Video Killed the Radio Star...

Bullshit.

Radio killed the radio star; radio promoters, radio station managers, radio marketing executives, radio programming directors and radio on-air personalities. They should all be drawn and quartered. And don't get me started on the Much Music. All of these ridiculous shows - Hit Me Baby One More Time (acts from the 80's & 90's return to play their 'hits'), Much 911 (the VJ's - who all need lobotomies - go around Canada 'helping' arty kids in need of a new cell phone or something equally desperate), Born to Be (the sob story of wenches like Britney Spears and how tough she has it and how she's drained and all the obstacles she's overcome to blossom into the tabloid joke she is) - make me sick. Most of the programming AND the VJ's on Much Music should be tossed in the nearest dumpster. It's become a playground for arrogant, egotistical college dropouts to pretend their important and knowledgeable. And with all their posing, talking, sharing inside jokes and hair twirling, they leave no time for videos. Isn't that what they're supposed to be there for? Isn't the station supposed to be presenting and supporting the music industry? Who cares what that little blonde hermaphrodite thinks about the new Arcade Fire single. Play the goddamned video and we'll decide for ourselves.

Is it any wonder that record sales are at all time low and that EMI (one of the remaining 4 big labels) is merging with Warner/BMG? (who were also on their own 3 years ago) I'll tell you why this is the case. It's because nobody who's supposed to be promoting music is doing it anymore. They're too busy trying to set trends and then follow trends and then dislodge their heads from their asses after all that tail chasing.

I was driving around getting groceries tonight and I decided to try my luck with the radio. I have to be honest - I don't like listening to it anymore. I know why radio stations keep playing the same music that nobody cares about anymore (It's because the record labels hire a 'promoter' who pays the radio station off), but I can't understand why these stations haven't smartened up. You see there was a 'scare' in the last few years. A lot of radio stations closed and others had to shift their 'sound' to what the kids were listening to. Apparently this thing called the internet is really diffusing the big radio station audiences.

No shit.

Maybe it's because people can listen to the music they want, WHEN they want to on the internet. Or maybe it's because the internet radio stations are less about being paid off by dirty record executives and more about playing the music the fans want to hear. Or perhaps - just perhaps, mind you - the Internet Radio Stations actually cater to their audience. I mean Jesus. I don't listen to Edge 102.1 to hear the traffic, or how the Leafs did last night or to hear a couple of jackasses trying to be funny. I'll go to a talk radio station or a sports station for that stuff. I listen to 102.1 (rarely) because it's supposed to be a music station. But this is decreasingly the case. I flipped through 6 stations tonight for almost three minutes (of talking, useless information and advertising), only to land on the new Nickelback song.

Un. Buh. Lieveable.

That's almost a whole other rant. It's bad enough that the entire Canadian content on our radio stations is fulfilled with such shitty acts as Nickelback, Our Lady Peace, Billy Talent, Alexisonfire and Broken Social Scene. Ok, that argument is partly a matter of taste. But more so, the argument is about diversity. Sure, play the shitty Canadian music, but could we not also play something new instead of playing the stale Our Lady Peace single for the 3rd time today? If radio bigwigs substituted a new song from a new Canadian band instead of every 3rd daily spin from all these big label Canadian acts, we would have a much healthier and much stronger music scene in Canada.

We should all borrow the mentality of a band that some friends of mine are in. Check them out @ www.thepopulars.com. They believe the time is ripe for:

"Musical revolution. To burn down the house that rock built and rebuild with fresh intensity, raw emotion and pure passion and commitment. To clear the air in a very tepid artistic climate."

Amen, brothers.