Concert Review: Electric Daisy Carnival 2010, Los Angeles

Fireworks. Pyrotechnic shows. A flame thrower rigged arena. Confetti. State of the art lit up carnival rides. Circus midgets. Fog. and LIL JON! ...Just a few of the spectacles that filled the weekend in Los Angeles at the Electric Daisy Carnival that I had the invaluable pleasure of attending. I have been to some amazing electronic music events in my life...namely being LoveFest of San Francisco, POP of San Francisco, and Monster Massive of Los Angeles, but after going to Electric Daisy Carnival for the first time, I can undeniably concur that this is the grand daddy of them all. Considering that I can't separate myself into 5 and couldn't catch all 5 stages and every set, there is a good recap that MTV news did here. Some of the best moments? Spin did a great job of recapping that here.


Day 1 sets I was able to catch:
Chuckie
Steve Aoki
Dada Life
Swedish House Mafia
Kaskade
Deadmau5

Day 2 sets I was able to catch:
Dada Life
Afrojack
Sound of Stereo
Laidback Luke
Benny Benassi
Above & Beyond
Armin van Buuren

I really can't put into words the experience that I had with this event. But here...

Breakdown:

Crowd - The crowd was insane. Probably too insane. The energy levels were so high and people were so desperate to get on the field they even jumped the fences. With everyone so hype, the DJ's knew they had to bring it and responded well.
Production - On a scale from 1 to 10, EDC gets an 11. This production was absolutely insane. The stages were set up and let incredibly well, especially the main stage. Huge wall of LED lights the size of a building and all the pyrotechnic stuff that went down was really incredible. Rigging the entire coliseum with fire torches, state of the art light shows, confetti shooters, fireworks behind the stage, the trampoline jumpers, acrobats, marionettes, and the circus midgets! Insanity! Plus the rides were rigged with great lighting as well. Added an great sense of carnival theme to it all.
Organization - All things considered with the almost 200,000 in attendance, the event was organized rather well. The stages were separated well, the bathrooms were plentiful, and crowd control was handled decently. Props to Insomniac events for the plentiful staff. The only thing I didn't like was the expensive beer and garbage for food.
Lineup - You will never find a more exciting and big name filled line up at any other electronic music event other than Electric Daisy Carnival. Stellar. Amazing. What else can I say? Plus the celebrity appearances...holy moly.

Rating: This event really smacked me in the face big time and showed me indeed how mainstream electronic music is getting here in the United States. I couldn't believe the world class DJ's and all the surprise celebrity appearances saying that this was the greatest massive they have been to. If anything is for sure, it's that dance and electronic music is here. And it's here to stay. ***** (5 stars).

Scale:
***** - Perfect night. Legendary show
**** - Great night. Very enjoyable
*** - Decent night. Some things were hit or miss but overall fine.
** - Boring night. Not too many enjoyable things at this show.
* - Terrible night. Everything went wrong with this one. Where's the booze?

~M

Diss Songs

I was running across some new downloads and for some reason I thought about all the great diss songs that have come out from rappers to one another. Don't ask me how this came across, but I definitely have been thinking about some gold. Most likely will come up with a list sometime soon. But for now, here is some inspiration. Game completely eating up Yukmouth...



~M

#MusicMonday: Electric Daisy Carnival Hype

Hey everyone. Considering #MusicMonday is almost over, might as well make this one short and sweet. Typically I have a lot of musical thoughts going through my head and thinking of a lot of different ideas, but at this moment only one thing is on my mind: Electric Daisy Carnival. Even though Drake's album has come out recently and Eminem dropped Recovery today, EDC is my main focus. For those who have no idea about events that go on within the dance/electronic music scene, Electric Daisy Carnival is the biggest event to happen on the west coast. 2 days long, 12 hours each day, and jam packed full of the filthiest beats of house/trance/electro/drum&bass you can imagine. Also did I mention they have carnival rides? Yeah...it has carnival in the name; makes sense. My journey will take me to the heart of LA to witness the craziest spectacle that I will probably experience in the electronic scene unless I fly to Ibiza or go to one of the European festivals like Love Parade or Dance Valley in the Netherlands. Anyways, here are the DJ's that I am thoroughly stoked to see:


Steve Aoki
Deadmau5 (as usual)
Kaskade
Dirty South
Chuckie
Dada Life
Sean Tyas
Afrojack
Benny Benassi
Fedde Le Grand
Gareth Emery
Laidback Luke
Boys Noize
Above & Beyond
Sasha
ATB
Armin van Buuren (the man!)

