YOUTH CORRESPONDENT
I would just like to ask a question that has been on my mind for a long time.
What is happening to our music?
I can't see how people can call Linkin Park, Britney Spears or Janet Jackson a true music group or singer. These people--and other wild, crazed "artists"--have no talent.
Whatsoever.
The music industry is making music more sex than emotion. We should all think more about who we are hearing.
Let's take Britney Spears for instance. What makes her so famous? Is it her singing or dancing talent?
Or is her fame found in the fascination with her personal life--when she gets married for three hours.
When she sings (if I can call it that) missing half her clothes and parading around the stage like an exotic dancer.
Most of the noise we are hearing coming out of these people's mouths is done by an engineer hunched for hours over a mixer.
Janet Jackson is little better in this regard. I suppose she stands a little higher in the respect column, considering she doesn't get married for about an hour.
Instead, she turns the Super Bowl into a strip show during half time.
Fame and fortune--fame and fortune.
Unjustified fame is not just found in the pop arena, either. Linkin Park seems to be an example of a bunch of guys from school who said, "Hey! I can yell into a mic much better than that rock star. Maybe I can do that as a career, too!"
And so they did. They got guys who can bang on the drums and play different sound waves on an electric guitar that could shatter a cow's skull if it got close enough.
This is the way modern music is going. And while groups of little or no talent have found success for many years, it can be argued that the trend is worse than ever.
Music has gone from great to downright horrible.
Perhaps people should go to Wal-Mart and get "The Only Classical CD You'll Ever Need." This CD has some of the best music ever, including Mozart, Beethoven and more.
That is, unarguably, great music. Perhaps that's what everyone needs to hear.
We should just stand back and actually analyze what we are listening to. Is it music or noise? Is it skilled musicians that we actually want to hear, or is it all just sex?
The music industry is getting out of hand by pushing these acts, and we need to know this for ourselves.
Maybe I'm a little out of line to say these folks have no talent--but when we're not concentrating on a singer's singing, but more their lack of clothes and how they dance, there is a problem.
JONATHAN MILTON is a home-schooled sophomore.