jewels

ClearChannel and those guys do suck, but they've made business decisions. There are no "great" bands for teen music and our kids' tastes are so diverse because they are exposed to so much new music on myspace, that the execs and producers don't know where to go. Necessity and the internet have brought a new "cool" into town.

Most teens today think "radio bands" are not cool (FallOut Boy comes to mind). These kids are the first total myspace generation. Each kid has bands that they've "discovered" and push their parents to take them to "shows". For those not familiar, they're clubs that hire (usually) four (myspace) bands that will tour together to play from 8 - 11 pm, one night only, in different cities in a region. These shows are very intimate, maybe 2-300 people can stand, there are no seats. You can touch and hug band members, get autographs, etc.

I've taken my teens to two concerts this year, and we have two more planned in the next month or two. At $15 or less per ticket, it's a fairly inexpensive night out where they can see their favorite bands and meet up with the myspace "friends" that like the same music.

Sometimes, these kids and the shows will make the band, i.e. My Chemical Romance, which started this way. But now the other kids won't listen to them anymore, because now they're a "radio band". Get it?

We've all done this as teens; we wanted to be listening to something that made us different. And it is, it's just the same kind of different.

Or: I agree with Charlatan.

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We are always more anxious to be distinguished for a talent which we do not possess, than to be praised for the fifteen which we do possess.
Mark Twain