Elbereth's Journal: Music Piracy

Back when I was a kid, we didn't call it "sharing". We all knew what we were doing. We were breaking the law and taking what wasn't ours. We were stealing computer games. We called it "warez", not "sharing".

I was a teenager, and I don't do that any more. I've learned to get along without the things I can't buy. I'm trying to wean myself off of my dependency to all possessions, but it's not easy. I can watch Fight Club or read anarchist propoganda and feel stupid for being such a consumerist sheep. But it's not easy to give up those possessions.

You know how I came this far? I realized that 99% of everything is crap. I decided to start raising my standards. Why do I patronize stores that treat me like a thief? Why do I buy compact discs that only have one good song? Why do I watch movies that only have one good scene?

Empower yourself. Say that you're not going to stand for mediocrity. I own about 100, maybe 120, compact discs. I bought each one of them after carefully debating as to whether I'd want to listen to every song repeatedly for years. Do I absolutely love every track on Angst (KMFDM)? Yes. Do I absolutely love every track on Aqualung (Jethro Tull)? Yes. Do I love every track on No Prayer For The Dying (Iron Maiden)? NO. Definitely not. That's why I didn't buy that disc. I'm a huge Iron Maiden fan, yet I refuse to buy sub-par albums. I don't care if my Iron Maiden collection is incomplete. I'm not that obsessive.

I don't understand why anyone would buy a compact disc that has only one good song on it. As a correlation, I do not understand why anyone would like a band that puts out such horrible albums. Every band is allowed to make a bad album every now and then (No Prayer For The Dying, for example), but if you find yourself constantly liking only one song per album, maybe you consider whether you actually like this band at all...

It sounds like the common complaint is that bands today are only capable of writing one good song on each album. I don't know where this comes from. What bands are you listening to? None of the bands I like do this. I'm not really into highly mainstream music, but some of my favorite bands are quite popular. Okay, I can't think of any. But I'm sure someone out there has heard of the Butthole Surfers, The Melvins, GWAR or KMFDM. Hell, the Butthole Surfers have even had vidoes on MTV.

Why are you limiting yourselves to just new music, if you think all the new bands suck so bad? Why not buy some Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath? I often buy albums from the 70s and 80s that I never got around to buying back then. In fact, there are still hundreds of albums that I need to buy, like Dark Side of the Moon. Nope, I dont have that yet. Haven't gotten around to buying it yet.

Why are you downloading the discography of Pink Floyd? Is it to sample the albums? Yeah, right. Whatever. You've already heard every Pink Floyd album every made on the radio. You know whether you like DSotM or The Wall, since you've heard every song off them. Why do you need to download those songs? Because you're cheap and don't want to spend any money?

Gimme a break. Stop acting like you're sticking it to The Man. Fucking hypocrites. You're just greedy, consumerist sheep. Stop lying to yourself and everyone else around you.

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's hypocrites. And liars. And ignorant sheep. And you people are all of the above.

Yeah, yeah, enemy list me, but you know it's the truth. And, for once, I'm not trolling.