
Do you remember the last time music was good? Good music has always been there... but when did the record companies last offer consitent good material? I say '98-'99. The way I see it, rap rock & boy bands destroyed music for the record companies. In 1998 I was a fresh faced college drop out living with John Mayer in a crappy apartment in Duluth, GA. Half of the bands on the radio were good. I mean it.
I just listened to the 1st Owsley record today. I forgot how good it is. It's great poer pop. Fastball's "Out of My Head" might be the greatest production of 1998 or maybe even the late '90's all together. What happened to The New Radicals? Well, I know what happened to them... but what happened to the idea of them? Fastball, Semisonic, good Kravitz, good Alanis, & good Jewel were everywhere. Hell, Shawn Mullins managed to have the #8 song of 1999. Sure there were bands like The Flys, Sugar Ray, Smashmouth, but those bands have ALWAYS been there in my peripheral. Damn it, Ben Folds Five had a Top 40 hit with "Brick" in 1998.
Don't get me wrong, there are good new artists out there. But do you hear them on pop radio? No. I know of two great "new" artists who don't get ANY love from radio. I'm sure there are more. Which brings me to my fear for bands like Y-O-U. Maybe they NEVER get a good record deal. They certainly deserve it.
Britney, The Backstreet Boys, KORN, Limp Bizkit, Creed & Destiny's Child sold so many records in late '99-'02 that they brain washed the record labels to forget what art is about. Dawn it, I'm angry!