T-Rock

So, lately I've been listening to a lot of bands like RacerX and Dragonforce. I know some people have gripes with them (especially Dragonforce), but I enjoy the speed and noodly-ness of their guitars. So, basically, I'm looking for more good bands who "shred" like crazy. Basically, the main focus is speed and guitar solo-ing. I find listening to this kind of music helps me to become a better electric guitar player, since it pushes me into a faster mode of playing (I'm more of an acoustic fingerpicker, currently). Any suggestions would help. And before anybody mentions them, I've already listened to Satriani, Vai, and Neil Zaza. Call me crazy, but I think I'm much fonder of Zaza than the rest. Oh, and one last thing: if a band has vocals, I'd prefer them to not be the growling metal type. I mean, I'm cool with screaming in a lot of hardcore bands, but the whole Children of Bodom vocals really turn me off. It's a shame, though, because so many of those bands have just the insturmental parts I'm looking for. I guess if the guitar is real good, I can handle it. Music without vocals is perfectly fine as well. Thanks!

Of course people can do what they want. It's a free country. However, I'm also free to impose what any kind of logic I like on them. I think you're under the impression that I'm either a) financially struggling or an illegal downloader. I buy all of my music (I like having a physical copy), and I'm fine financially. I have a job to buy things (like music), and then I make music as my hobby. If music is made to be given for free, downloading it for free isn't illegal. Yeah, I think about that sometimes. The truth is, I might end up a big sellout. But I might not. Hard to say. However, I know that the music scene tends to be worse off everytime good artists go to major labels. This is an opinion, admittedly, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who agrees.

Signs of a lost argument: When you resort to saying I'm some sort of fake through the internet. I don't know the line between "hobbyist" and "arteeest," but I know I've practiced my music for hours and hours year after year since I joined the school band when I was still in school. I know I've spent time with trumpet, percussion, and guitar (fingerstyle and otherwise) to make enjoyable music for myself and for others. Do I have delusions of grandeur? Not really. I'm not that amazing at all. I'm sure my skills probably stack up with most of the musicians on this site. Am I going to get signed by some major label? Probably not. Do I want to? No. I quite enjoy my job, and am fine devoting a decent chunk of my free-time to making music I love.

They can try to make money. It's a free country. I'm just saying that it's not the best model for the sake of music and for the sake of the consumer. More importantly, it's probably not a model that will last long, considering recent trends. I wasn't suggesting making a law that all music should be free. I was just describing my ideal model for the music scene. Not something to be enforced by the fed, y'know.

I believe in the "treat-others-as-you-would-like-to-be-treated" philosophy. I'm a musician. I plan on making music on this site very soon, and for free, obviously. Whenever I play shows, I give my CDs to people for 1-2 dollars (the price of producing them, CD-R, etc). If they simply want a free download, they're more than welcome to take that and forget buying the CD. I'm not making a profit either way. I play and make music beause it's a hobby, and I enjoy it. Outside of it, I have a completely seperate and enjoyable job. So please, don't pull that on me. You're free to do that. Starbucks is over-priced and bloated anyways, for the same reasons the music industry has become so bloated. And, moreover, that's a bad example. Coffee is not art. However, if people want to pay for it, they can. Don't be suprised when new, dirt-cheap coffee comes and knocks yours off the market, though.

It's pretty cheap if done using the internet. Websites, while not cheap, aren't extremely expensive, and can be paid for with advertisements. You'd be hosting the music on a website. If anybody wants a packaged CD with the artwork, they have to pay for that. I've established that. If you're okay with a CD-R, then it's free. That would be my model. Of course, nobody should make money off of your free product. They should either get your consent to use it for free, or pay you. That still has nothing to do with the model I suggested, though, and doesn't disqualify anything I've said thus far. I'll get to the rest in a moment.

Clearly the most hardcore people in any field create the best product. It wasn't Rockefeller who revolutionized home-computing. It was Bill Gates, fooling around in his garage with his friends. But, you're somewhat missing the point. For a lot of people, music isn't a side-job. For others, it is. I'm not the biggest fan of capitalist economics, but I know that we live in a free-market society, so I'll apply them: most kids will probably prefer the free music (with less production values) from the hobbyist over the $10 CD from Sire. Eventually illegal downloading will get so bad that nobody will make huge money from music even on major labels. And I think eventually that day will come. This site is a big indication of that. I bet a lot of the people that frequent this site listen to free OCRemixes more than other "paid-for" music. I know you do. I've seen many of your Last.FM profiles. The same can and will apply to every genre. Will I be alive to see it? Will I be right? Only time will tell. But I can dream.

Also, one other thing: I think artists should have a non-art-related job to fund themselves because it allows them to relate to normal people. This is especially important for music. Nobody can take 50 Cent seriously. Why? Because all he talks about are the hoes he's gonna sleep with and the rims he's going to put on his car. I bet you if he was still a poor guy, he'd be talking about real issues. He'd be talking about the plight of people in the ghetto, like underground rappers. I mean, can you take most big-time radio bands seriously? I can't. Lyrically, it's just a joke to me. Fall Out Boy, 50 Cent. Whoever. Even Bob Dylan, one of my favorite musicians, put out his most real stuff in his earliest years of recording.