If you weren't drooling over that then you just don't know whats going on. Did I also mention Spain plays Chile the same Friday that all this mayhem goes down? Brain overload!! Here's to me surviving the next week...

~M

Random Thoughts: Anyone can Rap...including the Situation

If you have auto-tune, a friend who makes beats, and enough fame left from your 15 minutes to garner some special guest features: you can successfully start a rap career. Peep the new track from "The Situation":



Just...dismal...However, gives me hope that I might be able to rap one day.

Happy Birthday Tupac Amaru Shakur

Today is rap legend 2pac's birthday. The man would have been 39 years old. There isn't anything I can say about 2pac's importance to music that every documentary hasn't already, however I can say that his music meant a lot to me because it represented a realness that I had never heard in rap before up to that point. I really felt a connection to the man. When I listen to a song like "Death Around the Corner," I feel the same paranoia he feels. When I listen to a song like "Dear Mama," I really understand how he feels about his mother and catch a glimpse into his family. Somehow 'Pac had the gift of being able to connect with his audience that no other rapper was able to do before him. I think this is why he was so special to many, and certainly why he was so special to me. I really don't think a rap icon up to the caliber of 2pac will ever be realized again. R.I.P. Tupac. We miss you. Rap could certainly use you right now.

~M

Random Thoughts: World Cup Noise

Who else is slight/largely annoyed by the Vuvuzelas playing in the background of the world up games? They don't necessarily bug me too much, but in a way, kind of rob the spirit of soccer from the crowds. Typically it's singing, team specific chants, and just the feeling of noise that helps carry the mood and the spirit of a world cup soccer game. These Vuvuzelas are kind of robbing the television viewers of the in stadium spirit in a way, while also distracting the players (or so they have said: Cristiano Ronaldo especially). Oh well, considering they are a huge tradition in South Africa, seems like we will all have to deal. My beloved Spain is playing tomorrow: Viva España!


Also, who has any specific favorite World Cup music? Let me know. Post your favorite song.



~M

#MusicMonday: Eminem's Recovery (Album Preview)

Hey everyone happy #MusicMonday yet again. I know I haven't really been posting much to this amazing thing we call the Music Rehab Clinic, but I've been pretty busy considering all the commotion that summer brings up. Parties and trying to be productive have halted my creative juices for columns just a tad but rest assured, the Clinic will come back with some pretty decent steam. In the meantime, I've had some thoughts on one of my favorite MC's: Eminem...


Eminem has changed the release date of his Recovery album to be released sooner (on June 21st) most likely due to leaking of the album in its entirety. Honestly, I was a little skeptical on the quality of the album considering Eminem's recent lack of hype, lack of work ethic, and lack of live appearances ever since the release of the Relapse album. I actually really enjoyed Relapse, so I was hoping that Recovery could all but change my pre-deposition on what new material would bring. However, the release of "Not Afraid" and taking a look at the featured artists really gave me a shock. Featuring pop singers like Pink and Rihanna? Only rapper featured was Lil Wayne? No skits? No D12? No Dr. Dre? Clearly this is a new Eminem and he wants us to know that right off of the get go. I think he is taking a huge risk with this album. After Relapse and its lackluster sales (at least in comparison to most Eminem albums), it's pretty safe to say that this is the "make it or break it" album for Eminem and his relevance on today's obviously changed rap game.

I think the complete 360 of Eminem's character into this serious man stripped of the Slim Shady antics that made him famous has to do with two reasons. 1) The rap game has changed greatly from the time that Eminem was dominating the charts with smash albums like The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show. 2) Rehab and the recovery process has changed him into someone who realizes the most important things in life and why he raps in the first place. Could Eminem really have put a nail in the coffin of the Slim Shady persona? It's really looking like it. He's older, wiser, and considered one of rap's most important figures in the 21st century. I'm not sure how I feel about the serious nature of his new music, but I am certainly intruiged to hear it.

