Rock ‘n’ Roll Star

It is hard to be satisfied to the current state of life, innit?

You might have everything in the world, but you may still suffer because you couldn’t get one thing you want the most. It may be love, friend, honor…. it can be anything.

It is scary how we assume. We think a perfect life would be living as a millionaire who owns everything.

In reality, it is extremely difficult to get every BASIC things. Say, friends. Do all people have friends?

Having a family, many friends, a regular car, a regular house, and time to have some fun with ones you are close to… this may sounds like a regular life to some people. But I don’t think I can live this life.

I believe we live in a God forsaken world. Everyone is dirty inside and society reflects it. I think it is just a matter of survival.  We are playing a game that everyone loses.

Let me rephrase that, we are playing a game that everyone might lose. There are still some boneheads who are haivng so much fun despite of every misery raping us all. I envy them. How do they do that? Werid.

There is a song called Rock ‘n’ Roll Star by Oasis.

It is somewhat sarcastic song that portrays life as short, pointless stupidity. What I love about this song is that it is lifting a middle finger to fast worlds and lives. Ain’t it fun? It was hell of a fun listening to this song live when Oasis came to Korea.

May be I may be the winner of life if I learn to enjoy myself with all sorts of dirty things shoved up in my nostrils.

Life sucks and we all must learn to deal with them in a fun way.

Yes, I must find a way to finish all the school homework while studying for AP tests that are just around the corner. It is amazing how I can’t stop hating life. I guess my only fun in life is to listening to songs written by carefree rock and roll stars. Hmmm rock and roll stars.

Genius…?

Huge body, height a little less than 2M, odd jumpsuit, white Les Paul guitar, white Michael Myers mask, long curly hair,

and a KFC bucket on a head!

There isn’t a bit of normality in that guitarist appearance, is there? (He sometimes resembles Slash, especially when he’s around Axl Rose)  So is his way of thinking, guitar playing technique, and the path of life he took. This downright unusual man is called the Buckethead.

He is more than just a guitarist. He ‘studies’ puzzle games, he comes up with many conspiracy theory, and he attempted to fool Sonny record by changing their band names.

Anyways I decided to write about this eccentric because I thought he would be a great example of genius who does not stand out.

Many critics considers him as a guitarist who will break the wall between music. In fact he covers variety of music with his guitar, including thrash, metal, punk, electronica, jazz, blues, L.A. metal, and etc. He is often compared to another great guitarist Paul Gilbert. He released over 50 albums, participated in movie sound tracks such as SAW II, Power Rangers, and Mortal Combat.

People did not recognize him until he became a new guitarist of Guns N’ Roses. To be honest, the album was not successful considering the time Axl Rose took to make it. Anyways Buckethead showed his skill to the world at last! People started to compare him with Slash, the former guiratist of Guns N’ Roses. In my opinion, Buckethead is superior than Slash in terms of finger speed, tone making, and accuracy. Despite the fame he earned, his weird behavior and violation of contract got him fired.

Buckethead’s tour with Guns N’ Roses only lasted for 2 years. Now he is back to the underground music scene, doing his usual sutff: performing in clubs. Somehow he seems to enjoy it! He even rejected the tour offer from Ozzy Osbourne. (For your information, Ozzy Osbourne is famous for choosing only guitarists with INCREDIBLE SKILL level to play for him. Ozzy performed with Tony Iommi, Rhandy Rhoads, and Zack Wylde).

[Ozzy and Rhandi, the legendary duo]

WHY IS HE STAYING UNDERGROUND?

Why is he not showing off his talent to the world?

I understand that he might find it fun playing underground. However humans naturally seek for fame and honor when basic desires (eating, clothing, housing, family) are satisfied.

Perhaps it is the part of genius that normal people wil lnever understand. Some say geniuses are just inch away from psychos.

Christopher Langan who has an IQ of 195 (Einstein, who understood what the universe was, had an IQ of 150), is currently making his living by working in a farm. Why is he doing that??

May be all the fame, fortune, and wealth are meaningless after all… Life is only a moment. May be simple happiness and pleasure is what matters the most.

Born unlucky

I used to wonder why people were born.

I used to wonder why people were born in worse environment than others.

I don’t care anymore.

Now I wonder what should unfortunate people do in life.

There are many different types of unfortunate people in this world. Some are born in dreadful environment. Some are born without proper body form.  Some are born with absolutely no talent. And some are born with just no luck.

