RIAA Suing More Students

While I agree that copyright infringement needs to be taken seriously, the RIAA is becoming more and more heavy handed in it’s tactics against infringing folks. Sure, there are kids who don’t want to be sued into oblivion but want music for free, but I’ve seen more and more the RIAA wrongfully suing people and then not apologizing for their mistake once it’s found out. What I think the RIAA is finding out is that going after your core demographic audience with such tactics will fail miserably and will only alienate those who’s support you need the most.

Personally, I have a LOT of mp3’s in my collection. But they’ve all been legally purchased or ripped from cd’s I own. I don’t share that music across the internet and I don’t download music from the internet that’s not legal. The reason is that I don’t want to get sued by the RIAA and I want to support the artist I buy from. That said, my music purchases have gone down significantly in the last several years.

Music has become too bland and there are nothing but “me too” bands all over the place.

Take any rap star, 90% of their music is “I have big cars, lots of girls, and a row of teeth filled with a precious metal or gems.”

The same can be said for country music “my wife’s cheating on me, I have a pickup truck, and I like to line dance”

Good God, don’t get me started on boy bands and the Britney Spears clones.

I’ve purchased 3-5 albums in the past 10 years. Weird Al’s “Straight Outta Lynnwood”, which I’m glad the kids are getting into Weird Al. I bought my first album of his WAY back in the early 80’s. “Christmas At Ground Zero”, “The Night Santa Went Crazy”, “Yoda”, and “It’s still Billy Joel to me” are some of his better songs. You really can’t go wrong with any Weird Al album.

Metallica’s “St. Anger” I was curious how they would sound after Jason left the band. Sorry to say it, but there were two songs I liked, not loved. Metallica used to put out great albums. 1991’s self titled album and older are the best ones. They used to sing about deep topics along with furiously fast, complex music. Any one of those albums are an easy pickup if that’s your style of music. Hopefully their next album will be better, as they’ve hired Rick Rubin to produce and gotten rid of that God awful Bob Rock.

Hayseed Dixie. These guys are great if you’re into the “Weird Al” type of music. They don’t do parodies, but they take normal, hard rock songs and perform them as country songs. Normally I’m not into country music, but these guys are the extreme exception. I HIGHLY recommend you check them out.

Travis

travis@rightwinglunatic.com