A Justin Bieber Movement We All Can Agree On!

Congress is at their anti-music freedom antics again. Does the corrupted ever sleep?! Plus, this is looking like it could sweep anyone off of YouTube cover fame, including Justin Bieber.

It's S. 978, the bill that can lock up folks for up to five years for using copyrighted material on the Web. OpenCongress summarizes it like this:

The Commercial Felony Streaming Act (S. 978) makes unauthorized web streaming of copyrighted content a felony with a possible penalty of up to 5 years in prison. Illegal streaming of copyrighted content is defined in the bill as an offense that "consists of 10 or more public performances by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copyrighted works" and has a total economic value, either to the copyright holder or the infringer, of at least $2,500.

While I feel like Justin Bieber should not be as popular as he actually is - in fact I would give him Jeff Cohen's fame over Sean Astin's fame (or as much as I could relate his musical content to Sloth from The Goonies as possible) - he should not be locked up for covering his favorite songs. Neither should Karmin, Greyson Chance or Melanie Fiona.

Thanks to the open-ended language of this bill, three hots and a cot for five years can go to not only YouTubers but to Tweeters, Facebook(ers), MySpace(rs), Google+ers, Pandora(ers), AmazonCloud(ers), GrooveShark(ers), SoundCloud(ers), folks who own iPhones, Androids and email accounts because it's the sharing of streaming media that could be illegal.

Thinking about it, and maybe stretching it a little, bumping the stream of the Danny Brown and Black Milk album on speaker phones and then someone joins in on the tunes could come with a five-year sentence. How awesome is that?!

Here's another slightly-stretched scenario: those who want to make their own variation of The Wobble, The Wu-Tang, The Artichoke, or whatever the hot new dance craze can get the silver bracelets too. Oh, and that cute video of the eight-year-old singing Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass?" Illegal.

While the pressure to protect artists from other people making money off of streaming music without the artist's permission is understandable, the impulsive extremity of this act is foolish. If someone were to steal anything I've written off this blog and post it on their sites as their words, I would be pissed. However, to do it with an adoration for my voice (and attribution), or to do it on the grounds of some editing of some sort, I would understand.

Here's what's being done. Fight for the Future has launched a Free Bieber campaign and a petition people can sign to stop the bill from going forth. Once you visit FreeBieber.org, the petition will pop up asking for your email address. The petition is spread throughout the website as well.

The idea of penalizing folks like Karmin, Beiber, etc for the same reasons (and then some) is radical. Given most musicians feel like they are as good as - if not better - than the next man, most folks who cover other artists do not look to profit off of their adoration. More than likely, they want to place themselves in their favorite artist's shoes in their covers. Show me a band that wants to purely profit off of covering another artist, and I'll show you the Wiz Khalifa costume Billy Gardell (Mike from Mike & Molly) plans on wearing this Halloween weekend.

Something Old, Nothing New: Black Folk Music as "Innovative"

I ranted a little bit on my Tumblr about this topic before, but this issue hasn't been toppled enough.

Black folks and Americana music seen as "game changers" - as the Huffington Post's Black Voices calls The Carolina Chocolate Drops - just because they tote a fiddle or a banjo discredits the word innovation.

Not that this band lacks creativity or talent, but the article came off as "oh look, Black people with banjos. That must be alternative," which gives Black culture yet another pounding against our foundation. The definition of innovation, change, remix, etc does not necessarily root in the right now, but if you let Black media (and really all folks of the press) tell it change comes as a matter of what's present. While that may be true for some things, that cannot hold true for music because of how far back the existence of music dates.

Now, if HuffPo placed emphasis on CCD's abilities to merge beatboxing with their Americana sound, this would be a different article. Additionally, if the rest of the selections weren't based on what simply looks different, this blog post probably wouldn't exist. However, this mindset has run rampant far too long.

Black culture right now, at least according to the media, is centered around the rap and corporate game. This short-changes everyone else and everything else Black folks are capable of doing: playing guitar, singing opera, harp and other ambient music, and so much more.

I get it. Singing and rapping is hot in the community. I get it. Blogs revolve around popular keywords, Google trends and social media topics. However, when will Black media expand to other audiences and cultures, not expose what's already here and what we already know?

Overall, Black media in general have cornered the term innovation to what is alternative and downright gimmicky. Looking at Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All and CCD, one would think no Black people spit Atheist rhymes or can play a mean fiddle. That's far from the case because, if we wanna be real, we were among the first people ever to do those things.

While I don't wanna start a complete history lesson (because it's way too easy to look up the history of my points from this blog), I still worry about the cycle of our culture. I already know the world and cultures we live in acts in a chronological circle, but the circle seems to be getting smaller and smaller.

To read the story I'm talking about, click here!

Dear Spotify, Bring Your Arse To The States!!!

Since Imeem, among other music streaming sites, are no longer running, I've been on the hunt for the new place to extend my taste in music. I'm not a big iPerson, so suggesting iTunes, an iPad/Phone, or any other iNut-riding software or Internet tool won't work.

There are a couple dope sites and such to check out with that Imeem feel.

