My last post got me to thinking. If Toby Rand ends up being the winner of Rockstar and becomes the frontman for Tommy Lee's new band, Supernova, it will have been just one in a long line of my predictions regarding rock/pop music.
About three months ago, I stumbled across the
MySpace page of a new hip-hop group I had never heard of, and absolutely loved one of their songs. That's saying something, because I hate most rap/hip-hop/r&b music. But this song had a groove to it, and I added it to my profile. A month later, I heard it on the radio, and now I can't turn on the radio without hearing it.
The song is "Crazy" by
Gnarls Barkley, whose album "St. Elsewhere" just hit 500,000 copies sold.
And now I kinda hate it, just because it was something I knew that no one else did, and now its everywhere. (I harbor the same feelings for
South Park, which I discovered on the 'net way before the first season hit
Comedy Central.)
I did the same thing in 7th grade, when I heard this kick-ass song called "You Give Love a Bad Name" by a little-known band called Bon Jovi. None of my friends had heard of them, and I was the coolest kid in my little hick town in BFE, Michigan. We didn't have cable or MTV, only the rich kid had a satellite dish, and his parents were so religious that they wouldn't let him watch it. Anyway, I heard something in that band that I somehow knew was totally awesome, and made sure others knew about it. Now, I know Bon Jovi had a decent-sized hit with "Runaway" a couple of years before, but gimme a break, I was living a pretty sheltered life at the time.
A few other musicians or songs I "discovered" and was totally geeked about a few months before they were hits:
- "Hey Ya" by Outkast
- "Talk Dirty to Me" by Poison
- "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana
- "Just a Girl" by No Doubt
- "The Impression That I Get" by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones
- "Lit Up" by Buckcherry
- Limp Bizkit
- The Crystal Method
- Everclear
- Sublime (before Brad died)
I also knew Kelly Clarkson was going to win American Idol as soon as I saw her first performance. Of course, that could be because I thought she was the best looking chick on the show. I missed the J.D. Fortune win on the first season of Rockstar, but I think that was because he acted like a complete prick and there were so many other great singers on that show. But before the end of the finale, his performance was so above and beyond everyone else's that there was no way (at least in
my mind that he couldn't win.
Maybe I have a gift for picking talented new musicians or seeingsomething in an artist that no one else has noticed yet. I just might start a list here of new artists or songs that I think are going to hit it big. Now that I have my MBA, maybe I can turn this little hobby of mine into a lucrative career at a record label somewhere...
That said, if it wasn't for the song title and band name, I would make the prediction that the next big hit will be "
Connecticut's for Fucking" by Jesus H. Christ and the Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse. Sirius is playing them on Alt Nation, but good luck getting it in the rotation at a FCC-policed "terrestrial" radio station. No program director would risk his job to get that one played. Look for it on iTunes if you want to hear it.