Eminem has everything to prove, but he probably feels like he has nothing to prove. He's experimenting and probably just happy to be making music that he feels he should be making at this point in his career. Another evident factor of this is the change of production for an Eminem album. A typical Eminem has production from the usual suspects: Dr. Dre, Eminem, Jeff Bass, and sometimes from his D12 cohort Mr. Porter (known better as Kon Artis). It's pretty noteworthy to see all the new producers that Em has never worked make appearances on this album. Boi-1da, Just Blaze, Jim Jonsin, and DJ Khalil make their mark all over the album. Also new and un-heard of producers (at least to me): Emile, Script Shepherd, Supa Dups, and Alex da Kid. Eminem doesn't even have 1 track on this album to his own production credit. I'm not really sure what that means. Cleary, he's looking for a new sound and wants to focus on his lyrical prowess instead of his production merit. I can respect that. Could it also be that he wants to give all these new producers their big time shot into the music biz? Could be the case as well and I really respect that. As much as it's evident that Eminem is a changed man, I think quality artists like him typically know what they're doing. Even if the production is poor and the songs don't catch the ears of America like the past albums did, I'm sure Eminem will still captivate with his incredible rhymes. We still believe in you Slim!

~M

Throwback Thursday: The Hyphy Movement

If you listen to rap radio stations when you live in the Bay Area, it is a little depressing to realize that all of the "hits" that are played on our local stations don't play any local music. Once in a while we might hear a local "hit" from a local "big name" artist, but it is a rare occasion considering that these artists fizzle out after their career remains stagnant even in local circles. It's not their fault however. The San Francisco Bay Area is by and large one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the United States that has struggled to discover an identity in rap to separate themselves from the rest of the nation ever since rap has been introduced to the masses. Many Bay Area rap fans can argue with me on this. We do indeed have a lot of unique artists that make music unlike any others in the country. Bay Area beats do have some unique identifiers that most can recognize and attribute to being from the Bay Area. However, this is all old school. The rap legends of the 90's have cemented their legacy in our corner of the nation: Too $hort, Digital Underground, Mac Dre, Richie Rich, E-40, The Luniz, etc. The new generation of rap artists remained with no local sense of identity or direction. That is...until the Hyphy Movement was introduced.
I wanted to write this Throwback Thursday in commemoration and appreciation of the Hyphy Movement. Even though the movement has lost most of its steam at this point, it represented something new and fresh for the rap scene in the Bay Area that we had never experienced before. Finally, the Bay Area had something to call its own. The Hyphy Movement brought along new slang, new themes, new artists, and everybody was loving it. Suddenly we were all wearing "stunnas", going "dumb", and "poppin' thizz" in our "scraper" on the way to the "sideshow" while "yokin'". Even if the rest of the nation didn't necessarily like it or catch on to it, everyone knew about it. When My Block: The Bay premiered on MTV, the word was out: The Bay Area had a new movement.
Even the older Bay Area rappers wanted to catch on. Suddenly we heard veterans like E-40 and Richie Rich doing raps on Hyphy beats. It was all about parties, clubs, drinks, drugs, going dumb, and being ignorant to the extreme. It pretty much was similar to the Crunk scene of the South, but what separated it a bit was the slang, the rappers, the territory, the different style beat, and the extreme nature. I believe the height of the Hyphy Movement had a few notable moments:
-E-40's My Ghetto Report Card album debuting at #3 on the billboard 200
-Keak Da Sneak's "Super Hyphy" music video making an appearance on MTV's video rotation
-Big name producers like Lil Jon contributing production for Bay Area artists
-Mistah FAB getting signed to Atlantic Records
-Bay Area rappers making appearances on big name rappers' mixtapes and vise versa (Example: Ma$e making an appearance on Mac Dre's Judge Dre Mathis)
-MTV doing their My Block: The Bay special
-MTVnews actually covering news of Bay Area artists and the growth of Hyphy
Why did it die? I really can't tell. For a while it seemed like the movement was here to stay. Unfortunately for the Bay, this was not the case. There are many fingers to point at the demise of our precious rap identity. Was it because the scene was so similar to Crunk of the South? Possibly. Was it because even though we kept learning about new rappers, none of them brought anything fresh to the table? Likely. Was it because after a while the corporately owned radio stations began to get bored and decided to play less Bay Area music to please the higher ups? Maybe. Or could it have been because every song started to sound the same after a while? Very likely. In any event the scene has greatly died down and we don't hear so much about the rappers we had grown to love between around 2002 to 2008. We don't hear so much about guys like Rydah J. Kyle, J. Diggs, Keak Da Sneak, and Dubee Sugawulf anymore. Matter of fact, many of these rappers like Mistah Fab, are actually doing their best to steer away from their Hyphy roots and cleanse their image to blend in with the rest of the generic rap going on in the music industry today. The most tragic part about all of this, is the aftermath in the wake of Hyphy. The Hyphy Movement has produced some bastard children like L.A.'s "Jerkin" movement; clearly an offspring from the bay sounding beats, bay sounding flows, variation of the turfin' style of dance from Oakland, and use of bay area slang. Jagged Edge also has a song called "Stunnas". Did I mention they were from Atlanta? Anyways... It's sad to see that the promise and possibility of the Bay Area to finally have their own identity ripped away. However, I can see some solace in the fact that even though it only lasted for a short minute, the Bay Area was recognized as an up and coming force to be reckoned with. We realize the potential is there as long as it is organized, supported, and marketed correctly. I believe it's only a matter of time before the Bay Area regroups and comes up with something new and fresh. Even if we don't, I don't mind the Bay Area lacking commercial exploitation like some areas such as Miami have endured. Maybe that's what makes us so unique; we keep it so real that we can't fit into any commercial category that the music industry can exploit and generalize. Keep it real Bay, we will have our day...

