The Amazing Rando

and here comes the knee work!

I am.

(HEY) Is for horses (Neigh) Why don't you ride me all night long? (Hey) Is for horses (Neigh) Come along and sing my song!

Fucking wow indeed. I mean, I don't have an IPOD, but if i did it would have alot more than just singles on it. Shit, the best stuff on the album is usually never released as a single. For reference I point to Stairway to Heaven. Overrated a bit, but never a single and still a great track. 12 songs on an album and all of them took the same time and heart to put there, so you do the nice thing and listen to ONE OR TWO?! I hate teenagers. At least, I hate THOSE KINDS of teenagers. TNT, you need to grab them by the throat and tell them to listen to the whole damn album, that way maybe they can figure out they like something without having MTV tell them it's good.

Sadly, in 2007...it'll probably still be Good Charlotte. This leads to another discussion point... what is the GOOD of the today? What will be remembered in 20 years as "great music" and what will be severely mocked and forgotten?

I have a Top 5...in order... 5) The Death of WCW in Panama City Beach. This is more an emotional moment than a mark out moment, though seeing Vince on TNT was just...amazing in it's own right. The promo from Flair later on in the night and the subsequent Sting match made it a great night, even if it did end with Shane McMahon. 4) Shawn Michaels Returns at Summerslam 2002. Yes, for a moment I delved back 8 years in the past and had visions of WM12 all over again. I was screaming like a little girl for HBK to defeat HHH and show the world he still had what it takes. For that moment, I didn't care about the backstage workings of either man, I just wanted Shawn to win...when he got the three count...the room i was in was entirely on their feet. It was beautiful. 3) "But which side is he on!?" - Screamed out by The Brain as Hulk Hogan rushed to the ring to save the day, only to turn on his former friends and begin the NWO in 96. The aftermath of the moment is forever imprinted in my mind, as trash rained down on the ring from all sides. 2) Chris Benoit - World Heavyweight Champion - WMXX. Nuff Said. and finally... 1) Mankind - WWF Champion, Raw 1/4/99 - In a moment that I doubt will EVER be topped for me personally, Mankind became the WWF Champion. The end of the match saw clusterfucks galore and one of the largest reactions I've EVER seen for Stone Cold Steve Austin...but all of that didn't matter. I don't care how he won it...but Mick won it. The cheers after he won topped the Austin cheers, and that made the victory all the sweeter. Seeing him rush around the ring with the belt and being held on DXs shoulders...it still gives me chills to this day. I hadn't watched Nitro that night, and had no idea it was happening (even though it was taped). It was a shock to me and a moment i won't ever forget. For one night, everything was perfect.

I'm fairly certain that the answer lies in one of the many many blank contracts than Linda gave to Mick Foley. It just has to be there.

Oh, I don understand the "hacky crappy artists", but i was looking more at the long term stuff. Thanks to the last decade, I can still see those bands from the 60/70s being played while alot of stuff that is seen as "hit music" now won't even be mentioned except to say "hey, I love the 00s!!" on VH1. Sure, there was alot of crap and alot of one-hit wonders...there was disco and new wave and all of that. But shit, I'd rather hear New Wave than Teen Pop any day. I'm only 21, so I don't know alot about the lesser known music of that era, but that's another point... Those songs still live on today and still have meaning. "Landslide" is an iconic piece of music and probably will be forever...I doubt anyone will ever be saying that about "Bye Bye Bye" or even remember it in 10 years. Personally, I see music as a window through generations, and it is easy to see that. The 60s had peace and love as it's key themes, and it was what you heard...the 70s had disco and the beginnings of the new wave revolution. The 80s begat the video music era in the US and it sadly seems to be all downhill from there. Looking on television and looking at the media, the key themes seem to be "buy my stuff" and "look how much money I have". Eric, you are write...there is TONS of fine music out there today...but sadly it doesn't have much of a chance of being heard where it needs to be. The Corporate Era destroyed music as an art in the mainstream culture. (Hence the title of the thread). The art is still there...but mainstream it is not.

