In Search of... New Music

I am going nuts trying to find new music and new artists lately. It used to be that I could go out on the Internet to certain mp3 download sites and find something new and original that really excited me. I was primarily interested in finding high-quality unsigned artists and bands.

The best site for a while was the original MP3.com. Unfortunately once it became rock solid technologically and had developed a host of excellent services for artists and users alike it became the target of lawsuits. In particular the RIAA and a number of high profile artists came down on it like a ton of bricks.

Weakened financially by the lawsuits, MP3.com was eventually acquired by Vivendi Universal in May of 2001 for $372 million in cash and stock. Vivendi didn't understand what it had which led to difficulties growing the service and so it was eventually dismantled and sold off. All of its assets including the URL and logo were sold to CNET in 2003.

The rest of the story is very sad. It has become just another vehicle for promoting the same crap the record companies have been throwing at the radio stations for the last ten years. There have been a few sites that have tried to re-create the beauty that was MP3.com like Garageband.com and SoundClick.com . These sites, despite being well done, have not captured the imagination and frankly the quality of artists the way the original MP3.com did. To put it bluntly there is a lot of garbage out there.

In one sense having the traditional music industry weed out the junk was a valuable service but unfortunately the urban hip-hop and rap culture has so dominated the airwaves that the truly good melody-based music only occasionally eeks out.

I am just not interested in hip-hop or rap. I'm not crazy about country music either but I like some of it a lot.

I gravitate toward Power Pop, Hard Rock, Album Orientated Rock, Blues, Alternative, Progressive Rock, Power Ballads, Big Band sound and some Latin Rock and Reggae too... I have been trying to get into Christian Rock and I must say I think the "music" part is very good but the lyrics are just too sappy for me. There are a few artists that get the message across in a subtle and effective manner, but most go overboard with the hallelujahs.

That leads me to the Grand Daddy of them all - Classic Rock. I love Classic Rock, but face it, I heard it all before. I want something new.

Here a couple of new bands and artists I have come across lately:
Blue Merle
Carbon Leaf
8 Stops 7
Howie Day
Keane
Snow Patrol

Feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments or e-mail me at willrocc@msn.com


CW