Commercial Music and Why it Sucks
Steps release their four-millionth record. Billions of people buy it, plus the associated dolls, t-shirts, recipe books and clothing accessories. The single gets to number one. A bunch of record company executives buy another Porche with the proceeds. Repeat.
The Gits make a record and press 100 copies. Nobody but those on their college campus buy it. People find in The Gits a band that actually express emotion in their music. Emotion that people can relate to, that makes them feel less powerless and less alone. They have a sense of discovering something new. People say ‘Have you heard The Gits? They’re fantastic.’
Steps make people feel happy, temporarily. But they have no passion – you never hear a fan talk about how amazing they are, how they enhance one’s life. Bands like The Gits give people a reason to live. They make music that is for when you’re sunny and when you’re blue.
If people were dedicated to Steps – if they advocated them to their friends, were fervent when they talked about them, that would be fine. But there’s this apathy to music that means the most popular and widely publicised music is listened to by those who don’t search out music they really like. I wish these people would do themselves a favour and look for the music that evokes an emotional reaction in them – makes them feel pain and happiness and empathy and hope. They’d find a new passion.
And the rest of us wouldn’t hear Steps every way we fucking turned.