My mother listens to a lot of music, much like I do, and with that often comes a love of band merch. Almost every trip to Hot Topic leads to the same conversation, "Why can't I wear that shirt? You know who they are and I like the shirt! Who cares?"
Every time, I explain there is an unwritten rule about band merch. Don't wear merch for a band you don't listen to! Full on, just don't. This rule irritates her to no end, because she often finds shirts that she really likes, but she always remembers 'my rule.' Its not my rule, its just how it is! How I explain it is, by wearing a band shirt, you are supporting something. If you don't know the band, you don't know what you're supporting. Which, yes, on some level, that's okay when it comes to bands. At the same time, its not because, if someone comes up and says, "Hey, I like your shirt. What's your favorite song by them?" You won't have an answer. My personal thoughts on this whole thing are if you can name at least one song, its okay to wear the shirt. You don't have to actively listen to the band to support them, but you do have to know something about what you're supporting. In my eyes, its no different than wearing a Breaking Bad shirt when you don't watch Breaking Bad. Or, a 50 Shades of Grey shirt, even though you never read a single one of the books. (Do such things even exist? I don't know. I don't even know why that was my first example.) I don't know why I decided to talk about this now, because I already made a video about it earlier this year. I think its because the conversation came back up again last night. A Day To Remember was playing in the car and mom all the sudden goes, "Hey! That's right, I do know this song. That's why I can get their shirts, right?" I said yes, because she knows a couple songs, and if I could get her to listen more, she'd probably like several more from them. Apparently its just stayed in the front of my mind. So, how do you feel about the whole band merch thing? Do you agree that you should listen to the band before you wear their merch? Or do you not care because the band is still getting support then? Let me know!
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Its time for a new question for the 2014 Immortal Music Awards! A poll has been posted to solve last week's question, which was trying to determine who was the best unclean vocalist of 2014. If you'd like to vote on the answers already given, please feel encouraged to do so here. Every vote matters, and the more the merrier. If you see it, at least attempt to participate. Some have told me it won't load for them on their phones, and if that's the case, then feel free just to ask me about it and I will count your vote anyways. I want as much input as possible, so I am willing to work with you guys on that. Don't hesitate to speak up about any question or concern you may have!
Now onto this week's question, which may end up having many answers, instead of just one set one. What is the best lyric of 2014? This must be from a song that debuted this year. Even if its not available yet for purchase, but has been released for people to hear. Example: "So shine your light, push your enemy back. When you're under attack, we'll protect you." -Warriors, Papa Roach. Leave your thoughts here in the comments, over on Facebook or on Twitter. Anywhere works! This question, as well as the current poll will be active now through Monday, December 15. The Immortal Music Awards will be ending soon! There's only five more questions left, and a couple of them will be asked at the same time. The results of the 2014 Immortal Music Awards will be posted on December 30 or 31st, so get excited for that! Its that time of year again -the holiday season. Its not everyone's favorite time of year, and normally, its not mine either. This year though, I'm geniunely excited for Christmas! I've been doing Christmas shopping and am so excited to see the reactions out of people when I get to give them their presents. Today, I'm going to decorate the house and make it look all pretty (in my all black outfit -go figure.) and I started thinking -I need a soundtrack for that. Chances are, its going to be whatever my iPod happens to play, but I still thought it would be fun to make a Christmas playlist for you guys! I've been thinking this for a while, because I've been hearing a ton of less traditional Christmas songs, and I've probably done this in the past, but new songs have come into my life so here's my holiday list. Its in no order, just the order that they came to my mind.
