayon dresses with the little flowers all over them, but I haven't been able to find any in thrift stores, and the main online site I can find them on is ebay, which definitely does not have thrift store prices. Some are actually $50, $60, or more, and for what? A dress form the 90s that is probably second hand, that if it was sold in a thrift store, would go for $4? Yeah not only would I never have the money for that, but I don't think I'd pay that much for that type of dress, or probably any dress, anyway. I also have no idea where to find band shirts. Especially the ones I want. I desperately want that Love Battery one with the pink around the battery (the cover of Dayglo), but of course I'll never be able to find that anywhere. I think they have some band shirts in regular stores, but mainly for the big bands, like Nirvana. I want a Feast or Skin Yard shirt. Though I bet some bands have websites that sell them. I've often though about seeing if I can just screenprint my own shirts, like go the DIY route, but for one thing, you need money to buy all the supplies, and for another thing, there are so many pictures I know I want that exist already, that might be hard to recreate myself, so I figure why not just buy them if I can find them. I still hate skinny jeans just as much as I ever did as well.

Vinyl/record stores/CDs/ availability of physical albums/availability of rock concerts. Well, as we all know, there aren't nearly as many record/CD stores around as there used to be (and only having been born in '92, I don't know how many there were before, but I've heard this so much), and there are a few record stores around here, but they are like 45 minutes or more away, and small, with stuff I've never heard of before. I did grow up on cassettes, CDs, and the radio, but not vinyl, because apparently we had a whole bunch of vinyl and a record player, with some classic metal albums that I would have loved, like the kinds with the really cool artwork, and my dad threw them all out because he thought our record player was broken and vinyl was out of style anyway, so there was no point. Little did he know, vinyl would be back in style, and you can get anything fixed at Emmett's Fix it Shop! (little joke there) So basically my introduction to vinyl was in 2009, when I got a record player for Christmas. Though I found out the 45 speed was broken by buying the Hunted Down Soundgarden single at Record Store Day, and played it, and it sounded incredibly heavy, so I figured it probably shouldn't sound that way, and there must be something wrong. I recorded the way it sounded, do to the suggestion of a friend, and put it up on youtube, in case anyone wants to hear. I do like vinyl, it's fun to watch it spin and follow my eyes with it, much like I did with the ceiling fans at places like Subway when I was little, but I still prefer CDs, though I really cherish the physical album, and like it all before digital files. Digital should just be for convenience of having music in a small package and on the go. It really feels less intimate than physical albums. One day I'm going to have a million CDs, and replace all the digital files I have with the files from the CDs. It feels weird not having that many record stores around. I never grew up around them, but it seems like there should be waaaay more availability of physical albums and stores to find them. Especially the unique indie stores. It's just such a shame. I know a lot more people would buy physical albums more, if they were more available. Plus, you can go looking around, and find stuff you wouldn't find just by looking through itunes, and find great deals as well. You tend to cherish it a lot more in a store. Oh also, I was never brought up in that much of a musical community, so I never knew of any rock clubs, and still don't around here (well there aren't even any in this small town), and I am the type to want to go to shows all the time, so hopefully once I move to a bigger town, I will be able to do this, though high ticket prices prove impossible to pay for anyway, so I'd have to settle for the cheap punk type shows. I'm sure rock concert venues have slowed down as well, seeming as how people keep saying rock is dead, and no one cares about music that much these days. Man, I'd kill to know what it was like in the 80s and 90s.