~M

Random Thoughts 6/08/10: Diva Wars!

Can't we all just get along in the music biz? Apparently not, and that sentiment especially applies when it comes to women. More importantly, divas with egos bigger than Jay-Z's. I've been noticing some specific divas haven't been getting along lately, so let's break them down...

Battle for the Supreme Blonde Diva:
Christina Aguilera vs. Lady GaGa


This feud has been carrying for quite some time now from what I understand. The most interesting part about it is how entirely fabricated by the media it is. Neither lady acknowledges that any sort of rivalry exists when they get asked in front of a camera or microphone; but we all know what's going on. The roots of those seem to have been started ever since Lady GaGa began to emerge and Christina Aguilera came out with her "keeps getting better" single that pretty much took the up and comer's music style and fashion almost to a T. What gets me on this one is Lady GaGa is doing exactly what Christina Aguilera did so many years ago, only at a more extreme level. Wacky fashion, danceable tunes, singing chops, showing all kinds of ass in little to no clothing on stage...yep...Christina did all that before. What gives GaGa the edge? The fact that Christina took time off to be a mom and vacated the spot for a little bit. GaGa has done big things ever since Christina has left the music industry for a while and used the Aguilera formula to cement herself into stardom simply by doing it bigger, louder, and crazier than Christina did. Now that Christina wants to come back and reclaim her spot, it seems like a much harder task now that GaGa has gained so much steam. Not to mention Christina's new music sounds suspiciously like the electro dance beats that Lady GaGa songs have popularized recently.

Winner: Lady GaGa


Battle for the Baddest Bitch in Rap:
Lil Kim vs. Nicki Minaj


This one wasn't too hard to foresee. You can't really be a female rapper in the game and come nasty and raw without biting the style that Lil Kim originated. There's just no way around it. Lil Kim wasn't the first female to start rapping, but she definitely brought the sex element into it and had a style all of her own. Ever since then, we have seen Foxy Brown, Trina, Shawnna, Jacki-O, Gangsta Boo, and now Nicki Minaj. From the sex ridden raps, skimpy outfits, and colored wigs, Nicki Minaj might as well be Lil Kim Jr. But what's Lil Kim's problem with Nicki? She says Ms. Minaj has snubbed her in the past and hasn't paid the proper respect to the Queen Bee that is deserved. I hate to say it, but I think Nicki has the upper hand in this feud. Lil Kim has been washed up for days with lackluster material and poor attempts at media attention (this one included). Nicki has taken the high road and pretty much ignored all the bad press that Lil Kim is trying her best to throw towards the Young Money MC. Let's put it this way...Drake is on stage supporting Nicki Minaj while Ray J is on stage supporting Lil Kim. Not hard to see who has more relevance. Sorry Queen Bee. That day might be done.

Winner: Nicki Minaj


By looking at both of the winners of these battles, its apparent that the "out with the old, in with the new" phrase really holds its own when it comes to these female artists. Sorry OG Divas, but times have gotta change. Unfortunately, it's not your time anymore.