When I took econ class, I learned that most of the people in this world were poor. I was absolutely shocked. As a fortunate one who were born in fantastic environment compared to most people in the world, I never knew. Then I began to question, how should they live? How are there lives?

There are many stories of successful people who started at the bottom of the society, eventually reaching the top.

I don’t believe in them. Those are rare cases, especially in a capitalist society that we live in. Heroes of the tales were either talented or were lucky.

Obviously if you are at the very bottom, only option you’ve got would be trying to crawl upwards. In reality, sometimes there are no ‘ups’.

It is tremendously saddening that most people can’t feel the simple pleasure I feel in life. When I go to a restaurant to eat some Chinese food, I am extremely happy. For people like Paris Hilton, it’s nothing. But for many people in third world countries, they will never feel my happiness of eating Chinese food in restaurarnt.

May be, they have their own little happiness, I really really don’t know. I have no idea.

Some people I know think that they are the most miserable people on earth.

I used to think so too.

But people around me and I are technically the top 10% wealthy people on earth.

Life is stupid…

Ranking?!

Whenever I’m looking through magazines or surfing on internet for some rock and roll news, I encounter several rankings of guiarists. Of course not all rankings are same, but most of them are similar. You will always see certain guitarists on the top of the chart: Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Van Halen, Angus Young, Jeff Beck, Randy Rhoads, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Steven Vai, Slash, Yngwie Malmsteen.

[Hendrix,father of electric guitar]

[Slash, former Guns N’ Roses guitarist]

Just by viewing the top guitiarist list, you will realize that there are hundred great guitarists out there. But in reality, there are millions of good ones.

All the rock and roll dreamers, who wish to be the greatest guitarist on earth, have to know that they will never be considered as better guitarists than Jimi Hendrix. There are people who always try to be the best, and they take that ranking list quite seriously. Some non-guitar players who just love rock and roll music take time to make their own list too.

[Struggling to find out who is the best guitarist is better…]

To me, those lists are pointless. I know that players like Hendrix and Slash have the greatest skill. However it does not necessarily mean that I like the sound they produce from their guitars.I love guitarists like Keith Richard or Noel Gallagher, because the tunes and riffs coming out from their fingers are just plain beautiful. I also enjoy jamming sound of Pete Townshend and Dimebag Darrel. They might not sound as delicate as some of the top guitarists I listed above, but their powerful strokes of strings make me shiver everytime I hear them! I sometimes think guitarists do not need god-like amout of skills or talent to sound good. As long as they have good riffs to play, they are cool enough!

[60’s rock star Pete Townshend, he still rocks]                [Fancy fingering skills are meaningless in front of Dimebag’s monster jam! RIP  Dimebag…]

For some reason people love to compare talented players. Not only guitar players! Soccer players like Messi and Ronaldo, basketball players like Lebron James and Kobe… The list goes on and on.

[Kobe Bryant, the best shooting guard in the league. He often gets compared to Michale Jordan]

I guess it is sometimes impossbile to avoid getting compared.

For example, I get compared to other students who are academically superior…

But you know what?

In the world of rock, there are just you and your guitar. So who cares? Just jam it!

Can music change the world? Part 2

[RATM’s album cover. Vietnamese Monk putting himself on fire to resist repression of Buddhism]

AH! RATM!!! One of my favorite bands!

Along with U2, they are the band that challenged the society most effectively (in my opinion of course)

[Bono, the vocalist from U2. I believe he almost received novel peace prize!]

The guitarist of RATM is infamous Tom Morello. His father was a descendant of the first President of Kenya, and he fought against the government. His mother was a famous (white) woman activist.  He grew up in New York Harlem, experienced racism in Chicago for being half black, and attended HARVARD UNIVERSITY and studied politics. To achieve his dream of being greatest activist ever, he read tremendous amount of books about socialism and progressivism. He decided to spread his thoughts by music. During the day he studied, and at night he was jamming the guitar. Instead of just simply playing the guitar, he examined each parts of guitar carefully. As a result, Tom Morello is known as one of the best guitarist in the world, who is capable of producing unique tone and sound that can’t be immitated by anyone(including legendary guitarists like Slash and Van Hallen).

The vocalist(or rapper) of RATM is Zack De Rocha, he experienced extreme racism in America for being Mexican.

