A Re-Post: Instant Metalhead, are you one of them?

I must say I’ve been a fan of music since young. I remember I danced to Michael Jackson’s Black or White, KRU’s Awas when I was a little kid. Those were the days when cassettes and CDs were pretty much popular (I didn’t get the chance to listen to Vinyl or even cartridge). And then when I get older, CD and MP3 replaced cassette. So does my musical preferences changed, from MJ to Grunge (yes, I listened to Grunge back when I was in form 2) and slowly shifting to more extreme; such as Metal (yea all those Black/Death/Thrash stuffs) as I get older. And then it’s getting stranger, I started to listen to Ambient, Folk, Drone, Noise etc. Oh, that includes K-Pop and some female singers as well. Pretty weird huh? Well not really. OK fuck that, that is not the point of my writing.

The availability of Internet and MP3 technology have really changed the ways to obtain music nowadays. New artists can be shot into instant fame by solely advertising themselves through..let’s say Myspace (I think the only thing keeping MS from getting obsolete is Myspace Music;pretty relevant til today) and Facebook, obscure bands can be re-discovered through forums, and many more (I can think more but I’m too lazy to write, fuck yeah I’m a lazy writer). I think Internet really killed the old method of tape trading and fanzine (again, I was never into tape trading and I read fanzine,never bought them). Seriously, does tape trading activity still alive these days?

Then came MP3. And cassette went into oblivion (though there are some people still prefer tapes over MP3) and MP3 reigns supreme. Then the real problem surfaced. Nobody is buying music! Well, let me rephrase, almost every people I knew (myself included) are no longer buying music! MP3 kills music,man! Yeap, it only took one people to buy a CD, rip it into MP3 format, uploaded it into the Net, and millions of people download it. Talk about making money from music, I think music is no longer a moneymaking career anymore, even Aaron Stainthorpe (of My Dying Bride) agreed to this. No longer collection of CDs (or cassettes or vinyl) being displayed on the racks, instead you have all your pirated stuffs loaded into your hard drives (all in digital format!). How sad is that?

Musicians no longer able to make money from album, and instead rely on concerts and tour to make a living. Well that only works if they go touring, what if those who doesn’t? Guess they have to take up another job to sustain their living. Poor poor musicians! I am not surprised if the whole industry will go down and collapse because of this phenomena. The only to keep this from happening is buy original! Buy original CD/cassette/vinyl/or download from iTunes (99 cents?), go for to concert, buy their merchandise, or anything as long it does not involve piracy! And then you’ll hear groans and complaints like:

“Bro,CD depa susah dapat kat Malaysia wei. Kena order”
“Merchandise diorang mahal dohh nak beli”
“Depa mana mai tour kat sini!”
“Gua belajar lagi la,mana nak beli dowh”
“Serius cakap, stuff diorang memang obscure bang!”

Right, I understand. BUT why is so hard to show your support? I mean, the older generation also faced the same situation. They even imported the CD and waited for almost 2 months for the CDs to arrive (from what an uncle told me), man that really proved ‘Penantian itu satu seksaan’! Bottom line is, do whatever it takes to show your support. Doesn’t matter if you are still studying, or already working, if you want the CD or shirt really bad, start saving your money for that stuff and then buy! It’s just an excuse not to buy original stuffs. Okay I’m being ironic here, I don’t really have that many original CDs and cassettes, but I’ve been really putting effort on getting the merchandise and stuff. Hahah,yeap! I think the only accepted excuse is when the stuff you are looking is totally hard to get (out of print, for example). Another one is, if the band willingly to spread their materials for free, then why not? You are a fool if you don’t grab the chance. Everybody loves free item wei!

Then, we spawned a generation of instant metalhead/hardcore/whateveryouwanttocallit, A generation who does not buy, but downloaded all the shits from the Net, and turned themselves into metalhead (for example) overnight. Some people said Internet and MP3 gave birth to generation of posers, hell, I think they are right. I met kids who downloaded stuffs and bragging about how cool he is for listening to cool and upcoming bands, how he have huge collections of cool musics (all downloaded!) and then started to call people around him poser. To think he never have a physical copies of any bands he listens to, that is just sad. Even sadder, when he started calling other people poser, that is just like making himself even fooler (yeah, he’s a fool, sadly). I even saw some kids online, sending comments to a band (who have a good potential and playing good music) saying “Where can I download your songs eh?”. That is just fucking rude,man! You have the nerve to ask like that to your favorite band? Is that what you call showing a support? You fucking turd! Obviously you don’t have a respect! They went through hell recording stuff (involving lotsa money definitely), and you simply ask where can I download your song? You motherfucking cocksucker, that is just plain rude! Dude, the truth that you just downloaded their stuff is just outrageous enough, must you really go and tell them? Same goes to that kid who’ve been bragging about his collection of downloaded stuff. Keep it to yourself, man! You are no different from the DVD peddler at Petaling Street (wonder they still are operating these days)! Haihh! I confessed, I did downloaded stuffs from the Internet, but I don’t think I go around and tell people much like you. I’ll be severely embarrassed if people know the truth I have more pirated music than the originals! Okay! So STFU and keep it to yourself!

Bottom line is, try to buy the Original albums, or at least get your favorite band’s merchandise. I think that is the least you can do. But I don’t say stop downloading, I think it’s okay to download and at the same time you have the original (you keep the original for collection and downloaded version for listening purpose,get it?) copy. Well, are you one of them?

photo credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tessconrad/3759667244/
http://www.mortalonline.com/forums/4701-heavy-metal-its-my-law.html