Bands. We all love their music and merchandise. But it comes to a point where every band is producing the same item as each other, just with a different design and band name attached to it. That's just as bad as jumping on the 'band'-wagon, going with what is popular and going against the whole purpose of being original (which in turn might question the originality of the music).

Yet when bands moan that they are not making money on merchandise, have they not thought that the items they are selling are near enough the same as every other band going? Fans demand a lot and as music downloads slice a 15 inch deep wound within the music industry's sales reports, bands are having to turn to other ideas to generate profit.

In time, music downloads may well die a natural death as tapes, vinyl's and CD's keep selling and they too became succeeded by another form of media. Question is what will replace music downloads? Streams seem to be the most likely option, but are we relying too much on the digital age to convey our music? Let alone the band's having their products sold through merchandise stores like Grindstore and Loud Clothing?

Let's take this back to the merchandise topic and ask ourselves, what are eight ideas that bands could potentially invest in, that could be cost-effective and unique in every dimension.

Of course not all bands would be able to afford these ideas and we are fully aware of this, but the whole idea of this post is to generate ideas for bands in general and to point out gaps in the merchandise market.

"There is a strong demand for Michael Jackson's music and merchandise, and that will only increase as more material surfaces in the years following his death" - Adam Kluger


USB's

The now defunct Melodic Death Metal / Metalcore band The Dead Lay Waiting took this route (read it here), and inspired themselves to design, order and sell syringe-shaped USB's. We all use them, whether to transport school, college or uni work, for business work or purely just to transport files across from one place to another. So this is a great way to 'connect' with your fans more and to expand your technological side of the band's merchandise repertoire.

There are plenty of USB custom designers out there, so comparing offers is fairly easy. As for the bands, as soon as they have their USB's delivered and ready to sell, once sold they can begin to realize that they, like Nokia, can connect with people - in this instance the fans.

Sites to visit:- USB Makers / USB2U / Vistaprint / Design!t Flash


Pens

Those handy writing tools known as pens are perhaps the most common item you would find in anyone's hand at a place of education or anyone who has to deal with paperwork at any given time. Now Iron Maiden have done this before (click here to buy), but because pens aren't that all too expensive at purchasing custom made, this is an ideal merchandise idea for any band.

Especially when sites like Vistaprint can produce 5 pens at the best price of £12 (click here). Sure they will eventually become useless; unless the option for refillable cartridges was there, when the ink runs out or the spring mechanism goes, but this is quite the novel idea for bands to sell to their fans. So instead of 'writing' a riff or two, they could 'click' into the idea of investing into pens for their fans.

Sites to visit:- Vistaprint / Pens Unlimited / Custom Ink / Promotion Pens

iPhone / iTouch / iPod covers

Most of us, if not the vast majority, either own an iPhone, an iTouch or an iPod (classic per se), so why not have bands design their own covers like India's Demonic Resurrection have done(click here). Again some bands might not be able to afford this, there might be a way around this in as far as bands asking designers whether they could sell these covers without any fee being passed to the designer, and the band earning a percentage of sales.

It would bid farewell to the basic, boring cases which stores like Apple and Carphone Warehouse sell. Moreover it feels a little more personalized - unless you purchase the same model, make, color and case, then it WILL be interesting. These could always be made to order and this would probably be the better option, rather than stocking them.

You could always password protect the device or maybe, just maybe, in the future implement finger scanning software... we're digressing here... let's get back to the merchandise article.

Sites to visit:- Case App / Cafe Press / Like My Case / Custom Funk


Alcohol

Sure some bands like AC/DC and Iron Maiden have already released their own signature alcoholic drinks, but with beer kits becoming so readily available and the ability to make home made alcohol already established, the potential for smaller bands to do this can become realistic.

Can you imagine bands unveiling alcohol pertaining to their own country? What if they used a portmanteau to make their drinks known? Let's have a few examples:

Rammstein + Jagermeister = "Rammeister"
Crossfaith + Sake = "Crosssake"
Arkona + Vodka = "Vodkona"

You get the idea.

The wine though would bode well if AC/DC performed at the Australia and New Zealand music festivals 'A Day On The Green' (click here for an article we did about this festival), just imagine drinking the AC/DC Platinum wine edition, in a vineyard, whilst they're playing in their home country, how cool would that be? OK maybe not as cool as Rammeister though....