His father was an activist, he expressed his political thoughts through painting. As his son, Zack had similar idea, and most importantly, was filled with anger.

When these two key people met, RATM was born, and they crahsed the world.  lml

I truly admire them. I really do. I respect their thoughts and ideology. Besides their musical activity, they lead or participated in many protests.

But how much did they change the society so far? Last time I wrote how music can change poeple. But can music change society?

I watched one of the South Park episode criticizing hippie musicians.

They were portrayed as people who played music, thinking that they are changing the world. Actually, they were just getting wasted. They were avoiding the reality, instead of changing them.

RATM is music is surely inspiring. It ignited many people’s heart, encouraged them to fight for what is wrong.

The question is, how many people will actually take action to change society?

In roaring twenties, books like jungle inspired American people and leaders to make changes.

In 21st century, music is not taken seriously as books do, despite of its capability of spreading.

Last time, I said musicians have power to change the world. That was a theoretical statement. In this post, I would like the question the validity of my own statement.

Music can change people. Can those people change the world?

coming up next

music popularity

skill in music

Can music change the world? Part 1

Words of music are extremely important. It is like a little gold powder that makes the tunes shine.

At the same time, it is also a magic that changes people

in both good and bad ways.

I want to make few posts on this topic… I think this will the first of the series..

Today one of the most popular genre of music is hip hop.

I am not a big fan of hip hop, but I have listened to some of the great works by hip hoppers.

And I think lyrics in hip hop really matter. It’s rhyme and flow effects the song ofcourse, but the message of the song truly decide the artistic value of the song.

There are certain categories of lyrics in hop hop in my opinion. They talk about harsh life, party, sex, drugs, gangsters, and many other stuffs. I like rap from old 80s or 90s because back then, rappers had something important to talk about such as their experiences and racial conflicts. Now days I encounter many hip hop songs that are just pointless. They degrade some other hip hop crews and women for some reason.

After hip hop has been popular, I have seen many rapper wanna bes, having same wrong thoughts as those rappers. Then I began to question the power of music.

[Legendary hip hop group, Run DMC. They are known for criticism on society, but their songs are fun to listen to]

One of the best examples of fearsome power of music would be Gloomy Sunday.

One Hungarian wrote that song after breaking up with his lover. Soon after the completion of his work, he jumped out the window.  And the funny thing is that so many people comitted suicide after listening to that song. After countless victims, Hungarian government extreminated his work. It is a legendary song, and I don’t think you can get original version anymore.

[A movie based on the song]

I think this shows how writers of the song can actually reach the listenerers with their feelings. On top of that, scientifically speaking, our emotions can easily change through the sound we hear.

Some people consider musicians as clowns. But once they gain popularity and reach the certain level, their role in society becomes as important as politicians. Their thoughts can spread instantly like a plague. How easy is it to listen to a song? You can just go to youtube, illegally download them, turn on the radio or TV to listen to songs. Once they reach the certain level, it is not very hard for musicians to become ‘GODS’ of the fans.

[How many of you rockkids worshipped Nirvana???]

Musicians have power to change the world.

[Many heavy metal singers are accused of their lyrics. Ozzy Osbourne was sued for being responsible of one boy’s suicide.

Ozzy won the trial, and  I personally blame the boy for his death.  I listen to tons of metals but I don’t kill people, I don’t hurt people, I don’t destroy things, I don’t do drugs, I don’t drink like dogs, and I don’t hurt myself. But does Ozzy really have absolutely nothing to do with boy’s death??? hmmmm…. ]

Coming up next

day off

I just feel like writing whatever I want, and however I want.

I want to take a day to do few things.

May be writing a story, listening to CDs that I bought recently, writing a song myself, or think about what I want to do with life.

If you think about it, things I listed above can really take a whole day, even if it looks like an easy task.

And I have no time to do such things.

It sometimes depresses me. It really does. I know all other Korean kids of my age are studying 24 hours a day(quite literally). But I still want to take a moment, stare at the sky for a while, and perhaps write something on paper.

I’m glad this blogging thing is mandatory school work. I have an excuse to think what I want to think. Most of the times, I have to solve math problems or SAT problems.

