Recent times have turned up an ugly trend. We’re living in an era where most people – no, everyone – wants to be a rock star. They might not have the long hair and might not play guitar and might not be stalked by droves of groupies, but they still dream of being a rock star.

This problem is evident in the state of music today. Not to sound like a Generation Xer taking a leak on the scene of generation Y, but what the heck has happened to music? Suddenly, pop stars, country stars, rap stars and polka stars all have something in common – they strive to be rock stars.

Pink can get inked up until she’s unrecognizable and Hannah Montana can bleed to death in a mosh pit, but they will never be rock stars. Oh sure, they have money, fame and a following, but they’re missing those intangibles that can’t be bought in the Ed Hardy section of some discount department store.

I never thought I’d be the guy checking the box to erect silos. But the inability to classify things into neat little compartments is actually quite annoying. It f*cks up the music charts and misleads the next generation on what a rock star is supposed to be. And what that means I’m not sure, but I’ll know it when I see it.

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If it’s true that fads always wear out their welcome, the same cam easily be said for Internet memes and viral videos. One gag that has clearly outlived its 15 minutes of fame is Rick Rolling.

For those of you living under a rock, or who are intelligent enough to not even know who Rick Astley is, he was (is?) a singer who experienced success in the early 1990s. His two big hits were “Never Gonna Give You Up” and “Together Forever.” These ditties flew up the pop charts and dominated radio play.

For some unexplainable reason, the former pop star rose from the ashes, another phoenix rising as a result of the Web. Some clown, somewhere along the way, decided it would be funny to serve a Rick Astley video instead of what you though you were clicking on. The phenomenon, known as Rickrolling, was born. On April Fool’s Day, the silly prank jumped the shark when YouTube Rickrolled every video on their homepage.

Now, as the dust settles and the sun sets on Mr. Astley again, there are ‘entrepreneurs’ who won’t let the gag die.

RickProof, hoping to defend the world against bad pop songs, promises to protect your Website from becoming a Rickroll victim.

Enter any suspect URL into the field above, and you’ll never get rick rolled again.

Our proprietary RickProof™ engine is trained to sniff out even the slightest mention of Rick Astley. It can spot his dance moves in bytecode, and has his entire discography stored in a database.

You no longer need to suffer the embarrassment of being rick rolled, just check the RickGauge™ and decide if visiting the URL your friend sent you is worth it.

I can only wonder what will spread next. Perhaps Tag Team will experience a resurgence when ‘Whoomp…There It Is’ plays every time you open an e-mail. Or perhaps, every time you exit a Website, Marc Cohn can have you ‘Walkin’ in Memphis.’ And for you XXX surfers, you get treated to Cathy Dennis’ ‘Touch Me.’ Better yet, you should be treated to a video of your parents fully engaged. Now that would be a meme guaranteed to cut down on Internet porn.

I’m all for things dying naturally and running their course, but sometimes, a meme just needs to be put down.

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Kanye West accomplished the unthinkable: He successfully got the Grammys to stop the music designed to prompt him off stage. The honoring of his wish (demand) officially sets the bar: If you talk about the recent passing of a parent, the music can be stopped and your speech time extended.

What’s going to happen the next time a person demands the orchestra drop their bows and turn silent?

Maybe, in all these years, all stars had to do was ask. Instead of vaguely addressing the music, ‘Oh my God, already?’ – the just needed to say – ‘Please stop the music.’

What’s going to happen when someone wants to talk about their favorite charity or their stance on the War in Iraq or their sister’s eating disorder? How will the producers and directors of award shows prioritize?

What if a loved one passed away a year ago and you want to honor them? Will there be a statute of limitations? Kanye’s mom passed away three months ago, so if you’re inside that timeframe, your wish request should be honored. But what if it was a year ago?

Is someone’s deceased mom more valuable than someone else’s? You have to wonder what would have happened if Pauly Shore or even Dave Grohl wanted to speak beyond their allotted time.

Were the Grammy folks scared of offending the least threatening rapper on the scene? Or were they just petrified they’d look bad? In the end, their decision making will come down to what will bring the highest ratings to its nationally televised awards ceremony.

