"Yeah...this is great...for me to poop on" -Triumph the Comic Insult Dog.

That...quite adequately sums up how I feel about much of pop music. By pop music I am speaking of course about those loveable "top #40" stations that pump out the same crap by some untalented waste of 20 million dollars. I, as you can tell, do not think highly of pop music, and this is why I, today, am going to spend a little bit of time talking about music.

My car's antenna is broken...the darn thing is mechanical and the motor went bad. I didn't know this, however, until after I owned the car for roughly 8 months because there was no stereo in the car when I bought it. So suddenly I was faced with a dilemma either I a) pull the antenna up manually everytime I want to listen to the radio or I b) make sure I have a CD in the car with me. Well after a short amount of deliberation, I decided that the antenna is almost worthless to me and started packing CD's.

Why do I tell this story? For this reason: If more people stopped listening to the radio...maybe the music industry would realize that what they are playing is not worthy to share space with the average person's fecal matter. The problem as I see it is a simple one, and equally simple to remedy. Open your eyes and look around.

Many will say, "Luke, what is that supposed to mean?" Well it means this: when you are younger, you are too busy spending all your time out and about playing...so when your ear is naturally drawn to Barney Sings Along, you don't know better. Well, Music tycoons play off of this by giving you the same chinsey carbon-copy music when you grow up because it's what you're used to. Unfortunately, this leads people to listen to bands like Nickleback, Puddle of Mudd, Backstreet Boys, N'SYNC, and Menudo to name a few. The shame of it is that some of the people in these bands are talented musicians who's gift is being wasted on an hourly trip to the Radio Junk Yard.

So, now that I have talked about the evils of the music world...let me explain the whole "open your eyes" thing. There are bands out there that are busting their butts to make a living because they can't cut through the crap that people listen to. So many of these bands have more talent in their lead singer's pinky finger than is summed up in one pop princess. How do you find these bands or people...look..."open your eyes." Wilco, Tom Waits, Ben Folds, Ben Harper, ReadyMaid, Belle And Sebastian, Pedro The Lion...the list goes on forever. Turn the radio off and treat yourself to a new CD.

If people would open their eyes a bit and stop having "pop" force fed to them so often...they would see a whole world of music that is waiting to carry them to the promise land. Listen...why settle for mashed pea--Gerber style, when you could have a 12 oz. Porterhouse--cooked just right so the juices are sizzling and your mouth is watering?

Thanks for stopping by...I know I sure enjoyed it.

-Luke Snyder