When I first started to choose my own music and define my musical identity, boybands were my thing.
Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC were awesome for me. Their time came and went and break ups happened (at least on the *NSYNC side of the spectrum).

But then came a boyband I could relate to:
Dream Street

I was heavily into them for the last year of their career, although I didn't know it at the time. Because of a lawsuit filed by their parents against their management gone array, the group broke up and since then, it's been difficult for me to find another artist to make music a worthwhile art.

A couple of years later, The Click Five burst onto the scene. They were a combination of The Beatles and The Beach Boys and their music made old-school sound cool again. But again... things change... their lead singer left the group and when the new lead singer came in, the sound changed drastically and I'm considering from resigning from their fanbase altogether.

My point is that musical groups or bands change perhaps more drastically than when a solo artist decides to try for a new, more mature sound. When people come and go, the whole image changes.

Which is why I find it very difficult to get into any new artists anymore. Even if their sound is good, nothing ever lasts forever in the ever-changing music industry.

The only brightside is that the lead singers are so popular they end up pursing careers of their own and more often than not, their sound is even better than the group they left behind.

I don't condone Justin Timberlake because I believe he's partially responsible for the downfall of today's quality in music.

But Jesse McCartney (Dream Street) and Eric Dill (The Click Five) have come up with their own sounds that surpass the groups they were from.
When I found out Eric Dill's myspace the other day, it felt like a ray of hope. Because the change in the sound of a group that used to bring me up when I was down was beyond devestating... luckily that only lasted a week, but I'd give anything to get that week of my life back.

branch out from boy bands, maybe?

www.myspace.com/brandnew

evenstar said:

I think I pretty much have by this point...

I bought 2 CD's from 2 groups recently:
Nickelback
Daughtry

But it's not going to be anything "permanent"... heh, for the longest time, since Dream Street, I haven't found a solid artist I could truly call my favorite... that people have actually heard of (they still scratch their heads at Jesse McCartney and Eric Dill).

Well, at least people know who Prince is ...not openly accepted by everyone, but at least they know who he is

When I listen to boy bands these days (except for the *Original* Click Five), there's little connection. It feels like a thing of the past. And I think I've kinda seen the illegitacy of "boybands"... more or less pre-packaged-pop... not true musicians (again, the *Original* Click Five played their own instruments and wrote their own music... made it hard to give them up).

The next step is obviously Merzbow.

evenstar said:

prettymansson said:

don't tell me there's someone else on the org who actually likes brand new besides me.

evenstar said:

evenstar said:

...I'm gonna have to agree with this one.

Heres a BIG reason too, most of these bands are handed everything, nobody pays their dues busted it in clubs anymore. I was reading the INXS biography recently and they played 200-300 shows a YEAR, from 1978-1985, talking about paying your dues

prettymansson said:

favorite album? favorite song??

lastdecember said:

What INXS bio?
Is it "The Final Days of Michael Hutchence?"
If so, that book is fantastic. I love anyone who reads a bio about INXS.

[Edited 11/4/07 0:11am]

Vanilli said:

Know its the book by ANthony Bozza, called "story to story" the official Autobiogrpahy of Inxs. Great Book, great insight to all of the members and many of Michaels close friends especially Michelle Bennet his long time Girlfriend, I'll be doing a BIG poist on Michael and Inxs very soon as we near the 10th year without him!

lastdecember said:

Awesome! What did you think of his solo album? I also have an outtake from his solo album called, "Let The People Talk." Amazing stuff. Lyrically - you can tell, this track really was him speaking from his tortured heart. If you wanna hear it, org note me.

Vanilli said:

I liked the solo record alot, lyrically very haunting and closing the record with SLIDE AWAY was ironic. That last INXS record with him "elegantly wasted" was really all about him and where he was at that point, though he did write with Andrew on it as he often did, all of it that Vibe was from wwhere Michael was at. The book has some really great tour stories from their early days and of course the days when they were the biggest band out there worldwide, and of course working in the later years, the whole band had alot going on personally too. There were alot of internal fights going on and Tim Farriss and Michael fought the last time they spoke and never solved it, it was really sad reading how Tim to this day regrets their fighting.