Sites to visit:- The Home Brew Shop / Home Brewing / The Brewmarket

Let's go a bit on the insane side..

By Rhys Stevenson

Global Metal Apocalypse was speaking to one of our Dutch acquaintances about Metal music in The Netherlands, now he firmly believes that it is suffering and declining. We therefore decided to take the time out to speak to Kees Hermeling about this concern and ask him how the Dutch Metal scene has or has not changed over the last few decades or so. Therefore all opinions expressed are solely on behalf of Kees Hermeling and does not represent GMA's views.

Currently the Dutch Metal scene is feeling a backlash, besides the major bands who tour the country such as Delain, Within Temptation, Hail Of Bullets, Vanderbuyst, Epica, After Forever etc, it is not that big anymore and this is seen through the lack of metal pubs or bars, this lead us on to what improvements he thinks could be made in order to resolve this matter and improve the output of Dutch unsigned and underground Metal bands and projects.

Naturally he drags up his previous comment about the lack of pubs and bars offering metal nights, so he firmly believes that they should have at least metal nights to help bolster the local bands expansion and also to give the Dutch metalheads a place to congregate, enjoy live music and drink beer. Furthermore he feels that there needs to be more Metal stores for metalheads to purchase equipment, gear and related items within the metal music-sphere.

On a more political note and in specific the European Union, he believes that this unity has caused more good than bad as he has noticed that since joining a crisis has arisen and is still there, taxes shot up and as a result bars and pubs had to close due to a lack of sufficient funds to pay off the taxes as well as the suppliers and lease for the buildings used. This leads us to the question of whether the Euro has benefited the Dutch Metal scene or has it royally screwed it over.

With respect to equipment, it has become more expensive since we dropped the Dutch Guilder and adopted the Euro, in fact goods have doubled in price, thus increasing band's costs unintentionally and thus making it harder for some unsigned bands to make music, purchase equipment, hire out studio's and play at bars / pubs; because of them closing down, therefore it is evident that the Euro has knocked the Dutch Metal scene on it's knees and is now begging for mercy, so where does this leave the unsigned bands?

There are only a few unsigned bands that are currently doing well for themselves, and even most of these are of the Hardcore music genre. Could it be that because one music genre sets off a trend that every other musician has to jump on the bandwagon and go with what is cool? Well it certainly seems to be the case here, either that or Hardcore is being used as a vehicle to express dissatisfaction and anger towards the Dutch government and European Union. So what of the scene on a local level?

Well Arnhem according to Kees is practically dead aside from venues the Willemeen and the Luxor, who occasionally have metal nights (once a month), in comparison to the nation's capital, Amsterdam is pretty much alive if you know where to look, thus questioning whether it is the lesser cities and towns that are left scraping the barrel to keep the metal scenes alive, could this mean that there is a gradual shift towards major cities reaping in the bands? Could metal actually itself be dying?

He adds that if he wants to go buy a metal shirt, he has to go to Nijmegen, this resonates with his statement earlier about having more metal stores open, it definitely seems that the Dutch Metal scene is waning slightly, for how long is one question and how serious can this get is another. One thing is for sure, this proves once again that supporting your local bands is vital for the scenes existence.

Another post from the archives as similar to the Canadian post, except we emailed the Singapore Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) and in turn they forwarded our email to the National Arts Council. From which our question regarding how the Singaporean governmental officials support Heavy Metal music. Naturally their response was somewhat generic, however here it is below:

Words by Ms Elaine Ng, Director, Sector Development, Performing Arts, National Arts Council


"At the National Arts Council, we work directly with artists and various partners in promoting the arts, and in developing a sustainable environment that enables the arts to entertain, enrich and inspire.

• We are seeing a vibrant, burgeoning scene with a solid base of committed players who are passionate about the development of Singapore music. A lot more original music has come to the forefront in recent years, with several ground-up initiatives to profile local music, for instance: Lepa(r)k – a performance platform for local indie bands that is open free to the public; and Bandwagon – a one-stop web portal for music gigs listings in Singapore. Attention and support for local original music is also growing steadily; hopefully this will gather even greater momentum in the years to come. There is also an active tier of emerging bands – as well as amateur bands from tertiary institutions - surfacing in the scene, which form a good pipeline of new musicians who can be groomed.