8tracks is one I use frequently because it has a creative gimmick to its purpose: come up with at least eight songs for a playlist. The playlist has to have some sort of title or theme to it (even if it is Brian Lehrer's Cooking Mix or Randy Moss' Post Pattern), and I have the freedom of uploading songs from my music collection or adding music other people uploaded to 8tracks. If I stick to just eight songs, it's like having an 8-track on your computer, minus the protruding cartridge.

Another site I like for music sharing and streaming is [INSERT DRUM ROLL]

*adds extra line for dramatic effect*

MySpace! Believe it or not, and amidst the crappy press it got for being Creepsterland, this site is great for sharing music for artists and listeners. It's easy to create playlists, add music, and with the new layout (which Facebook is trying to mimic btw) is easy for folks to share. Although Bandcamp and SoundCloud are good sites for artists to use to socialize with their fans as well as add music, MySpace is just as good. Plus, almost every band uses it, so to the folks I know that snub MySpace on the regular need to fall back, as journalist and bloggers quickly search "[insert artist or band] MySpace music" before anything else.

But back to the topic at-hand.

Spotify is another music sharing and streaming site that has the online and offline option. It's like iTunes, minus Apple's "i" and tunes, Pandora, LastFM, and Imeem, wrapped in one green bow. You can upload your own music, listen to others, make playlists, buy music, play the artist radio, go mobile, tweet it, Facebook it, among other things. Oh, and IT'S FREE! Sounds too good to be true, right?

Well, for those in the US of A, it does. Clicking on the "Get Spotify" icon will lead you to this. That's right, a shrugging heifer and information about how they want to have ALL music available on the site for ALL countries or nothing at all.

The researcher and journalist in me went digging for more info on Spotify, finding out that it's a wrangling with Warner's music label. According to TechCrunch back in the summer, despite the app availability on Symbian, Droid and iPhone (and now Windows 7 Phone) Warner does not want Spotify to air out their artists' music for free.

Sounds familiar? It should. Warner and YouTube had the same issue because Warner didn't want YouTube posting their artists videos for free. The difference between the two scenarios is that YouTube had balls, and pulled all of Warner's artists off their site and moved on! And of course, because no label wants to be excluded from press, Warner came running back to make a deal with YouTube.

Now why Spotify won't grow some is beyond me. There is no reason (other than money, and if that's the case then forget coming here) Spotify is not able to do the same for their site as YouTube and generate States users. This software has already won tech awards for their services and has 30,000 of America's musical elite using their site (including Pitchfork, which brought me to Spotify in the first place), so why is it not available for the PEOPLE???

So Spotify, bring your arse to the States! We've suffered without you for long enough. We want the same luxuries as France, Spain and Sweden too! We have even shown you love for the 30,000 people you serve already, why not multiply that by a milli or two?

I hope these questions don't go unanswered, and you find your way out of other people's iPhones and into my laptop soon.

Signed,

Me.

Ultimate Youtube Fails

DISCLAIMER: What you may see and hear is not intended for the weak-hearted. I do not wish to claim this as mine, or wish to claim this as good quality music in any way. There will moments, in fact, where you will find yourself trying to squint your ears. Trust me, because I tried, you can't do it. It is humanly impossible. So you must suffer just as I did!

I caught whiff of a few videos of different singers and entertainers putting on a stellar performance for FailBlog all this year and last year. Some of them have managed to make it onto my blog and Tumblr. Like this one:



And no one can forget this one:

Pure enjoyment on lack of entertainment!

Speaking of lack of entertainment, there have been recent and SERIOUS videos of different bands and artists putting on an atrocious performance for the Web, so atrocious that it's definitely comedic. Though I understand some people may have serious mental issues (and even ego issues), so to make fun of someone's "talent" can be a little insensitive. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people who try to be sensitive when someone isn't doing their job right. So when I see people claiming to be a band or a rapper sound like garbage, I will most definitely point that out in the most visible way possible - blogging.

Which leads me to my first newfound Ultimate fail video of the year, a Guns N' Roses cover. Meet Marcelo, Bruno, and Douglas. This Brazilian trio attempted to cover one of the greatest songs to play on Rock Band only to fall short from the beginning solo. Enjoy below:

That was six minutes of pure hell. There is no wonder that Axl doesn't like other people covering his work. Thanks to these guys, they'll probably be no more Guns N' Roses on any Rock Band or Guitar Hero - EVER.

And I'm happy to say there's another ultimate fail in the midst. Meet 50 Tyson. This young'n out of Minnesota thinks he can spit hot fire, but he just spits a hot mess! He feels that because Soulja Boy made fame off of Youtube, so can he. But he can not! Enjoy =)

Yes, I posted the nine minute video! Everyone must get the entire effect of 50 Cent meets Mike Tyson! For some reason he reminds me of the "Three Best Friends Song" Zach Galifianakis sung on Hangover. Fail, Fail FAIL! The sad thing is that he is extremely popular, as he has an "exclusive" video of people loving this dude.

Has the world become that dumbed down, where we let people like 50 Tyson become famous for his famine of talent? I feel like the world needs a refresher course on what does and does NOT deserves fame and fortune.