First of all, a slight correction notice to my very first blog post. It was indeed not last December when I was in Norway. It was in fact the December of 2009.

And now for something completely different.

Methinks it's time to form some opinion on music now. Just to lay foundation of bashing modern consumerist popular culture.

Hello, hello baby you called?
I can't hear a thing
I have got no service
In the club, you see, see
Wha-Wha-What did you say,
Oh, you're breaking up on me
Sorry, I cannot hear you
I'm kinda busy.

What the hell happened in the 1990's? Did all good lyricists suddenly drop dead, or was it in fact the corporate tools who thought they could hammer out the same thing over and over again in the seeking of larger cash flows?

Where is the use of music to convey thoughts and emotions? For me the sudden downspiral in music quality came when Genie In A Bottle came out. I remember those days vividly. Tomas always had the radio on, or so it seemed at the time anyway, and from that come some of the earliest childhood memories I have and my general fondness for 90's music. The arrival of Genie In A Bottle on the airwaves is the one thing I remember that made it all go sour all of a sudden. The turn of the 21st century brought American rap and pop culture into Finland in one fell swoop and everything made prior to that was the nostalgic.

It took me some time to get out of still listening to the greats of the 90s and the 80s. In fact, I believe I was in the 7th grade when I first got my hands on some heavy metal. It shifted my whole life around. I moved away from the filth spewing out of NRJ and moved to downloading Iron Maiden, Metallica and other such pioneers of the metal genre. Now that I think about it, I've never looked back from my path either. I took in the scene so hard that my friends started calling me raggare because of the clothes and mannerisms I showed. I wore heavy rings, leather jackets, jeans and sunglasses. I stuck with early metal for two years before I started taking in the more hardcore stuff.

On the 10th grade (an extra year of primary school for those who want to recap before secondary education or more for those who couldn't get in due to grades being sub-par) I formed close friendships with two guys I found some of the most awesome personalities ever.

Tuomas was a metalhead from head to toe who listened to the most hardcore metal I had ever heard and was a pagan to the core. He introduced me to a lot of the lesser known genres of metal that I still listen to a lot. Cheers to him for opening my eyes wider.

The other guy was Marko. Rastafari without the hairdo. He used pot, we all knew that even though he never said it himself, but more importantly he listened to a lot of reggae. I had listened to some reggae (mainly Bob Marley) at this point, but had never really started exploring all one could find in the genre. He opened my eyes even wider to the other genres of music I was missing out on. Without him I might still be stuck going back and forth between heavy metal and Weird 'Al' Yankovic.

For the last five years I've been a metalhead. For the last two years I've been a metalhead who can appreciate other forms of music as well.

I actually dropped the use of jewellery early 2010 and tried to update my look a bit, even though I still sported leather jackets. Only in the last six months have I come to show a bit more young adult look. In a way it's right on schedule. However, that's all beside the point.

What I'm going at is that no matter how many genres I listen to, whether they are hardcore metal bands formed in 2004 in Sweden or American pop groups from the 80s, they all have some sort of message in their tracks. They all have something valid and true in their music. This is something that the recent megastars, who brand themselves and expand into conglomerates, do not have. It's about clubbing or drinking or sex. Those things may be excellent experiences, depending a bit on the person in question of course, but what do they really convey to the people who listen to the songs?

Run, Run, Run, Run
Everybody move run
Lemme see you move and
Rock it til the grooves done
Shake it til the moon becomes the sun (Sun)
Everybody in the club give me a run (Run)
If you ready to move say it (Yeah Yeah)
One time for your mind say it (Yeah Yeah)
Well I'm ready for ya
Come let me show ya
You want to groove Im'a show you how to move
Come come

I reject the notion I'm sounding like one of those old farts who thinks everything the "modern youth" are doing is wrong. I'm far from that. I just happen to enjoy anything that actually conveys something to those who listen to it. What the modern music market is full of is just an extension of the corruption in the current social norms. It may be fact that your target audience is going clubbing to drink and have casual sex, but that doesn't mean you should do music just so you can put a beat in a dark room and have cash every time someone rocks their booty to it. The most successful artists and tracks are always those that have some sort of personal attachment. Even the greatest of beats can turn annoying really fast if there's not anything to balance it out.

Now, there will be people who think I'm a nutter gone mad with years of listening to the devil-worshipper music. Perhaps I am, if that is your opinion. Or perhaps I see things for what they are instead of assuming deeper spiritual meaning?

I am my own God
Master slave and I will be beyond the grave
No one will take my soul away
I carry my own will and make my day

I am my own God
See the truth beyond
Through endless lies thy kingdom come
Glorified wisdom illumination tool
Self deceit it's the golden rule

Live your life you're gonna die your own death
There's no one above that's gonna take your breath

I dip my forefinger in the watery blood
Of your impotent redeemer
And write over his thorn torn brow
The true Prince of Evil

What man's created
Man can destroy
Bring to light
That day of joy

The song directly above is Left Hand Path by a hardcore metal band called Entombed.

Does it convey to you the message of the Devil? Or can you see the actual meaning?

The lyrics at the very top are from Telephone by Lady Gaga

The second lyrics quoted are from Pon De Replay by Rihanna.