1. Fool's Holiday -All Time Low 2. Merry Christmas, Kiss My Ass -All Time Low 3. His Favorite Christmas Story -Capital Lights 4. Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer - Elmo & Patsy 5. Santa's Pissed -Motionless In White 6. I Don't Wanna Spend Another Christmas Without You -The Ready Set (Originally by Nysnc, I believe.) 7. All I Want For Christmas Is You -My Chemical Romance (Or you could find about eight billion other covers of this song as well.) 8. Happy Holidays, You Bastard -Artist Vs Poet (Or you could choose Blink 182's original version of it, if you'd prefer that.) 9. Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer -Amasic (Its a punk rock version! Bet you didn't expect that one. Or maybe you did. Either way, its worth listening to!) I feel like those about cover it. Obviously there's more that I like, and tons more that I know, but those are the ones I feel like mentioning. What's your favorite Christmas song? Let me know! I only recently discovered "His Favorite Christmas Story" and its extremely bittersweet. I do like it, even if it made me tear up when I heard it the first time. Its not your typical Christmas song at all, and I think that's what I really like about it. I wouldn't say its my favorite though, I think that's "Fool's Holiday" by All Time Low. Songs can bring up memories, everyone knows that. My iTunes turned on an old song from Hilary Duff called "Sweet Sixteen." This was on her debut album, Metamorphosis, which came out in 2003. I was only ten when it came out, and I can remember listening to this song and imagining how awesome it'd be to be sixteen. I figured I'd be going all over with my friends, just driving around listening to music, and I'd have a blast. I thought being sixteen was going to be the coolest thing of my life.
Little did I know that I'd end up spending way too much time on the computer, and end up building a love and addiction for it. A lot of good has come out of that, of course, but when I was ten, I was only just starting to use the internet reguarly. And it was just to go play on Neopets. That's where my internet addiction started, actually, but that's not what this is about. I'll tell that story one of these days. Anyways, had you told my ten year old self what I'd be like today, I honestly would have laughed at you. In fact, my mom always did used to tell me that one day I'd hit a 'phase' where I only really liked black, and would be all "alternative." I did laugh, and I told her she was nuts. Guess what? She was right. Mom's are funny like that, they tend to know. For a while now, I've thought it'd be awesome to somehow time travel and let my ten year old self meet the current me. Something tells me, she'd be petrified of me today. I can remember actually saying that I only wanted one or two tattoos, I didn't like piercings, was scared to go into Hot Topic or anything like it, hated the color black or any rock music, and swore I'd never be friends with anyone who wore Tripps. Now, at twenty one, I have four tattoos, my lip pierced, work in an alternative store, practically live in Hot Topic, interview bands, manage a rock band and am drawn to anyone in Tripps. Every time I think of this, it just makes me laugh because I honestly thought it'd never happen. It happened slowly, but here I am, totally different than I figured I'd ever be. I don't know what kind of life I thought I was going to have. I vaguely remember thinking I wanted to be married by twenty one, have my first kid by twenty three, and I wanted to have my own no kill shelter. Plus, I wanted to be an artist. That didn't happen, and honestly, I'm glad. I like my life right now as it is. This life where I'm working at one of my favorite stores, getting to write about music and interact with other music lovers daily, and manage a band that I love, while being far too cynical of love to even give it a real chance. Sorry, just wanted to have a reminiscent moment, and decided to share it with the internet. Do you ever do that? Just start thinking about how life has changed and end up going on a tangent about it? Maybe that's just me. I don't know. Let me know anyways. The other day, I was at a friend's house. While I was there, he was busy doing things around his house, and I was working on the new profile and cover pictures for the Facebook page. Unsure what I thought of it at one point, I asked his opinion. He said it was really good, and we both went about our business without saying a word for a few minutes longer. Only sound that was there was the music coming from my laptop. All the sudden he speaks up and asks, "Have you ever thought about going to school?" I assumed he meant for graphic design. I said yes and no, because I have thought about it but I don't wish to do so.
