Great Napster discussions

This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on February 17, 2001). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.

I just had to get something up on this — there’s an absolutely great discussion of the seemingly never-ending Napster controversy going on over at the Home Theater Forum right now.

I understood Metallica’s plight at first. There music was being hijacked, goddamn it! But their waning CD sales weren’t from Napster, but from the fact that they were like a tough version of Poison; they should have become extinct when the meteor of alternative hit.

— Ike

Who didn’t cringe at Xzibit preforming Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” in a F*** Napster shirt? (I didn’t censor that, his actual shirt was censored.) Here was an artist who was as carefully managed and kept as any of the boy bands preforming one of the greatest songs ever, in a shirt that went against what Chuck D was wanting? Would the “power” not be those that want to close down a forum like Napster? (His friend on stage was wearing a “I Voted For Gore” shirt. How radical you are!)

— Ike

When a music journalist on VH1 said that the superstar would be lessened down because we would have a choice. Amen! Who cares that Limp Bizkit’s “My Generation” is in the top 50? You can get the best song titled “My Generation:” The Who’s. The ideas presented in The Who’s “My Generation” overshadows every baiting anti-gay, drug supporting lyric that today’s group can muster. The Who didn’t care if you understood what they said. They’d rather die before they got like you. The end, an explosion of feedback still hits hard today.

— Ike

Can anyone remember Garth Brooks’ whining about used CD sales? Does it strike anyone else as vomitious that a multi-million dollar recording artist, who stood to lose practically nothing from used CD sales, was trotted out as a poster child representing the unfairness of it all, while struggling musicians would give major organs if someone would just consider buying their CD?

— Buzz Vinard