Our support for musicians also covers various stages of their career as well, from students and amateurs, to semi-professionals and professionals.  We consciously try to grow and support musicians through these different stages of development: 

• Pre-Professional:  We award scholarships (undergraduate and postgraduate) to groom outstanding musicians in their artistic practice. We also work with arts institutions to identify new talent and organize competitive platforms for young musicians to develop their skills.

• Professional: Through our grant schemes, we support musicians for their performances, creation of new work, travel costs when they are invited to perform at overseas festivals/platforms, and for their continuous training if they choose to pursue short-term courses locally and overseas.

• Music Groups & Companies: We also have schemes aimed at growing larger music groups and companies in the area of organizational development and supporting their operations

Where youth are concerned, NAC organizes Noise Singapore - a youth arts platform to increase engagement of young talents in the areas of art, design, photography and music. Notably, Noise includes The Music Mentorship programme, a special programme where budding contemporary music groups/artists are mentored by experienced industry professionals over a 10-week period. These young musicians will then take the stage to perform at a weekend-long showcase.”

Digging this out from the GMA archives, a few years ago we sent some questions to the Department of Canadian Heritage, asking them how their nations views Metal music. Here we have their response, we thank Tim Warmington (Media Relations Advisor) for helping us out with this.

How does Canada view the mainstream / underground rock and metal music scene?

The Government of Canada encourages the creation, production and distribution of a variety of genres of music, including rock and metal, as this important cultural industry is essential to our communities, our identity, and our economy. Music in Canada generates nearly $3 billion every year in economic activity from sound recordings, concerts, commercial radio and performing rights.

Does Canada encourage youth to learn an instrument?

In 2011, the Government of Canada introduced the Children's Arts Tax Credit to encourage learning in a prescribed program of artistic, cultural, recreational or developmental activity. For more information on the Children's Arts Tax Credit visit this website: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/gncy/bdgt/2011/qa01-eng.html

Does Canada support rock/metal bands?

The Canada Music Fund is the Government of Canada's main support program for the music industry. It is administered in part by the Department of Canadian Heritage and by private sector organizations: FACTOR for the English-language music market and Music action for the French-language market. The objectives of the Canada  Music Fund are:

• To enhance Canadians access to a diverse range of Canadian music choices through existing and emerging media;

• To increase the opportunities available for Canadian music artists and entrepreneurs to make a significant and lasting contribution to Canadian cultural expression; and,

• To ensure that Canadian music artists and entrepreneurs have the skills, know-how and tools to succeed in a global and digital environment.

In recent years, the Canada Music Fund has helped support on average about 450 album production projects and over 1000 marketing, touring and showcasing initiatives annually. Projects in the rock and metal genres are eligible for funding. For more information on the Canada Music Fund click here:

http://www.pch.gc.ca/eng/1267201611990/1268346500374

Further on from the post made earlier under the 'interviews' sub-section, I had further responses from other bands across the globe and so I now I share the various responses given, we start off in the Asian country of Vietnam.

Response is from Tiến Trịnh Hồng of Symphonic Metal band Ban Nhạc Đông Đô

Down under called, they want there kangaroo's back, or was that the didgeridoo? Either which Axe Cane from Western Australia gave their opinion on the question. The response can be viewed below.

Heading back to Europe and Bulgarian metal band Impade were more than happy to give their thoughts, the video can be viewed below:

Moving further west and I stumbled across my home land of England (a bit corny), so from here I got responses from bands like Aonia, Hollow Demise, The Summa In Verse and later on Arise.

Heading across the channel France was the next destination to gain an answer(s) from the question, this came courtesy from Noein and Elders Tale and can be viewed below

After leaving France, I visited Germany to gather ideas on the question and so Norphobia and Captain Zorx spoke up and answered the question. Which is found below.