I don't want to do it to "help" the "industry." I don't think art should be an industry. That's the point. I don't want people to illegally download things. I don't. I buy all my music in physical (CD) format. I want people to legally download music --- for free. Basically, just apply the philosophy of this site to any genre of music, make a few slight changes here and there, and you already have your model.

Well, think about this realistically. If people don't get paid to make Starbucks coffee, they aren't going to make it. However, music has been around as long as time, and it has only been created for monetary purposes in the last 400 years or so. Music won't cease to exist without a financial goal. In the modern era, it would probably just dissolve into the process I described. Kids make bands all the time and make no money. Most don't want riches. Most want fame. I mean, why do people make remixes on this site? Because they enjoy it. That's the nature of music. I'd rather distribute music for free openly than have the majority of my fanbase illegally download it.

That was the point. I don't think people should be paid for it. I know it's not going to be the most popular opinion, but it's what I believe. If I had to tone down my opinion slightly, I would simply say that things should be done more independently and should cost far, far less. However, that's not a new concept at all. That's basically the whole idea of the underground punk and hip-hop communities.

Y'know, this site has changed the way I think about music and music distribution. We all know the music industry is changing dramatically, and record execs know it to. Between illegal downloading and low record sales, things are going to change. Personally, I think the entire music scene should be run exactly like this site---perhaps through thousands of little sites like this. People will make their music as a hobby, for the love of the music (whether it be punk, metal, hip-hop, or video game remixes), and it will be distributed for free, just like it is on OC Remix. Imagine that. Imagine if you could find massive sites like this one for punk music, metal music, and everything else. And download it for free. That would be amazing. And the artists would be people just like you. That would empower people to make and submit their own music, and the cycle continues. If you want to make some money off of it, you can always play shows as you garner popularity. Some people might talk about quality control. They might say that without big labels and money thrown around, there will be too much garbage. The reality is, this site has tremendous quality control. About 98% of the music on OC Remix is top-quality, and honestly better than most of the stuff I've heard on the radio (which I almost never listen to). The electronica is better than most of the stuff out there, and the electric guitar tracks shred better than most metal bands. As always, if people like it, the music will be popular. If not, it falls to the bottom of the list. MySpace was a big step in this process, but its set up in a very random format. It's almost impossible to find new music on there. You're basically just flooded with pop-stuff at the homepage. I guess this means we would have to divide our music into various sites (much like we have OCRemix, VGMix, AnimeMix, and a bunch of others to divide what are essentially similar concepts). Anyways, I wish you the best of luck in finding a job. What you read above is something I hope to see one day. I hope sites like this will help to make it possible, along with artists like NIN and Coldplay (I'm not a big fan of either, but they get my kudos). Sorry for the essay.

I'm a junior in college now, and I have to say I haven't had the desire to watch any anime since I was a junior in high school. That said, I always really liked the more psychological (and/or crazy and/or philosophical) stuff out there. My favorites are pretty common due to Adult Swim: FLCL, Paranoia Agent, and Blue Gender. Anybody else really like Blue Gender? It never generated much of a following, but I loved it.

Y'know, a lot of people have been hating on this game because they already have an SNES copy. Do any of you guys ever worry about your SNES and/or cartridge breaking one day? I'm not a super paranoid person, but I know all of my favorite games (mainly FF ones) are on the PSone (and to a lesser extent, the PS2). For that reason, I recently bought a slim PStwo even though I plan on buying a PS3 as soon as FF13 comes out. Why did I buy it? To guarantee I can always play my favorite games even if one system breaks. The SNES is an old system. Even if you keep it protected, it's bound to break sometime. I'm not made of money, but I'm personally not against buying an extra copy of a game (or even console) if the price isn't too drastic. Especially if that game is a favorite of mine. Now, I've never played Chrono Trigger, but I'm so excited that I'll be able to soon. However, this is something for you folks to consider.

I'm so excited for this. I haven't played Chrono Trigger, but the hype generated on this site for it (and it's soundtrack) is immense. I almost want to play the game just so I can enjoy the endless CT remixes on this site---and the Chrono Symphonic album that I haven't downloaded. Plus, it's supposed to be amazing. Duh. I know Square-Enix is getting a lot of flak lately for putting out a ton of old games on new consoles, but I'm extremely thankful they did. Without them, I would have never played Final Fantasy 1-6. Sega also had a Phantasy Star collection released on the GBA. I'm still looking for it (new, not used), but I'm having trouble. I also missed out on the Shining Force and Breath of Fire ports. Still pretty depressed about that. Basically, I'm in love with these RPG ports to the handhelds. So sue me. Maybe the Lunar games and Star Ocean games will be next.