Do You Have The Time To Listen to Me Whine? ... Yes We Do!

Well Green Day are back, and about bloody time!

This opinion, sadly, is not shared by everyone. A lot of people seem to think that Green Day are becoming like every other band that is past there prime, that they are just starting to sound the same.

But the other opinion is at the other end of the spectrum, the majority are singing their praises, they’ve taken over the world once with American Idiot, and they’re about to do it again with 21st Century Breakdown.

However, it seems like the cards are on the table for Marilyn Manson. After deciding he wasn’t going to retire after all, his albums have been a disappointment to fans and experts alike.

Having listened to both albums in question, Green Day have not lost their spark. Sure, they’ve grown up since their breakthrough album, Dookie, but it doesn’t look like they are about to go hanging up their guitars any time soon. While there’s still a cause to fight for, Green Day will still exist. At the end of the world, there will be cockroaches, re-runs of friends, big brother and Green Day – the trio are simply indestructible now.

The same can’t be said for Marilyn Manson. A divorce, a far younger lover, and two flop albums in the time that Green Day have been conquering the world. It now seems like its maybe time for Manson to hang up his leathers, take off his make-up and go back to watercolour painting.

"It’s Not a Fashion Statement, It’s a Deathwish..." Part 2 – Are Piercings Losing Their Originality?

Back in the days of punk and “rebellion” being pierced was something scary and you only really got pierced if you were a rocker, or of that sort of persuasion.





However, it now seems like the world and their wives - even the cat – are getting piercings and it’s no longer such an act of rebellion, more a case of fashion.






This seems most noticeable when it comes to lip piercings. Two years ago, when I got my lip pierced for the first time – amidst immense nervousness, and a bit of rebellion, since I hadn’t told my mum – I knew very few people with piercings.

But now, that’s a different story, all you need to do is look around, and you can lose count of the body art you see, even on the local undesirables coming out of the job centre, and your local neds.




Body art as a form of individuality, as it once was, seems to be dead…

"This Is Not a Fashion Statement, Its a Deathwish..." - Emo, is it a way of life or just a scene?

What do you think of when someone says the word “emo”? A teeny popper wearing Converse and too much eyeliner?

This seems to be the way emo and emo kids all over the world seem to be perceived now, but it wasn’t always that way.

Once upon a time in a land of glitter and rainbows, emo, short for emotional was all about the music, about what the artists such as My Chemical Romance, were trying to say. Strongly anti-suicide, these bands would deliver strong messages to their fans. Often fans have told bands such as these that their music saved their life…

So what happened? How did it suddenly become that this pro-life genre suddenly became razor wielding?

Suddenly emo became popular. Before, emo kids were the outcasts, deemed as depressed by their peers, they were avoided like the plague. But then emo bands such as Fall Out Boy hit the mainstream and suddenly the world and its wife, even your granny are singing along and painting their nails black.

This fad hasn’t fazed out either, so it seems that emo as it was, is dead and buried, paving the way for the scene kid take over…

A is for Ananrchy (for now)... the Circle of Life in the music industry

When punk hit the airwaves in the mid 70s, it was radical and revolutionary. It was a force to be reckoned with, riots took place on the once quiet streets and songs were banned from the radio.
Punks were the people that sent your granny running for cover, and make your little sister cry. With their spiked hair dyed bright colours, ragged clothes and brash attitudes, they were intimidating.

After a few years, punk became the norm, no longer anti-conformist; people were used to their cause and the sense of being something radical, fizzled out.

But punk was not the first revolution force in the music scene. Believe it or not, Elvis was quite the rebel in his day. His hip-shaking shocked many, and he was described as “the first rock symbol of teenage rebellion”.

Today, there seems to be a distinct lack of rebellion. To be quite frank, today’s music scene actually seems quite dull. Rock stars aren’t so scary; we’re too used to them now. In fact, seeing guys wearing make-up seems almost normal now. Music seems safe. That was, until Katy Perry and Lady Gaga appeared and gave things a bit of a shake up.

Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” caused many shocked gasps and raised eyebrows from parents as their kids sang along to the lyrics, which seemed to openly promote lesbianism and bi-sexuality. And Lady Gaga’s songs don’t leave much to the imagination. With lyrics such as “…bluffin’ with my muffin…” and “… I wanna ride on your disco stick…” she’s appealing to those of us with dirty minds, because sexual innuendos aren’t as taboo as they were in good old Elvis’ day.

But, soon they will fall victim to good old familiarity too. Indeed, music from the likes of Elvis and the Sex Pistols was revolutionary in its day. It blew off the cobwebs and broke taboos, but they just became the norm, nothing special after just a few years. Ultimately, this happens to all artists and bands.

It’s the proverbial circle of life. A particular band is new and fresh, until they become familiar, and make way for the next revolution on the music scene…