MTV, word of mouth, fanzines etc. Well I've been hearing older people act like we have it so good today because we have the internet, and some act like we're spoiled and shouldn't be complaining and take everything for granted, but THEY are the ones who took their generation for granted. We only use the internet and youtube and whatnot because that's ALL we have. Apparently, MTV actually used to have music on it. Yeah, that's how it would work. Music videos and music related shows on a channel entitled Music Television. Who'd a thunk it? Well Mr. smarty pants older people, kids my age didn't have that, and I envy your generation sooo much because of it. I so DESPERATELY want to know what MTV was actually like. I want to know what the heck a VJ is exactly, and what they did, and how they did it. I want to know what types of music videos they would play, how often they would play them, and actually just WATCH it all, because it's always better if you just experience it. MTV apparently brought music to you. That sounds SO cool! You have to know what you are looking for before you type it into the search bar to try and find it, so even though the internet has a lot of stuff, you can't just type in a question mark and have everything you could ever possibly want just show up. With things like MTV, you could actually find new stuff easily, and find stuff you might like, and try out different things. Really, the two worlds should work hand in hand: They should bring back MV the way it was, have waay more word of mouth, more rock clubs, and record/CD stores, and a general sense of just liking music and being creative and passionate and sharing everything you find, so that you can find stuff, and then say once you see a music video you like on MTV, you can go to youtube and find it and favorite it and listen to it whenever you want. Oh and I want to know what the heck Public Access is. I keep hearing that in reference to Wayne's World. (yes I'm aware I can google it, but it's not the same as experiencing it). Oh and apparently you all had lots of word of mouth as well. The only word of moth we ever had was kids in school talking about whatever was already as famous as possible, because there was a sense of doing only the things that there popular. Apparently, you guys had a thing where you all would teach each other about underground bands and mention names and help each other out with knowledge of cool things. That just sounds fantastic. I do try to do that myself, but usually people today are content with whatever they already know, so it can be hard to make that sort of connection with people. Then there's what I previously talked about, the lots more record/CD stores, and rock clubs. One person told me they would have cork boards at either rock clubs or music stores, of like interest groups for music, and people in the know could just tell you what cool bands to listen to. Not to mention people back then were actually creative, and passionate, and just did things. We're so addicted to the internet and our devices(seriously, no one ever looks up from their phones), that we don't have time to get things done or be real (and yes, I hate that part of my generation as well, and hate apathy, and always was trying to get myself away from that and spread word more of good bands and form my own and all of that.) Oh and of course they had way more fanzines, and that culture always sounded interesting to me, but I could never find them anywhere, and I've heard they are almost dead as well, but you can find some on the internet, but it's not the same. There were flyers everywhere as well. When I went to Seattle back in 2010, I think all the flyers were ripped off the poles, and all that was left were little pieces. It made me long for the days like in Hype! when you could see that girl going around stapling Tad flyers to all the poles that already had tons of flyers/posters of the other cool bands. Now the only flyers I see are the small ones in the corner of facebook events for band gigs. Yeah, that's just sad, but hey at least there's that much. To say that we have it better just because we have more advanced technology, is barbaric and laughable. There's no excuse for getting rid of that sort of feeling, that went along with that culture, (yes I know I can't really say what it was actually like, but a girl can imagine). Your whole culture sounds amazing to me. We lost a lot of that when we took up more technology and started talking to everyone by text or social media. It's like we actually did replace a lot of human things with machines just to take up time in our pathetic lives. YOU are the ones that are privileged.

That's all for now. I know, I can actually talk a lot when I get going, so hopefully you all didn't mind reading that much. I'll continue this series as I think of more stuff to write about. Heck, it might get to the point where I write about things that I come across every day that have to do with this sort of thing.

Teach younger people of good music/it's not teenage girl's taste in music, it's that it's MARKETED to teenage girls

So I wanted to share this, I was in a conversation with someone talking about revolutions and whatnot, and they mentioned how people make famous the teenage girls taste in music, aka the boy bands, and they are stupid and will by anything and whatnot, but it's not that, it's that that's a stereotype, and that it's MARKETED to teenage girls, so here's a post I wrote,

"It's the stupid marketing campaign. I always thought I was the only one on earth who didn't like that crap, but thinking back now, I knew of maybe 5 friends who liked it, and no one else talked about it. I realize it was the media that made it seem like they were oh so popular. My mom told me a while ago that when those people came out, she was scared, because she didn't know what was going on and the music and everything was so bad, but she never told me that when I was little. They would talk on the news and say that all these teenage girls are in love with Backstreet Boys and they were screaming for them, then they'd show a couple, and it made it seem like the whole world liked them, much like a year ago I saw something that said "EVERYONE loves Justin Beiber" when everyone I know hates him, ESPECIALLY my little and teenaged girl cousins. 