Just today, I met a person I know. He said he quit school, so he could travel around the world to study, get several jobs, go to college (he can go to college because he is taking some sort of the test that I don’t remember the name of…), and be a scientist or a novelist. It sounds like a vague dream since I don’t recall what he said clearly. But he knew what to do with life. His teachers all encouraged him to quit school(in a good way)and go for his dreams. He was a guy who took time to learn what he thought it was worth it. And he’s taking years off to what he wants to do.

I know that I’m not as intelligent, confident, or capable as that guy. But I need to take time to get ready for what’s ahead of me besides SATs. I know that there are more things coming up other than those tests. Damn I realy need a day off.

Looks and Music

There are many talented electronia groups in Korea, and they are not necessarily underground artists.But despite of their high quality music, they recieve little or no credit compared to credit idols recieve. Clearly, idols are created by comanies. On the other hand, any electronica groups work on their own to emerge to the main stream. Even if they do make it to the main stream, they gain less attention. Why? To be honest their music is uncomparable to those crap musics by idol groups (no offence).

In Korea, one has to be good looking in order to gain success as a musician, no matter how much untalented they are in music. According to brokers, some Korean singers sold their body to gain sponsorship, and use those money to make albums and control media. For some reason outer appearance matters the most in music industry.

Rock and electronica is globally popular music genre. It is popular in Korea as well. When famous rock bands or DJ or electronica groups stops by Korea during the tour, thousands of people buy tickets to see them. However there aren’t really popular Korean DJ or rock bands. It is because many singers or trainees with great looks don’t choose to do rock or electronica. They want to dance and show themselves off in music videos. If you take a look at appearnace of indie rock bands or electronica groups, most of them are far less good looking than idols.

I understand that it is easier to be attracted to singers with better looks. However, according to the music marketting book I read, musicians with below average looks can succeed. With good music and singing skills, people will be more linient on how musicians look. This can be seen in some idol groups in Korea. One Korean idol group has a good song writer, a good singer, and a good looking guy as members. Using hot one as a front man, the group gained popularity, and rest of the members gained fans as well. The ugliness of musicians can be overcame.

Appearance of the singer can be used as a good strategy. But it’s only a strategy. It’s not the most important trait of musicians. I think it is difficult to expect all the good electronica musicians and rock bands of Korea to be popular soon. May be I will never be able to go to HUGE HUGE musical concerts of pure Korean electronica and rock. And that sucks.

House Rulez – Amazing electronica group

No Brain – Korean indie rock band

Dong Bang Shin Ki – ‘Untouchable’ Korean idol group. They are literally untouchable.

If someone criticize them, thousands of fans will break down your house and bury you alive.

Kent

I love rock, I love its spirits.

And I love electronic music, I like its beat and groove.

Kent satisfies my unreasonable desire of feeling beauty, spirit, emotion, beat, and groove from a single music.

Kent is a Swedish band that completely dominated Scandinavian region for many years. Many music critics consider them as equals of Radiohead and other great bands we all know. For some reason this band is unknown in many other regions of the world, due to their lack of interest in touring around the world.

I know lots of bands from many parts of the world, and I can say Kent has unique style of music that not many bands can produce. First of all, they sing in Swedish. Many famous bands from Scandinavia, like HIM and Children of Bodom, use English to express their anger and sorrow. Kent sings in Swedish, one of the most beautifully sounding languages in the world. Second, their lyrics are deeeeep. Not many people would realize that since no one would actually look up the true meaning of the song hidden behind in Swedish language. Even though the song sounds twice as good after discovering the true meaning of it, we all can get good idea from just simply listening to it. The music’s distinctive tone says it all. Thirldy, the music has great beats. Not many people care about beats when listening to rock music. People usually look for emotions and spirits. But Kent has a talented drummer who knows how to make the dead song live again. Kent has many beautiful ballads that may have been extremely boring. If you listen to the vocal, he is slowly humming the song with light, dreamy voice. It sure is nice, but it can easily cause someone to go to sleep. Amazingly, the beat gives a beautiful yet sad ballad song a funky groove. Of course it is not a super duper funky electronic beat that will make your buttocks shake, but it still is groovy enough for you to bang your head back and forth.

In order for a musician to succeed, they must use media well. Having great songs is not enough in modern days. Kent has great songs but they never bothered to reach greater music markets using media. They were satisfied at doing their music in their quite, clean Scandinavia. It is us listners’ job to discover good music with our hands. Famous bands from America do not show every parts of music.

If someone asks me for a good music, I will proudly present Kent with no hesitation.