Leaving Europe altogether I went to India to found out their thoughts, and so this was the response:

Automobiles, lorries, buses and other modes of road transport, are those that we see on our roads on a day-by-day basis, well at least the majority of us do. Now have you ever wondered what they could be used for instead of just being driven around and also being blasted apart by metal music on the CD player? Well we have the solution. What if the various modes of road transport were actually representing Heavy Metal genres? Sounds bizarre doesn't it? Well with each vehicle we have rated it out of 10 under our own 'Horn Rating' scale which grades the vehicle based on it's level of Metalhead attitude and is as follows (don't take the grading seriously, unless stated):

0-2 - Poseur
3-4 - Gentle Headbang
5-6 - Crowdsurf
7-8 - Moshpit
9-10 - Wall of Death

N.B. Not all the songs relate to the genre aforementioned as it became too complicated in picking a song with the greatest level of aptness in correlation to the vehicle in hand.

We also did not include any lorries or motorbikes simply because we could not think of any that would befit the metal music genres; if you do have any ideas we can add then feel free to suggest them.

AVANT GARDE METAL

Vehicle: Ariel Atom
Country: UK

Horn (\m/) Rating: 6/10






It seems that Formula 1 has just became road-legal (discounting the Monaco and Singapore race tracks per se)? Welcoming into the limelight is the Ariel Atom, this is a card that is produced at a rate of 100 per year and therefore is another made-by-hand car. With an acceleration rate of 0 to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 2.89 seconds, it is the 3rd fastest car in terms of 0-60 mph acceleration. Furthermore it is one vehicle that really stands out as an experiment, especially with the knowledge that it was first built at Coventry University and then ended up having a unique exoskeleton body fitted to it. Coincidentally Avant Garde relates to experimenting, however the song of choice comes from the Melodic Death Metal style. Scar Symmetry's 'Deviate From The Form' would best work here as Ariel deviated from the basic car shape form and characteristics.

DEATH METAL

Vehicle: Nissan 350Z 2-door
Country: Japan

Horn (\m/) Rating: 4/10




Death Metal is uniquely represented in the automobile world, because the Nissan 350Z 2-door has over the years been causing havoc in the USA, mainly due to the fact it is a major contributor to car death-related accidents. Here we quote that "143 deaths per million registrations were Nissan 350Z drivers. So how befitting is it that this car should represent the Death Metal music genre, regardless of it speaking for itself. Now as for the song of choice that would be played to represent this vehicle, it would have to be 'The Final Front' by Hail of Bullets because of the negativity surrounding this metallic four-wheeled coffin. Moreover it could be argued this model was a nail in the coffin for Nissan, it doesn't even look remotely good-looking.

SLUDGE METAL

Vehicle: Land Rover Defender
Country: UK

Horn (\m/) Rating: 4/10




Can you classify mud as a form of sludge or not? Of course you can, therefore representing Sludge Metal is the Land Rover Defender, highly recognizable as a favorite off-road vehicle amongst the farming communities due to it's brilliance at dealing with off-road conditions and the amount of times it is driven around with mud splattered along the sides (almost nostalgic for those Emmerdale fans). As for the song, we feel that the song to represent this countryside monster would have to be any song by Milking The Goatmachine, purely because of the evident farm-pun within the band name. Oh hell, go on and milk that goat till it runs dry fellow metalheads and prep yourself to perform 'Heavy Metal Farmer' at the same time. But why the low score? Well it does not pass itself off as anything remotely wicked looking.

SPEED METAL & POWER METAL

Vehicle: Koenigsegg One:1
Country: Sweden

Horn (\m/) Rating: 10/10






As luxury generally comes in pairs usually (money and the status symbol pair per se), Speed Metal and Power Metal would best suit the new Koenigsegg One:1 which was unveiled this year at the Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland. With a top speed of 273 mph (which is faster than a Bugatti Veyron) and harboring a 5.0 liter twin-turbo V8 engine delivering 1140bhp, you would not want to blink twice at this monster unless you want to evidently miss it. The power and speed are certainly there and so this is one aspect that proves itself as worthy of being represented this way in the metal music world. As for the song, we have decided to pick one of Sweden's notable exports Sonic Syndicate, their song "Beauty & The Beast" would go well with this car as it has beauty and sounds like a beast. Oh and they are made by hand....

Isn't it ironic though? If you had only one race or one nationality in any form of media it's considered racist, yet because this music video has some level of diversity, people still call it racist? If it was racist, then surely the crew and indeed the backing dancers would have probably spoke out about it and would not have gone ahead with the production (has anyone else thought that?) of the music video.

