The Definitive 200

The Definitive 200 is the list that the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame came up with for music lovers, or something. Not surprisingly enough, the list is consists of albums that sold a ton with some artists of minimum talent (though perspective may vary). And of course, The Beatles is #1.

I printed out the list to see how many album I own on the list, for a minute I thought I own none of it, but it turns out I own 10 out of 200 albums that’s on the list. Including:

The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem

Speakerboxx/The Love Below by Outkast

Get Rich or Die Tryin’ by 50 Cent

American Idiot by Green Day

Eminem Show by Eminem

Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park

OK Computer by Radiohead

Diary of Alicia Keys by Alicia Keys

The Black Albumby Jay-Z

Dangerously In Love by Beyonce

7 out the 10 album are hip-hop and R&B, so does it mean that I own more classic hip-hop and R&B album than classic rock albums? And the funny thing is, only about 21% of the albums that I brought are actually hip-hop and R&B. So this means that I only buy mainstream, top-selling hip-hop album? I guess.

God, I knew I should have brought Nevermind and Ten.

Weekend Playlist

Wolf Like Me
By TV On the Radio
From Return to the Cookie Mountain
Fuzzy guitars mix with blaring bass, with dreamy backing vocals on the background. Can’t help but sing along to it.


Ruby
By The Kaiser Chiefs
From Yours Truly, Angry Mob
It’s all in the chorus. In fact, their new album (which Ruby is on) Yours Truly, Angry Mob is full of delightful big choruses.


In This Twilight
By Nine Inch Nails
From Year Zero
With a crackly noise that recalls a rusting machinery, this song has a extremely melodic chorus that showcased Reznor’s singing ability. The crooning makes a great morning listening when riding on the bus and the sun is rising (ironic), or setting (as the title say).



Living For the Weekend
By Hard-Fi
From Stars of CCTV
An electric lead from the song goes permeating into a working class anthem---shitty job, long hours, and the celebration of the weekend. From the debut album Stars of CCTV, this certainly match loads of people’s mind.



True Mathematics
By Ladytron
From Light and Magic
The throbbing bass goes together with the slashing drums to create a dance track that hard-hitting. Points added to the weird vocals in a foreign language that’s probably made up.




Years later if I read this, I’ll know what I was listening to. Isn’t this what a blog is about?

PS. Writing about music is like dancing about architecture, and I sound a pretentious music critic.

Sideline Commentary

I am a big Internet person; there is an unlimited amount of information and entertainment. Almost every bit of information that you need and want is within your fingertips, and you can watch some obscure 80s television ads on YouTube (no, I didn’t watch them).

Aside from researching information about otters for biology class, forcing myself to watch that horrible video(and song) “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne (that’s got to be a song written for 13 year olds, and I only watched it after hearing some mumbling about it), and reading some weird blogs, an integral part of my venture is reading comments that people leave at various sites (this includes message boards to blogs).
One thing that’s great (or sometimes bad) about the Internet is that it brings out all kinds of people from all kinds of places. This is the clash o cultures, personalities, tastes, and views. Take a Rolling Stone article for example, whenever there’s a post about a modern star of choice, the commentaries below the article will bring out the best and the worst of everyone. This is actually the most entertaining and most frustrating part, you usually get a few laughs out of it, and there’s bound to be comments that make you want to spit at the person who wrote it. Take the above Avril Lavigne “Girlfriend” video on YouTube, there’s tons of comments on that thing. It ranges from “elle est troooo belle et jkiff tro sa chanson “, to “I <3 THIS VIDEO!!! IT ROCKS!!!!” to “that was the stupidest thing i have ever seen i thought the bitch was annoying before but now its just sad n the rest of you idiots who think avril is so punk you need to be shot in the face” and these are just a few of them.

Yes, I actually spent more time reading those than watching the video. There were a lot of times when I questioned my sanity after I found myself reading the comments time after time. I had nodded my head to plenty of them, yet more often than not I found myself frowning, or worse, being upset by it. There was always a sick feeling after some guy insulted your favorite band/singer/book/whatever.

But there’s a lesson that’s hidden in these brilliant, infantile, thorough, incoherent ramblings: no matter how great something is, there will be its haters, and no matter how atrocious something is, there will be its lovers. And more importantly, it’s hard, borderline impossible to change the views of some people.

I figured this out a few years ago when I was younger, and I sometimes have to constantly remind myself of this:
Your opinion sucks, and so does mine.

We all have our own opinions and views, and we need a venue of venting somewhere, and what’s better than the Internet? You may remain anonymous, take on a double life with a completely different personality, and throw out you opinion at any topic any time. I often see vicious slews and just complete assholes on the Internet giving out their view, and there’s a large population of them, and why is that? This is the time for them to shine. Everything seems to be boasted bigger and more malicious on the Internet because it allows people to be protected.
But really, does these comments that I see on message boards matters? Does it contribute to my benefit? Does opinions make something better or worse for you? And what is good or bad?

Of course, the “this sucks ass”, “they’re awesome” and “fuck you” are going their everlasting life on the Internet. I’ll continue reading comments and shake my head at the immature and iniquitous fucks that are clearly idiots, their opinions suck, and the funny thing is, my opinions suck too.

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MySpace

There are some very incoherent and just plain inane posts on MySpace, I mean, more than any other message boards or whatever.

I can feel my IQ being lower while reading those posts.

Is "Better" Worse?

So, "Better" from the long awaited Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" was leaked, now it's rumored to be the first single.

I heard it about a week ago, and the local radio station was playing it yesterday, with a lot of people calling in and say :" This sucks!"

The funny thing is, I DIDN'T think it was THAT bad, maybe it's BECAUSE I'M NOT A GUNS N' ROSES FAN.

It's been what? Sixteen years since the last album (which is a little bit older than me)? Fans are fed up, tired of Axl Rose saying that Chinese Democracy will be released whatever year. This album has to be THE GREATEST ALBUM EVER RECORDED (okay, maybe not that much) to restore people's faith. And that track was not the greatest thing ever, so people are pissed (even more), and this applied to the GNR fans. Fans hated it more than non-fans, because Chinese Democracy meant more to them, so when they're disappointed, there's no mercy.

And you know, people's opinion are easily influenced, then once the initial impression is established, it's hard to change. So when the first wave of people who heard it (i.e the fans)and the view spread, people everywhere are starting to say this is bad. And those who say that this track is good will likely to get flamed and be called a over-obsessive fanboy/girl.

To be fair, like I said, it's not THAT bad. The beginning is bad, with Rose singing in falsetto (which sounded horrible)and some atmospheric sounds (as one radio personality noted, "it sounded like NIN"). Then there's a period of whatever the hell and it kicks in a (pretty) straight forward hard rock riff (with Axl Rose sounding better now). Near the end there's some more industrial-rock like electronic bleeps in the riff. And sadly, Axl tried to scream in the end, and again, it sounds horrible. For a while it sounds okay, maybe even good.

Wonder if this song was released, I don't know, 14 years ago, it would have a better reception. But it's not, so too bad.