Enon – High Society:
Upon first listen I was a little confused. Was this a mix CD? Did Ken make an error when burning? Male acoustic song, female song with electronic tendencies…rinse, repeat. It took me a little while to get over the disjointedness of the album but once I did I absolutely loved it. Very experimental and very catchy. It’s everything I could want in an album while staying away from the mainstream. I preferred the female fronted songs to the male vocalists’ but the CD as a whole was quality. This album grew on me slowly until it definitely became a keeper and also I-Pod worthy. Score: 4

The Kills – Midnight Boom:
This album is hauntingly addictive. It is dark yet catchy. The interesting percussion and heavy guitars create quite a background for the smoking hot female vocals (and the male’s aren’t so bad either.) My only complaint is that the album was too short. I wanted more! I will definitely be checking out their previous albums because I am hooked on The Kills. I still can’t stop listening to it. Score: 4.5

R.E.M – Accelerate:
There are very few bands from my high school listening days that I don’t listen to anymore. R.E.M. is one of the exceptions. Used to love them, hell I even paid good money to see them at the Meadows in 96 or 97. I don’t know what changed in my tastes but since then I have sold most, if not all, of my R.E.M. albums and I often cringe when I hear them now. This album is no exception. Absolutely boring and nothing new. I almost prefer some of their earlier poppier tunes just because they at least have some pop hooks to keep you somewhat entertained. Score: 1.5

Jimmy Eat World – Greatest Hits:
Jimmy Eat World may not be innovative or incredible musicians but to me, they make great pop rock records. Jimmy Eat World have the exceptional ability to be a bands-band as well as fans-band, marrying credibility with a tuneful accessibly that makes them a permanent fixture of the modern music scene. Their albums just make me happy.

Topic:

True story...A band that I am friends with recently has been getting A LOT of label attention...yet label after label says the same thing..."We'd love to sign you but we'd like to see you have more Myspace friends first." No joke.

1. Are "social networking" sites like Myspace and Facebook helping the demise of the music industry? Discuss.
2. Because of this and downloads...where do you think the music industry will be in 5 or 10 years?

This a popular topic of conversation amongst my group of friends and I thought it would be interesting to bring up with a different generation of music listeners.
Are sites like Myspace and Facebook helping the demise…no. It is merely the stupidity of the record industy to believe that the number of friends on Myspace will make any difference in selling records.

For one, the majority of Myspace users are probably aged 14-18. The majority of 14-18 year olds are not a good target market for several reasons…
1.) The majority are fickle and will move on to something new and different in 6 months.
2.) Most teenagers do not buy cd’s to begin with, but download them illegally.
3.) To many teenagers, the number of friends you have on Myspace is a status thing…the more you have, the more popular you are…therefore they will accept friend requests from anyone or any band just to increase their numbers. This does not create an accurate representation of projected album sales.

As sad as it makes me because I love my CD collection, I think albums will be a thing of the past and everything will be downloaded. Concert ticket prices will rise even more because no one’s buying CD’s. I think, if record companies are smart, they’ll focus their attentions to more internet buzz and publicity. But, instead, they’ll want a bigger cut of what little money is being made off of sales…larger, well-established bands will go independent and release albums like Radiohead, and the little guys will get screwed. It actually frightens me to think of the music industry my children will have to deal with.