~M

#MusicMonday: My 10 Favorite Rap Songs

What's going on music heads? Happy #MusicMonday to everyone yet again. Hopefully everyone had a good weekend, I certainly did. Union Street Fair in San Francisco, for those that don't know, isn't necessarily any specific important festival that involves music or anything. It's mainly an excuse to start partying in the morning and that is exactly what we did. Not to say necessarily that music wasn't involved, because it always is. How could one have a party without music? It never happens...so I heard some good tunes over the weekend for sure. Some good local bands and of course club hits in the bars. Things to get the party started you know. However, what brought me to this week's list was listening to Sirius radio this past week.

Hip-Hop Nation (Channel 40) had a special guest rapper on the air to break down his 10 favorite rap songs of all time. I believe his name was Laws. I don't know much about him but he ran through a pretty decent list of songs. It really got me thinking; If I had to choose my 10 favorite rap songs, what would they be? That seems like a pretty big task considering all the great hip-hop that is out there, but I managed to sit down and meditate on this idea and came up with what I believe are my 10 favorite rap tunes of all time. This doesn't necessarily mean I think they are the best or I think they are the most groundbreaking. Hell, they might not even be good at all to some, but for one reason or another, they are very very special to me. I could play these songs forever and a day from here until death and I will still love them. So let's run through it...

My 10 Favorite Rap Songs

10. "Paid In Full" by Eric B. & Rakim

The classic track that everyone has heard one time or another even if they didn't realize it. Covered time and time again, "Paid In Full" might have the most replicated bassline in hip-hop history. The attitude and rhymes are just fierce. Eric B. & Rakim wanted to let everyone know how serious they were about making a killing in the rap game and this was the boldest statement they could have made. Rakim revolutionized rapping in the 80's and created a whole new style that helped shape the east coast rap of the 90's.


9. "Role Model" by Eminem

Slim Shady was going to be a superstar, there was no doubt about it. A white dude with enough crazy antics to fuel music critics for all eternity could sell and create controversy, but this cut off of his major label debut stood out to me because it showed that he was first and foremost a rapper. The lines are brutal, the rhymes are great, and it showed off just how crazy Em could be while still making it sound great. It really showed off the talent that Dr. Dre saw in him.



8. "You Know How We Do It" by Ice Cube

All I gotta say is..."daaaamn". It doesn't get more west coast than this people. The track is hot all on its own, but Ice Cube really came correct with this jam at a time where Dr. Dre and the rest of Death Row were completely dominating the charts and west coast hip-hop as a whole. Instead of trying the one up, Cube just did what he does best and that's just be himself. The beat juts put a vision in my head of cruisin' down an L.A. street in a convertible '63 impala watching a pretty sunset. This is always a great summer jam for me. Props to QDIII for the beat, even though I didn't anything from him after this.


7. "Ten Crack Commandments" by The Notorious B.I.G.

Who better to tell you the rules of the crack trade and rhyme it so perfectly in a story than Biggie Smalls. Selling crack being his main source of revenue before breaking it big in rap, Biggie knew what he was talking about. However, what makes this song so great to me is the way it was articulated so perfectly. The man always could tell great stories with his raps, but ten commandments about how to sell crack and succeed? Awesome. It only sounds perfect on a DJ Premier beat as well. Biggie was spittin' crack before it was even referred to as that.


6. "Playaz Club" by Rappin' 4-Tay

Even though I am a Bay Area native and specifically born in San Francisco, I wasn't going to throw in a Bay song into my favorite rap song list lightly unless it really earned its place. "Playaz Club" did exactly that. The way "You Know How We Do It" really captured the essence of being from Los Angeles, this song really captured the essence of what San Francisco and the Bay Area as a whole was all about when it came to rap. The whole song has incredible style and Rappin' 4-Tay really brought the heat.


5. "N.Y. State of Mind" by Nas

Brutal! Grimey! It doesn't get more gutter than "N.Y. State of Mind". I almost feel like I'm from the ghetto when I listen to this. The entire Illmatic album could have filled up any top 10 list, but this track stood out to me simply because of the mood it created. Down the scratchy vocal recordings and choppy production, it really created the scenery in my head of the dangerous environment that Nas was coming from. Nas is also amazing when it comes to telling stories with his rhymes. DJ Premier strikes again with the beats!


4. "So Many Tears" by 2pac

Classic, classic song. This is 'Pac showing off his sensitive and soulful side. Up until this point we were used to all this talk about thug life, aggressive panther politics, and getting around. This was him showing off a little bit of vulnerability; that he's a person too, he's got feelings, and he's suffered the heartbreak of a hard life. This is the kind of song that makes you value all the good things in life. Friends and family especially. I was actually pretty surprised to see that Shock G produced this great beat.


