On Radios and Music

The current is never contrarian and edgy enough for us. Except with select, well-established bands, we need to endlessly hear old works. More than ever, pop music is becoming a gift to the future. Now, I admit that after any artist dies, their work becomes a more pricey commodity, for good reason. But the radio has a lot of fault in this. Rather than dealing with the still wonderful progression of pop, the radio stations and the people listening to them prefer to sit around hearing one hit wonders. Sorry if the yankees or calipallies have one better, but here, if you want to listen to Styx, you're going to hear Renegade. If you want to hear Queen or something, they will puppet a short few of their songs. This status quo, this glass ceiling, cannot be shattered by a respectable broadcaster. If you want to get to some new, deeper musical talent, you're not getting that around here.

American radio broke the Beatles. We provided a fertile grounds for the British Invasion which so changed modern music towards what we know today. Now we're just going to listen to them forever, like it's the end of time, maybe Imagine or Strawberry Fields. History and people don't just come to a close. And they certainly don't end with this genre. As a musician, I feel we're living through the tired reality of washed-up people in their 40s. Their quests revolve around taking 30 minute drives to meet in hopes of marrying each other. This is the nightmare we must bear every day. Nobody knows music at all. I have nothing against Journey, but I am unable to see most of their stuff as not part of this resulting paradox. The mainstream just seems like it was created for the vacuous.

A true love song is a gift we play amidst the urban decay. It rings in sunshine and in rain. It prevails as love does, whether we listen to it at 5am or 5pm. The old maniac Martin Luther once placed music at parallel importance to the Bible. And this is for good reason, when you understand what great sway it has on us. Music can empower you or it can strip the power from you. You always gotta surround yourself with good vibes.

John Lockers