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So You Want To Be In A Rock Band? (Part 3)
Editorial written by PuSSyCaT
The other day at HMV, while camped out at the Metal section, there were two white kids standing next to me. One was excited and eagerly burrowing his way into the mountain of CD’s.
His friend, on the other hand, stood there yawning with a glazed look over his face, trying not to pass out from boredom.
"Loudness!!!", squealed the first kid with the ruddy skin.
"......!!......", replied his skinny companion.
"Have you heard of Loudness???", shrieked Ruddy Boy.
I pictured the band in my head - they had bigger hair than "Fran Drescher" (from "The Nanny") and were prettier than their Japanese counterpart, "Yoko Ono".
Skinny Boy blinked at him while furrowing his brows.
"You have to listen to Loudness!!"
"............." (followed by a blank expression).
"You don’t know Loudness??"
Pause.
I grin to myself and glance at the two.
Skinny Boy shifts his weight on his feet and coughs.
"Uh, I’ve heard of Lightning Seeds".
Ruddy Boy almosts collapses onto the CD rack. He clutches the precious album to his chest and takes a few long, deep breaths while Skinny Boy nervously bites his lower lip.
When Loudness graced Singapore’s shores by performing here, my fiance had the pleasure of attending their concert. He came back half-deaf. The Doctor advised him to stay away from loud music. He asked for euthanasia.
After Ruddy Boy scurried off to cream over the ACDC collection, a prepubescent girl decked in a Picnic-inspired checkered knee-length skirt, granny cardigan, coke-bottle specs & floppy shoes, squeezed her way past me and stood there staring at all the Metal CD’s.
I raised an eyebrow and observed her.
This I gotta see.
She made a silent cry of glee and snatched up a CD. I casually strolled up by her and peered at the album she clung on so tightly in her sweaty hand.
"Linkin Park: Meteora"
I almost choked.
She pounced on another Linkin Park CD and walked off triumphantly, looking everybody straight in the eye, with a big smug grin on her face and a gait in her step.
ME: ........
The problem is that CD’s and music are so readily available to everyone and anyone nowadays. HMV, Tower Records, Music Junction, MP3.com, Kazaa, (the infamous) Napster, etc.
Back then when vinyl records were still cooler than the Wonderbra, tapes were considered the new-age advanced step in technology.
There’s this small music shop tucked away at Queensway Shopping Centre, owned by an elderly uncle who’s seen my fiance since his blue shorts & spider-catching days, to his current black jeans & fishing days.
I don’t know how this shop survived as even big stores such as Tower Records can be on the verge of going under in this day and age of illegal downloading and file-sharing.
Perhaps it’s due to the Trues who still believe in buying the album - or it’s the kids who asked their moms for a blue note so they could swing on by the CD store and pick up the latest album with the most skulls on the cover?
I’m also very proud to see the "Local Music" section in CD stores slowly increasing nowadays (we’re actually occupying more than 3 rows!! Yay!!).
With the likes of: Urban Karma, Plain Sunset, Evol Syawla and many more, it was refreshing to see a clean new section (yes, at eye level!!) especially designated for our very own home-grown talents.
Hopefully, there will be many more to come - especially those who started out from Pure Rock!! :) |