If anyone has actually indulged into the Visual Kei music scene, the Hello Kitty brand and Japanese culture, they will understand how vibrant it is and how taboo's are off in this country. Just like Baby metal (see our article here), they take the internationally recognized music styles and make it into their own, now come on if music is to progress then innovation must be allowed to happen, so if people are going to complain about something vastly different to the basic music being played worldwide, music would almost certainly die a slow death.

Back to Avril Lavigne, you have to admire how The Huffington Post point their finger towards her, yet it is the director who maintains the whole production of the music video, here The Huffington Post feels that "(Avril) Lavigne is by no means "embracing" Japanese culture. She is using it as her jester", how they can say that is beyond ridiculous, if it was set out to poke fun at the culture then the production would most likely never have happened, because the team would have not found it funny and surely that does not take too much to figure out?

Furthermore The Huffington Post have made a mistake on their part, the video has not been removed (check it here), so much for exaggeration. Oh and since Hello Kitty is already an established brand, then they must have given her and her team the right to use their brand as the song and end up producing media (like the music video) around it. Now if it was racist, sexist or down right offensive in any way, then they would have most likely not allowed this to be published.

With more pressing issues going on in the world that media outlets could remark upon, we have them moaning and belittling a harmless song and a brilliant artist, crikey this might just make the Sid Vicious a martyr and Johnny Rotten a potential martyr.

Say what you like, but we send our support to Avril Lavigne! You rock grrrl \m/

What is this? 3 Japanese teenage girls acting cute and delinquently singing in the style of J-pop or the hit 'Gangnam Style' and dancing to Symphonic Death Metal as the music backdrop.

Don't get me wrong I think this trio are going to blow up internationally just like Psy's 'Gangnam Style' and of course the infamous 'Harlem shake', but what makes this band so different is there Visual Kei appearance, not many Japanese Metal bands in this style actually break out in such high velocity. Only a few notable bands like D'espairsRay, Dir En Gray, Crossfaith and X-Japan have made it overseas; some bands like L'Arc En Ciel and Antic Cafe follow in behind.

Another great thing to admire about this band is the evidential use of the Japanese language, such a beautiful language and is generally preferred by most Visual Kei-influenced bands in Japan.

Having only been around four years and just this year released their debut self-titled album, we could see this band taking the world by storm within the next decade, surpassing some of the metal greats such as Iron Maiden, we may be wrong, but if they carry on with the sterling effort demonstrated thus far, who would argue against us?

Their self-titled sold 37,463 copies during it's first week - that for a debut is pretty good owing to the level of international recognition they have, that is - Japanese music in general is not well acknowledged in the general Western music scope, it is not played on the radio and thus does not get picked up by the wider audience, however recently Metal Hammer (UK) picked up on these girls and did an article on them (latest issue April 2014), however here you can find that they have contradicted themselves. Boy were they wrong.

Maybe they did not see what we see, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. However if Babymetal do happen to blow up considerably in the future, you read it here first that we put our penny's worth down that they will.

They were quick to praise Nik Kai (USA), we sense a contradiction here.

It might be that you would need to understand that in Japan, taboo's are totally OFF.

It must be good as the album itself clocked up no.1 on both the UK and US iTunes Metal charts, as well as Japan's Oricon Daily Chart. It also peaked at number 4 on the U.S. Billboard Heatseekers chart as well as 187 on the Billboard 200.

Global Metal Apocalypse therefore puts Babymetal as 'April's band to watch'.

Sign them up for the Royal Variety Performance.

http://www.babymetal.jp/
https://www.facebook.com/BABYMETAL.jp

This is what the musician had to say:

"It is sad to say that The Ukraine is now undoubtedly facing a civil war breaking out. The thing is, the police are supporting the Mafia Government and will as a result integrate with the hired bandits and end up killing protesters.

Already there are so many victims, and because of the unequal forces it will be a brutal struggle and fight. Naturally this will provoke social rest, but it is a fact that the Ukrainian society is divided and this includes the musicians too. See we live in the Ukrainian part, however the pro-Russian part of the population hate us.

In my honest opinion I would not be surprised if in the near future or so, our country will split into two halves, more over it is possible that not only will concerts end, but our normal lives will end too and as such in principle, we will live in accordance to martial law.

It is sad to say that with such circumstances, it is difficult to predict anything. None of us know what sort of country we will wake up to tomorrow, would it not be a state of emergency, for example. I would advise against bands who want to play here, because of the violence that is happening.