3. "C.R.E.A.M." by The Wu-Tang Clan

Wu-Tang was a posse to be reckoned with, and it was because of tracks like "C.R.E.A.M." that showed the rest of the hip-hop universe that they were unmatched at what they did. On perhaps the greatest beat that RZA has produced, Inspectah Deck really encapsulated in his verse what growing up in the ghetto was like. Method Man's hook on this song is also one of the most widely recognized in hip-hop history. Who doesn't still say "dolla dolla bill y'all" these days? I know I still do. Cash certainly does rule everything around us. Wu-Tang wasn't kidding.


2. "Deep Cover" by Dr. Dre & Snoop Doggy Dogg

Who would have known that this solo debut of Dr. Dre introducing us to a brand new Snoop Doggy Dogg would be the first step to the creation of arguably the greatest partnership in hip-hop history? "187 on the undercover cop"; yet another of the most widely recognized hooks in rap. This song tells a great story between verses from Dre and Snoop about how much undercover police aren't appreciated in the least. From the very beginning of the intro dialogue, this song never quits in terms of quality. Still sounds great so many years later. Imagine if Warren G had never introduced Snoop to his cousin Dr. Dre? Rap might look a lot different these days; especially on the west coast.


1. "Above The Clouds" by Gang Starr f/ Inspectah Deck

How many times does DJ Premier show up on my list? I'm not sure, but it's a sign. DJ Premier makes the best beats in hip-hop in my humble opnion. This song is no different. I think the beat is what single handedly makes this my favorite rap song ever since I first heard it. It's soothing, it's calming, it's catchy, and I'm pretty positive can sway even the most stubborn hip-hop critic. Guru and Inspectah Deck also deliver great verses in this song to further supplement this great showcase of rap quality at its pinnacle. Can it get much better than this? I'm not sure, but I'm not convinced rappers from today's age can do it like this anymore. Very sad about Guru's recent passing, but it is in amazing tracks like this that legacy lives on. True artists don't fade.


And that's all for my list of favorite rap songs. What do you think? Do you agree? Am I completely off base for liking some of these tracks? What would your list consist of? Leave a comment and let me know. At the very least, I hope this column gets you digging through your old rap records and discovering some great tracks. Until next time...PEACE!!!

~M

Throwback Thursday: How Napster Changed The Game

I have been reminiscing on a lot of great music and music moments from my teen years, my pre-teen years, and my childhood years and how a lot of them have affected my life. In this pursuit I have come up with a lot of good material for the Throwback Thursday column. However, then I started thinking deeper and about how I even became so inclined to music in the first place. Then it hit me as I started to download some new tracks. Not sure what all of you music heads use to download music (yes I am one of those), but I use LimeWire. I have my issues with it, but overall it gets the job done. No point in getting too used to one particular program because before you know it, you will have to find something new. Before this it was KaZaa for me, before that it was Morpheus, before that it was WinMX, before that it was....Napster. It made sense. This is what I had to write about. Napster not only changed my life in various ways, it enriched it infinitely. But forget about me, Napster single handedly changed the music industry as a whole forever. It will never be the same, and it's all thanks to a kid named Shawn Fanning... Let's just get into this Throwback Thursday shall we?


This week: Napster

Before the internet became the mass population's superhighway for music discovery and music purchasing, we were all old school. How did we find out about new music? Whatever the hell radio played. How did we buy music? Record stores. What were the media outlets? CD's and audio cassettes. Needless to say, I'm sure all of us listened to a lot more of a narrow selection of music back then as we do today. Aside from the record labels and radio stations playing for us what they wanted us to listen to, our selections for music were also limited based on income. Take me for example: I was a kid living in the suburbs of the SF Bay Area and my only outlets for music were the radio that I listened to on my walkman and the few CD's/tapes I could afford to buy with the little bit of allowance here and there. Yeesh. Were I still restricted to those constraints for the rest of my life, my musical knowledge and appreciation would be slim to none. The outcome of this was that all I listened to were top 40 hits and when I could actually afford to buy something I would get whatever album was popular with my friends at the time. It sounds ridiculous in hindsight, but who could blame me? I didn't know any better, and I can imagine a lot of youth back then did not either. Music for me wasn't necessarily a form of self expression in my childhood years; it was more of an acceptance tool. I didn't know much about it or understood what was "good music", so I went along with the flock of sheep when it came to music selection. I didn't grow up poor, but I didn't get a lot of money from my parents, so the CD's I bought were the popular rap or rock albums at the time. Green Day's Dookie, Sublime's self titled, Puff Daddy's No Way Out, Notorious BIG's Life After Death...you get the picture. However, the answer existed that nobody had thought about up to this point: the internet.