It's also the way they market rock and roll. I frankly NEVER felt like rock and roll was a guy thing, but that's because I grew up hearing it on the radio and not seeing it, in the late 90s when no one was talking about it, so I definitely wouldn't think it wasn't girly to like Ozzy. When I grew up and started watching shows about the musicians I grew up with and glam rock and how all the musicians were guys, and especially that stupid music video for Here I Go Again, which is a song I always loved, and then I see that girl rolling around on that car, I could tell it wasn't marketed for me. What the world really needs to do is get rid of the stereotype that young girls are supposed to like bad pop, and give them more support for liking decent music, and TEACH CHILDREN ABOUT GOOD BANDS because it is NOT their fault that they don't know of anything other than the garbage pop of today, so the real revolution will start when older people teach younger people of good music, and if teenage girls are so stupid and buy whatever is thrown at them, then show them good music. After all, and this is why I hate those stupid stereotypes, TEENAGE GIRLS IN THE 90S WERE GRUNGE TOO! I remember looking up to the cool, flannel clad teenage girls I saw at that time. It is not because they like bad pop, it's because they are pressured into liking it. 

Of course the media is the main pressuring thing on society, and I get it would be hard to change that, but if older people did make it easy for younger people to know of and like rock, and maybe just straight up tell them their thoughts on how stupid the pop people of today are instead of enabling this horrid generation, then at least that's a start. I should be more pressuring with my little cousins, but hey they already make fun of Justin Bieber more than I do. I've heard the phrase "We don't like it but it's all there is" so many times I want to puke. Part of the problem is also apathy. Heck, we could go beyond the media. If we could somehow spread the word to older people to show their kids decent music, and make it feel like they really don't have to like the garbage of today, maybe tell them how it used to be like elders in tribes do with their young to keep their stories going for all eternity, then THAT will be the revolution."

and then I took that to another site and commented more with

"So I urge you older people, or anyone really, TELL KIDS ABOUT GOOD MUSIC! It's not their fault all they have to choose from is crap." "I'm a girl age 20 and my favorite thing in the world is grunge, and I grew up listening to 70s and 80s music and loving it, and like I said, all my little girl cousins hate hate the pop of today. You're just used to hearing that stereotype. Heck, I showed my little cousins some music, and they liked it, especially Veruca Salt, The Breeders, and Splendora."

and

"I've heard some people stupidly say stuff like "I'm tired of everyone saying that because no one they know likes this stuff that that means that not many people do. It's in the media!" like hello, you disproved your own thing by talking about all the people who see all the people around them and virtually NO ONE likes the garbage the media says they like. It's not the people going by the people around them that are wrong, the people that are wrong are the people thinking everything the media shows them is right. It's as stupid as looking at the media and then thinking that most of the world is made up of celebrities, when really they are only a small percentage of the population. Granted, there will be some people that like that stuff, but look around, all I see is hate, and the love for the stuff that I do see is peer pressure from the media, and OF COURSE the media and stereotypes are only going to show the people that like that stuff, THAT"S WHAT THEY ARE THERE FOR, and that's how it keeps going. Once people realize that television stereotypes are just that, STEREOTYPES, the easier it will be to both feel way less pressured from those stereotypes, and look around you and realize NOT NEARLY as many people like the stuff of today as the media suggests."
as well as 
"Maybe try and tell them in a meaningful and heartfelt way that what they are doing is shallow, and really try to show them good music, or randomly start playing music one day and let them come to you and ask what it is, and maybe trick them into hearing something awesome without telling them it's old so that they get to like it before forming an opinion of it based off of it being old, or maybe start a club at your school, for a certain type of music, or like this page here trying to get rid of the current state of music and whatnot, but I know, it can be hard, I myself hate that the media shoves that music down my throat so that makes me apprehensive about showing it to more people, though I am trying to get better, but if we all could do that, that would probably change things at least a bit."

..after all, the video for Smells Like Teen Spirit is most popular with females, age 13-17.