When Music Becomes The Deciding Factor Of What's Cool

This weekend I was out with my girlfriend at a local fair. I was sporting my best Poison T-Shirt and enjoying the warm sunny day when a kid working one of the game booths started calling out, "Hey Bret, what's Up? Hey C. C. Deville, c'mere a second..." chuckling all the while.

I know this kid thinks he's cool, but - well, quite frankly, he isn't. Look, I realize Poison will never match up to the musical brilliance that is Godsmack or Disturbed. I mean, those two bands are way beyond brilliance. They transcend their musical genre and set the bar so high up the likes of Pink Floyd would just say, "Well, this is B.S., let's pack it in, mates." I mean Disturbed themselves made it clear we were in a new age of musical genius when they uttered this song,

"Drowning deep in my sea of loathing
Broken your servant I kneel
It seems what's left of my human side
Is slowly changing in me

Looking at my own reflection
When suddenly it changes
Violently it changes (oh no)
There is no turning back now
You've woken up the demon in me


Get up, come on get down with the sickness
Open up your hate, and let it flow into me,
You mother get up,
You f?!@er get up,
Madness is the gift, that has been given to me..."

How could that ever match up to the trite lyrics by, say, Savatage, who said,

"I believe in nothing
Never really had to
In regards to your life
Rumors that are not true
Who's defending evil
Surely never I
Who would be the witness
Should you chance to die

Father can you hear me
This is not how was meant to be
I am safe and so are you
As for the others destiny

I believe that situations
All depend on circumstance

Look away
Look away

Pictures at an exhibition
Played as he stood in his trance
Staring at his inhibitions
All the time believing
That it now came down to
Nothing but this chance"

While I smirk at Disturbed's attempt at being deep within the context of their supposed misery, the attempt is flawed. The song has 4 chords at most and it's completely laced in anger.

Savatage, on the other hand, is a different story. It's obvious the writer looks within himself for lyrics that are thought provoking. Also, for the untrained reader, the seperate lines are done in an operatic style. One singer reads line 1, another 2, and so forth and so on until the last block, where the group comes together in unison. The music is a eclectic panorama of styles: Classical, Opera, and Heavy Metal. Disturbed? 4 chords and hatred.

So maybe the kid who called out to me may or may not like Disturbed, but he more than likely listens to something similar. Let's hear it for individuality! Who's the real oddball, the guy who makes his own way and snags up titles no one knows, or the drab, un-original idiot who follows the crowd in style, music, and attitude? C. C. Save us all.