I can't remember exactly when the internet was introduced to me. I think it was in 5th grade that I got a personal PC for the first time. It might have been until 1997 that I actually got the internet on that personal computer. I thought the internet was the greatest thing ever invented when I begin to explore it, but the true potential experienced to me was when I realized things were "downloadable". First it was sound clips, sound bytes, and short video trailers. But the true pinnacle was just around the corner. The introduction of the mp3 file was a key element. Windows .wav files were way too big to reasonably be able to download at full length of a song with the 56k dial up speeds that the internet operated on at the time. MP3's were a new file type that greatly reduced the amount of data required to represent an audio recording and still sounded like a faithful reproduction of the uncompressed audio. Now with this, The true pinnacle was realized to me when Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker released Napster in June 1999. Nothing was ever going to be the same for the music industry because myself and the rest of the world finally found a way to get all the music we couldn't afford and actually have control over what was being played to our ears. The concept was amazing: all one had to do was type in the artist name and song title and a list of the people who were sharing those songs would pop up. One double click away and a download would begin for the mp3 file of the song of your choice. A few minutes later we had a file that was good to go to just press play. The revolution had begun and there was no stopping it...

The Good:

What did it mean that kids could listen to music now without having to pay for it? It meant that all the doors were opened for music listeners to discover new music and accept new genres because the burden of paying for a record virtually didn't exist anymore.
Example: I wasn't a huge fan of the blues before simply because I didn't know about it. I never heard blues music on the radio so by default it wasn't my thing and it wasn't in my music library. However, I had heard so much about B.B. King and wanted to understand why he was so popular. But like most of the general public, I didn't feel like shelling out 16 dollars simply to check out a new artist. My money was limited so I wanted to spend it on music I knew I would enjoy. Napster introduced the new alternative: I typed "B.B. King" in the artist box of Napster and downloaded the top results. What happened? I am now a full blown fan of the blues. Would this have happened without Napster? Absolutely not.
People became more eclectic and appreciative of other music styles simply because it was available and they had the option of exploring. If a young kid like me was curious about new artists and new music movements that were happening, they could actually check out what was going on. This meant amazing things for up and coming artists looking for exposure. Also, it is an arguable point that post millennium saw the biggest uprising of genre blending among artists. Rap Metal, Blues Punk, indie rap, electronic rock...the possibilities became endless.

The Bad:

Those same up and coming artists that were excited about all this new exposure were also facing an incredible backlash from the recording industry and leading record labels. File sharing meant less profit margin for record labels and big name artists, and naturally, they didn't like that one bit. Many acts like Metallica, Dr. Dre, Eminem, and Britney Spears were widely outspoken against people listening to their music for free. Lars Ulrich event want as far as to publicly campaign and help orchestrate a string of lawsuits that would ultimately be the demise of the Napster program (we all remember that now don't we?). Since there was less money all across the board for the recording industry, the inevitable outcome for all up and coming artists was that securing a record deal was infinitely more difficult. Not only that, but once a record deal was secured, it on the record label's terms. Now that the dust has settled and it's 10 years later, we see the long run effects that the record industry has suffered. Music as a whole has been watered down and the same producers and artists are now being forced upon us; simply because they have the money to do so. Less profitability means more struggling artists. There is less emphasis on quality and more emphasis by the labels on the search for "the next big thing".

There was no denying that the revolution was here to stay. File sharing was introduced to the masses and the greater population. Once Napster was shut down, the idea was not about to die. New programs were created in its stead and file sharing became an untamable beast that eventually grew to film and television. Some options have been presented to keep money in the hands of the record labels like iTunes, a pay version of Napster, Rhapsody, and other mp3 download sites. Will there ever be an answer on how to save the music industry and still keep the music lovers happy? I have no idea. I do know one thing for sure: I am a living, breathing product of the Napster revolution and I owe all my music enthusiasm, music knowledge, musical depth, and musical inclination to the program. Thanks Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. You created a monster. Cheers.

~Dr. M.