The passing of Donda West was sad. And our condolences go out to Mr. West. However, there are rules. Whether you’re an A-lister or an assistant makeup artist at the Oscars, everyone gets the same amount of time to make their speech; it’s up to you to use it wisely. If not, the Sandman is coming for you. And he shouldn’t be stopped.

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Television’s reality darling American Idol is poised to return for its seventh season. And for some strange unexplainable reason, 30 million of you will tune in. Well I won’t. Here’s why:

THE AMERICAN IDOL FORMULA NO LONGER WORKS

When every participant is guaranteed some level of fame and success, what does anyone have to lose? Nothing. Eliminated contestants might not become the next American Idol, but they do become:

Sex tape stars: Olivia Mojica
Soft porn subjects: Antonella Barba
Felons: Jessica Sierra
Circus sideshows: Sanjaya
Red carpet staples: Katherine McPhee
Walking stereotypes: William Hung

And so on.

One thing they all do have in common is a paycheck, likely bigger than your humble author’s.

I’m not saying that the shows’ winners and losers are not talented. But if the contest is about finding the best singing talent in America, I have the solution. Listen up Simon Squared:

LOSERS OF THE SHOW SHOULD BE BANNED FROM THE MEDIA FOR ONE YEAR

Can you think of anything more exciting then watching people’s dreams get put on hold as they push for the ultimate prize? It’s a dream deferred that would even make Langston Hughes proud.

Imagine the motivation. The desire. The tears! It’s the ultimate sacrifice; Potentially giving up your dreams in order to pursue the ultimate dream. Not being able to use the buzz generated from American Idol would raise the stakes. If you’re truly talented and memorable, America will be waiting with open arms, one year later once the media embargo is lifted.

Likewise, and I’m not delusional enough to think any of this will ever happen, there should NOT be an American Idol tour. Show “losers” should not be paid to do what they love.

I hope you think about this when voting starts in less than two weeks. There’s no point in becoming emotionally involved with who win. They ALL win. The contestants, the judges, the producers, the network, the advertisers and AT&T.

The show is predictable. They’ll be the salacious scandal, the underground movement to vote for the worst singer, and speculation about Paula’s drinking and Ryan’s sexual orientation.

At least with TV like this, the writers can stay on strike forever.

Keep those text message votes to yourself and go start a blog or something.

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Take for instance MySpace and YouTube. These pillars of the user-driven content world have been snapped up by the big fish–in this case News Corp. and Google, Inc.–for billions of dollars. These allow multimedia uploads from just about any person who signs up for an account. MySpace was founded on the creators’ love for the indie music scene. YouTube, meanwhile, was designed from ground up for sharing of user-contributed videos (but the tendency is for users to upload television shows and movie clips).

However, with this is the very high likelihood that users will upload their favorite songs and videos that are copyrighted, and this is tantamount to illegal music and video sharing. It’s very easy to just rip all the songs of your entire CD collection into MP3 and upload them to your MySpace account. Before, there was no one stopping you from doing that, and MySpace would only remove your illegally-shared files upon request from the artists (or any authority). But now, we have news that they’re changing that.

MySpace’s policy, like that of YouTube, has been to remove copyrighted material when requested to, but the move to harness Gracenote’s technology marks a more active role in preventing copyright violations. It is tied to the news that MySpace.com will soon start selling songs from unsigned bands, with an eye toward eventually marketing songs from major record companies as well.

MySpace is thinking of banning the upload of copyrighted material outright, even as you upload them. While I think this is a noble effort to curb online piracy, I don’t think it will work in the long run. It seems like MySpace is kissing up to the music industry bigwigs and sacrificing their users in the process. And with user-driven sites like MySpace, it’s all about the users. If you start pissing off your clientèle by starting to become too strict, then you risk losing the best thing about your business, and that is its popularity and the freedom enjoyed by the users.

So can you really prevent copyrighted media from being uploaded and shared online? I’d say yes. But it would be a bit nasty.

[tags]copyright, news, myspace, youtube, video, music, file sharing, mp3, intellectual property[/tags]

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