What with the recent Ashlee Simpson debacle, I began to really think about the culture that is popular music. It seems to me that, in and of itself, music is becoming less an art and a form of expression and more a way to make money. Sure, the music business has always been about money, but at least there was a decent product placed behind it, especially in the mainstream. From the 50s to even the early-to-mid 80s, singer songwriters dominated (and I don't mean as simple solo acts either). Just a small list of the popular bands/artists of the era shows you quite the range of talent. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles, James Taylor, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones...so many others. You could look at them and feel the emotion in what they were playing. I don't see much of that today at all. In the late 70s and into the 80s, "Corporate Rock" started to dominate with bands like Boston and Journey leading the front. Sure, there was still the same sort of emotion there, but with a corporation staring down at you in the age where making money began to really become a focal point, it wasn't about the music so much as it was selling it to the public. This only became a bigger issue once MTV and others came along. Bands like Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, and others still exist today, but rely heavily on the fans of the past to make any kind of CD sales. (Note: I'm talking about the general mainstream audience, not some of the more eclectic music fans that really appreciate the past even though they might not have been around for the original releases). Corporations are now looking for whatever hot new thing they can find and hoping to god they have some sort of sound that they can fuck with in a computer to make it sound decent and then sell it after throwing it all over MTV and VH1 for a few weeks. It's absolutely pathetic. I am nearly convinced that if a band like Journey appeared today that they would have to sell their souls to make any kind of decent move in record sales (see: Creed). For one thing, and the Video Music Era taught us this, is that some of those older bands didn't exactly care about what they looked like. Listening to "Hotel California" and then looking at the video for "Boys of Summer" shows two very different sides of the same man in Don Henley. Sure, BOS was during his solo career, but he wrote or helped write both of them. You can't picture the sunglass-wearing Henley in the video singing "Hotel California". It doesn't seem to fit right. Before music videos, bands didn't need to be beautiful and their fans (for the most part) did not really care. Part of it may have been the drugs, but I actually believe that if the Beatles came around today and tried to release the White Album...they wouldn't have gotten any exposure no matter how much talent they have. By today's standards, they aren't even at the level of the Hanson Brothers in terms of what a record company is looking for. In this era, I believe they would have ended up as "cult favorites", releasing CDs that for the most part go undetected by mainstream culture, but to those that hear it...it's amazing. Actually, scratch that, I'm not sure many people in this day and age would even find them to be amazing had they never existed in the first place. Sad, huh? So basically, I put forth the notion that the ART of songwriting and music is almost dead and buried in the mainstream media and culture, where now the art is less about the music and more about the packaging and the sales figures. It's a big reason why year after year so many people are turning to the more niched genre and the underground...lowering record sales and hopefully showing those in power in the music world that it isn't about the p2p file sharing and it isn't about computers...it's about the music itself. One day they will learn. Or at least, I hope so. ~ Rando.

I think this is everyone's favorite THOH. Willie gets an axe to the back in every single one. I believe they are called: The Shinning Time & Punishment Nightmare Cafeteria "...in fact you could say we were eating him right now!"

My top three are: 1) Lisa's Wedding 2) Behind The Laughter 3) You Only Move Twice ...but I could probably write half of the earlier episodes down as favorites. EASILY. I *did* start the last thread on this subject.

I will be getting High Voltage in a few months, Meatwad

105.9 ... THE X~ I'm an XM subscriber...so I'll just throw down my presets: 1) 8 - The 80s 2) 9 - The 90s 3) 25 - The Blend 4) 41 - The Boneyard 5) 46 - Top Tracks 6) 52 - Unsigned 7) 53 - Fungus 8) 76 - Fine Tuning 9) 150 - XM Comedy 10) 200 - XM Live

Coming from an unidentified source, I would like to make it publicly known that even though it won't happen next show and it might not happen for a month... Zack Malibu's biggest fan (and he knows who i'm talking about) may just be making a return. Hide your children.

Shit, you should hear the Donnie Darko DVD commentary with Jake Gyllenhaal doing Walken as Frank The Rabbit.

As much as it is one of my favorite storylines ever... Shane McMahon hiring Steve Austin back only to humiliate him at SurSer 98 and then the subsequent kick-starting of the Corporation was incredibly stupid. I mean, Vince fired him after the Kane/Taker deal...so Austin was kayfabe gone for good. Why hire him back and screw him over? It's not like he couldn't get another hundred or so shots at the title even after the Corporation was formed. He did that anyway, right?

*shifty eyes*

Prepare for the debut of CHRIS AND JAMES ... The fans who think they are pro wrestlers!!

That's one of my favorite Simpson's episodes ever.

You can't be mentioning Sheetz outside of the Mid-Atlantic region (southwestern VA is the farthest south you'll find them) and have people understand. Yes, nearly every MTO rocks the house, but it's still a more "localized" chain. Sheetz is the cheapest around here, but if there isn't one around I go BP, but not a BP Amoco or anything like that. They suck. Straight BP for me.

Zsasz saying "You suck at the Internet" is quite the cruel irony

DJ Jeff - The Fresh Prince of Message Boarding. along with his tag parther SK "Food Man" BF Tag Team Champions of the Avril Forum.

Now, as I can not remember off the top of my head, who originated that perfectionist phrase, AoO?

Ah... those were the dheys. how come did you bring that up?

Bill Proxmire for 47th District Court Baliff! I also didn't mind the Prolonged Stupidity Bannings, as long as there was a good enough reasoning to back up the "prolonged stupidity" part.