I am of course in utter shock, as well as the rest of my countrymen are, music for us has been shifted to the background because of this highly difficult time we're going through".

So a post that was uploaded today by Classic Rock contributor Scott Rowley centers around the topic of whether rock music is a dead music style, having read the article and deemed some points of significant truth, there are some points that are evidently and so misconstrued in context, that it clearly does not fully answer whether rock is dead or not.

Ok sure we can acknowledge album sales are decreasing (most likely becomes of downloads), festivals feature headliners that are from the days gone by (and in fact when we interviewed Pete Dee of Kremated he said that he would rather see festivals support unsigned talent i.e. Bloodstock metal to the masses than go to a festival to see Megadeth come out on zimmer frames), but we cannot totally agree that the music industry is faltering (as we show later)

'Empty spaces - what are we living for?
Abandoned places - I guess we know the score..
On and on!
Does anybody know what we are looking for?'
The Show Must Go On, Queen

Let's face it rock is facing a revival through various means and whilst to some it seems to be a dying music genre, it is in fact simply reawakening out of hibernation. Sure the media tends to whitewash the outlets with pop music and in doing so shoves some rock music aside, but like everything in life the significance of this still remains.

According to Earl Sheridan, late of Earl Sheridan and the Housebreakers, now president of the Rock 'n' Roll Appreciation Society, "contrary to press reports, rock 'n' roll is not dead. Rock 'n' roll is the only true music. It is alive, and here to stay". (Source: The Guardian)

There are numerous culprits at play and so lets look at two of these culprits that are keeping rock music hidden in the dark and not reinvigorating or investing into tomorrow's music. Let's have a look at these culprits in detail:

• Promoters
  
  

Yes the dreaded pied pipers of hamlet melodically entrancing bands into following them, well not exactly. They are an odd breed who won't place a risk of losing finances from booking an unknown band despite popular demand and or through the arrogant perception that music is always about the money (of course you want to profit, but by what means? Legitimate sales or fees you charge bands to play?). In a business context, it is a risk and in fact anything you do will always have an element of risk to it, so what's the point in biding the time by and booking the same old bands day in, day out? Oh and you are not a promoter if you just use social media as a platform to get shows out there, no use word of mouth, flyers, leaflets, get into Kerrang!' weekly gig guide, now that is called marketing your show, a no brainer to some, mind-challenging to others.

• Fans of rock music

You cannot escape the clutches this time, you download music illegally or through iTunes and so you forgo the CD. Excellent, that is exactly what is causing the music industry to collapse! Let's take a look, say the CD you want is £7.99 in HMV, £7.99 iTunes download and oh you found a second hand copy online for 99p (p&p at £1.99), automatically as humans you want to opt for the cheaper option - download illegally - but through buying it is second hand. But the problem here is the profit allocaion, let me explain: £7.99 is the CD in your hand, that CD went through numerous processes to get into your hands, all accruing costs and subsequently decreasing in profit maximisation per entity, confused yet? Simple: HMV store < HMV regional warehouse < HMV national warehouse < UK distributor (Plastichead) < Record Label < Band. That's 6 exchangements and through that process the profit made depletes as it goes from shop floor to band, meaning the band receive the little amounts. Solution? Buy direct from the label, distributor or band themselves - bypasses those milestones and this means the money received is greater. But also supporting local unsigned talent, we cannot stress the importance of this anymore! Sod your excuse that you have no money, £3 is hardly worth milling over, get a loan from family or organize a friend to buy a ticket and pay them later.

Record labels rely on your purchases, give them the money for them to reinvest in their rosters activities, it's a cycle and you are an important part of it.

'Time passes by, nothing is changing,
A frustrating mind kind'
Digital Structure, Breach The Void

Technology is the corruption behind the world, let's face it we now live in an Orwellian society dogged by the mass surveillance of Governments, police and another other internet user and in fact the old methods of life are dying out.

• Instant messaging is ruining the art of conversation
• MP3 downloads are ruining the physicality and euphoria of CD or Vinyl purchasing
• Fax and email are slowly degrading the postal service.
• Sat-navs are killing off the use of maps and intellect driving / directional skills

We could go on and on, the truth of the matter is as technology changes, so does everything else and thus whilst rock appears to be in a decline, it is ironically facing a shift towards more internet based marketing and mass distributing. With that though comes a price, the moral ethical choice of going digital or physical within the context of music consumption.

