Pole Dancing Tunes – top 40 SMUT!

Hurra! I did my first pole dancing class last night at Pol-arise. (Orginial name huh! :p )  It was super fun and super sexy and I wasn’t suprised at the choice of music for our routines…. The first move we learnt was called the “Kate Moss” (no, it wasn’t compulsary to get high first! :p [...]

Rant Rant Rant – damn you Rolling Stone!!!

So yeah… check out this article from music magazine Rolling Stone’s online website, called Artists to Watch: Ten Artists and Bands Who are Bringing the Future of Music, Today. Note that the artists are mainly rock, female singers, electronic and rap/RnB acts…….AGAIN. Are there any other genres of music besides these???? Apparently not!! In particular [...]

Gaps between metal and top 40 – MUSIC/ALBUM PRODUCTION

I’ve spoken about many different themes and gaps between heavy metal (and other styles) and top 40 music, in terms of performance, composition, culture, etc. I have saved a bombshell for last however, as I have not yet discussed anything to do with the production of the music, in terms of recording techniques, mixing processes, [...]

Heavy metal culture – more intimacy/meaning/dedication than top 40?

The culture of heavy metal music and the culture of top 40 music are on two completely different spectrums, and appreciated in many different means to one another. I love how devoted metal-heads are to their music/artists, especially in contrast to how fans of top 40 music’s attitude differ so much. I have asked many [...]

Rip-offs? More examples can be found here.

Starting with Lacuna Coil, Nightwish, The Gathering, and Theatre of Tragedy, these were acts that shared common influences and sounds, and thus a term and genre was created to describe the aforementioned performers; namely “female-fronted gothic metal bands”. A multitude of variations on this term exist, but sadly, the efforts of many of these original [...]

‘Wannabee’ bands being labeled metal – ripping off actual metal bands

There is a fairly high number of bands being labeled as ‘metal’ in the popular music scene – and in some circumstances, the top 40 scene – that are not metal at all, and in fact, are ripping off bands, rather than taking influence from them and creating their own interpretation of the music. These [...]

What irks me about Music Journalism

I’ve found it really hard to locate Music Journalism on the net, blogs, articles, essays, etc. First I wondered if I was using the wrong search terms or not being specific enough. Eventually I found some sites that could fall under the category of music journalism, but it was a bit of a lucky dip whether [...]

Underground artists – touring to live

Another gap which can be considered good topic for discussion between top 40 artists and underground death metal artists, is how most of their money is made, and the effect that this has on them as artists and people. Obviously, both styles of artists are going to make most of their money through music, but [...]

The androgynous appeal.

First, examine these three pictures: All three are male. All three front hugely successful bands that, whilst recently experiencing some success in the mainstream music spectrum, have been largely through their careers obscure, cult-worshipped, and gradually, recognised as having merit that could perhaps be marketed to a small exploitable fan-base. In the music world, many [...]

Personalities/attitude of artists – top 40…fake? Following less dedicated?

I find that I can enjoy music, that I feel has a very ‘human’ quality to it, and that can mean a number of things, ranging from the production of the music, the content of the lyrics, and a lot of the time, the personalities and attitudes of the artists who created the music. I [...]