From Bush to the Jonas Brothers

I've been trying to decide who trashed the United State's economy. Through many hours of cogitating I think I've finally reached a verdict. After watching a total of 3 minutes of the American Music Awards, my conclusion on who has damaged the United State's economy is not George Bush, it's the Jonas Brothers. For those of you who know me, know that my alter ego is Erik Wayne (or Erik Watkins, depending on how you know me), lead singer of The Erik Wayne Campaign and later resurrected as The Campaign, and I believe that there is a correlation between popular music and the state of the nation. The more talent that the popular musicians have, the brighter our futures are. At this point in time I think it's safe to say that there is a dark cloud over the nation in the form of the Jonas Brothers, Miley Sirius, and every rapper out there except for Kanye West. Now you might say that it's a stretch that I blame everything on some teenagers who don't even know what the WSJ is (no offense to Sarah Palin). Here's my rationale: I believe music is a society's unifying factor which can right evil within it's leaders. When music stops unifying the masses to take action (a la RATM or Pearl Jam) and keep the government leaders honest, things are run amuck (a la the last 8 years and our pop stars from the last 8 years, you know they're not doing anything positive). People who have the power of the microphone and the crowds need to speak up and step into the leadership roles which they have put themselves in. Workaday citizens used to look up to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Led Zepplin, James Taylor, Elton John, among others, to use their talent and expression for the betterment of society. We have done such a disservice to ourselves by promoting the Jonas Brothers and Miley to these high powered positions. Musicians like Bruce Springstein made a living representing the blue-collar worker and maintaining solace in hard times. Unfortunately there are few in the industry which do this, one being Kanye West. He's the only one who's not afraid to speak his mind, to say what he believes is right. The real danger is in not saying anything at all. I applaud John Legend for being passionate and active about helping our soldiers, U2 (though not a huge fan) for doing wonders in Africa, and Coldplay for doing whatever it is that they do (though it may be a PR stunt, not sure yet, at least they make it look like they're doing something). People used to ask me where the name of our band came from. Well, now you know, I'm revealing it right here, right now. The Campaign and The Erik Wayne Campaign is passionate about taking the music industry back to it's roots, back to when the songs meant something, back to when the musicians stood for a cause (I think there was a handful of times which TEWC actually got paid vs. playing for the fun of it, or charity), back to when the performers had talent (not technologically adjusted vocals and backing instrument tracks played from .mp3s - which by the way are terrible quality audio formats). The Erik Wayne Campaign will continue to write and perform songs as long as I'm alive because, "I refuse not to be heard, (from a new song by TEWC)." So batten down the hatches and lock up the coffers until talent and activism return to the popular music scene. There's a hunger for it, someone just needs to step into the position, TEWC? - Possibly. Oh, by the way, I blame George Bush for allowing popular music to become what it has, shit.

If you ask, yes I intentionally misspelled Miley's name, and if you don't know what WSJ, Pearl Jam or RATM is, please write a comment so that I can publicly chastise you for being clueless.

Vocabulary word of the Week: laconic
I’m a musician but not a laconic speaker, yet. This statement is also true.