Whilst we live in a digital era, sometimes it is best to back to basics and what I fear is that someday the whole technological world will be hit with a reality, a smack in the face signalling its imminent death. Because sooner or later, all avenues will be explored and all possibilities algorithmically calculated and finalized.

Whilst Classic Rock believe that rock music is facing its past, we believe somewhat the opposite is happening. Hear us out:


Classic Rock: "If you were a teenager in the 70s or 80s, you had a couple of decades of rock history to get your head around. Teenagers now have 50 years of music to delve into via Spotify, plus new sounds to discover every day".

GMA: Well ok we admit spotify is enabling the potential for delving back into rock music history to occur, the only thing that they misjudged here was that not everyone is entirely computer literate (handicapped people per se), furthermore what if some aren't familiar with spotify? What if some live in countries where downloads are monitored? What if people don't have internet?


Classic Rock: "The respect given to the bands of the past is so great (and mounting) that new bands are on a hiding to nothing: how can you compete with that?"

GMA: Sure the older bands are the classics, they will garner respect that modern bands tend not to receive, but that is purely down to the fact that some unsigned bands are either too slacking in their approach, have the talent but people are not taking interest, the media outlets focus more on older bands than newer bands, what about the bands back then who started it all off and today's bands who start off new genres? Same principle, different reason.


Classic Rock: "Now it’s the consumer that drives it, so music will go wherever the consumer demands that it goes. We will not have another punk, or another acid house, or another Britpop. That’s a fact".

GMA: For sure the consumer is the one who dictates what sales are recorded and thus what albums make the charts, but punk made a revival did it not? As long as people listen to the music, then there will be the same music coming out from different bands and artists, so we feel what Classic Rock have said is not 100% true, clearly. We'd love to know their thoughts.

"Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?"
Thank You For The Music, ABBA

Music is meant to be celebrated, it will never die collectively and as far as rock is concerned it certainly is not dying, it is simply not as strong as it was once but certainly not dying.

We agree that 'Web sellers like eBay and Amazon connecting us with previously hard-to-find rarities. And great new music everywhere' because this evidently true, but even sites like last.fm, YouTube and the Metal Archives give us new bands to check out, so there is a constant stream of new and old music waiting to be listened to.

Modern day bands can now harness the power of technology to their own benefits, they no longer have to follow the trends laid out by magazines, nor do they have to get signed to be big, it helps for sure but the overall gist of being successful is to work and play hard. Do something that different that sets you out from the crowd and you're aiming for the highest mountains, do an album that sounds like bands X, Y and Z to a tee, then you're staring into an abyss.

We disagree that society is wholly shifting from mass culture to individualistic cultures, some people still prefer to listen to bands covered by the magazines and they won't deviate, others prefer to search new music according to their tastes. But with this newer freedom of choice comes one issue, when will the time come when we dictate to bands and artists what songs we want, when will we be in the studio with them making sure our next purchase is what we want before it's even gone for pressing.

We do agree the digital world is the way forward, but we also disagree that is the main focal point of the next few decades, because the old traditions won't ever die, not whilst CD's exist in used and new forms. Moreover we disagree that the future will have less big bands, however ironically we agree that without supporting the unsigned and smaller bands, these wont ferment into bigger bands, simple as.

We agree with the following passage:

"Realistic doesn’t necessarily mean unsuccessful. Quality tends to rise to the top. Even as the influence of traditional media channels wanes, human nature means that we want to like the same things..... There might be little room in the new world order for hype, but we’re more connected than ever before, and we want to share. We’re music nuts. Turning people on to good music is what we do. All we need is the good music".

However, some good quality bands aren't making it to the top irrespective of hype generated, this is mainly because the media outlets here do not take notice of bands in Indonesia per se, meaning how can UK music fans listen to said bands? But we do accept sharing music is the key to keeping rock music alive, meaning the salient point we feel is that rock music is not dying, it is simply lingering and waiting to reemerge with a new army of bands to take the musical battle fields.

Challenging this article (www.classicrockmagazine.com/blog/is-this-the-end-of-rock/)