He asked why that was the case, and I was honest. If I went to college, I'd have to give something up, and I don't want that. I also added that the first thing I'd probably give up would be managing his band. He said the band would understand if I quit, in order to better myself, and went on to say something that has stuck with me ever since. He has a tendency to do that to me, whether or not he means to or not. What he said this time that has stuck was basically saying I can't stay here forever. I won't be able to go out on my own on the paycheck I currently get, and its funny to me how he always manages to get in my head without even meaning to. I kind of blew him off right them, and just shut it all down with something that is true. On top of pointing out that I'd have to give up something in order to go to school, I mentioned that I like everything I do right now. I finally have a paying job that I enjoy, where I can fully be myself, and I like everyone I work with. Immortal Music is going wonderfully, and so is Remedy. Everything might be small scale for now, but let's face it -everything started small. Am I going to get anywhere with it? I have no fucking clue. I'd like to think so, and frankly, I know if I add something else to my plate, something will suffer. Which means so will the progress. Its almost always in the back of my head that while I have all these goals and ideas for the future, the reality proves that something is not going to work right. That bothers me a lot. There's been several times I've found myself very stressed out and upset over the thought of never having independence. What's bothering me right now isn't even that, its the fact that it almost looks like it has to be one or the other. Happiness or indepenence. I know that can't be the only option, but that's what it kind of looks like. That's just the pessimistic side coming out, but seriously, I can't afford to ever get my own life fully on a part time paycheck. Which is where my friend's suggestion of college came up. This conversation happened three days ago, but it has stayed in the front of my mind ever since. I keep finding myself thinking, "He's right, you know. You're going to be stuck here forever if you don't try to find some way to make more money so you can support yourself." Frankly, that scares me. There's options too, that could help me support Immortal Music or something, but still...in order to help it, I'd have to give up something. I'm too far into all my projects to quit. Its been an internal battle for days now, and then a video showed up in my YouTube subscription box. It was uploaded by Connor Franta, and its called Life Doesn't Wait. He basically validated everything I keep thinking. Why do something you don't like just to get ahead when you know what you actually want to do? Life's short. Time flies faster and faster every year, and frankly, life's what you make it. Why not make it rock? Yes, I did just paraphrase a Hannah Montana lyric to prove a point -you're welcome. Happiness is an over all thing, but it does come and go. I'm going to keep having mini crisies over independence, and I'm going to keep wanting to do it all. That's just part of who I am, but frankly, right now, I don't want to change a damn thing. I just want it all to keep growing, and like I said, it won't get any further if I add something else to the mix because it'll just suffer. I only just got the hang of having a job, plus trying to find time for Immortal Music, Remedy X, socializing, and household things. I can't change things now. Maybe I never will. I don't know, and I don't want to think about it too much. I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing. Maybe I'll pretend right now, but I swear to God that I'm gonna change the world. Nothing really has been solved, because while I say I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, that thought of maybe I'm not doing the right things, or enough is going to stay. Who knows what the future holds, I suppose. You don't know what I have planned, and sure, most of it will never happen. If just some of it can happen, on even the smallest scale, I'll be happy. If there's something you want to do, just do it. Life doesn't wait after all. Watch Connor's video, he said it far better than I ever could. I honestly only decided to write this because that's how I get things out. I write. Keep your hopes up high and your head down low, guys. I'm gonna go now before I ramble on more. Well, that time of the week has rolled around. Its time for a new question for the 2014 Immortal Music awards. It is also time for you to vote on last week's answers! Last week's question was trying to find the best drummer of 2014, and much like previous questions, no set answer was found. So, there is now a poll involving all the answers I received for you to vote on. Please come vote here and ask a friend do the same because input is highly needed.
This week's question is as follows; Best screamer (Unclean vocalist) of 2014? Just like previous questions involving the 'best of', this must be someone active this year. That could mean actively touring, or recording. As long as music has been played or created by them this year, it counts. This also cannot be one of your friends in an up and coming, local band. It's very sweet that you want to give them the credit, and their time is coming -don't worry. There is a place for people such as that coming soon in the Immortal Music Awards. Just stay tuned. You have until Monday, December 8 to vote on the poll and answer the question! Again, please do not hesitate to answer, and spread the world because the awards genuinely are nothing without your participation. |
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