Saturday, January 22, 2011
The Ogre's Den: What If? WWE Edition
The Ogre's Den: What If? WWE Edition: "Hey, everybody. I hope you're doing well. First off, let me say I don't normally do the 'What If?' thing, because I figure that there..."
What If? WWE Edition
Hey, everybody. I hope you're doing well.
First off, let me say I don't normally do the "What If?" thing, because I figure that there are just WAY too many factors to anticipate for any predictions to be accurate. However, I think I can look at this one relatively clearly, because it's a current situation.
John Cena, the WWE's Golden Boy is suffering from numerous minor injuries, including a hip pointer and a minor neck injury. The WWE, and Cena himself, has been running Cena nonstop between wrestling, promotion, and movies for six straight years and the guy takes no time off except for injuries, which include a previous neck injury and tearing a pectoral muscle off of his shoulder. The movies he has done have either been action movies, so I'm not really sure that counts as a "break," or the movie "Legendary," where he played a wrestler teaching his younger brother to wrestle. That might count as more of a break than usual, but it's not like the guy just sat at home drinking beer.
Anyway, these injuries are starting to pile up and some fans of the WWE (even if they aren't Cena fans) are wondering whether they're going to accumulate to the point where he has to retire. So, my question is: What If John Cena retired tomorrow?
The first thing you have to look at is revenue. Cena is the top dog when it comes to merchandise sales at live shows and on the WWE's online store. With Cena gone, they would lose a HUGE chuck of their merchandise sales, which is a decent chunk of their income.
Secondly is the fan base. Cena has a MASSIVE fan base between kids and women. His mantra of "Hustle, Loyalty, Respect" along with his never-say-die attitude makes him a sort of human superhero. It give the kids something to look up to. With Cena retired, they don't really have a "hero" to root for, so they may not watch. That causes the WWE to lose advertising revenue, as well as possible ticket revenue.
Thirdly, and most importantly as a fan, who becomes the next "face" of the WWE? I've seen arguments that Rey Mysterio would be the next "face," but Rey is also 36 years old and his wrestling style, a lucha libre-inspired high-flying offense, takes a hard toll on the body. Rey has had surgery on his left knee six times already. As impressive as the guy is in the ring, I honestly don't think he'll be around too much longer as a in-ring performer, simply because his body won't hold up to it.
There's Kofi Kingston, from Ghana, West Africa. He's over with the kids and he can be mindblowing in the ring when he comes off the top rope. He's 29, so still relatively young for the business, but he may end up suffering a little of what I talked about with Rey. His style is high impact and he leaps so high off of the top turnbuckle that he's got to be damaging himself someone every time he lands. As of right now, he also doesn't seem very natural on the mic. He reminds me of Jeff Hardy. He's a hit with the kids and his in-ring ability is fun to watch he has a natural charisma, but that doesn't translate well to talking on the mic.
Right now, the heir apparent seems to be The Miz. Mike Mizanin, former reality show star turned pro wrestler is the current WWE champion. He's done all of the things he's supposed to as a high profile champion. He's on TV every week, he's making appearances on the talk show circuit and showing up for media appearances. He has been an effective champion so far, regardless of whether you think he's a GOOD champion. Miz gets a reaction from the crowd where ever he goes, which shows me that he's a good character.
The main problem here is that the WWE has no backup plan for John Cena. They have thrown all of their money on this horse and that horse has given them everything for the race. But what happens when that horse breaks a leg in the third turn? Okay, bad analogy, because you can't bring in a backup horse.
The WWE seems to be trying to find the guy that has "it." Hulk Hogan had "it." Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock had "it." John Cena has "it." So far, though, nobody else really has "it." Instead of pushing wrestlers to develop their character and make themselves more versatile, these guys are being trained some and then throw to the wolves, so to speak, to see if they have "it." Personally, I think The Miz has "it."
Miz is 30, so like Kofi, still young. He's pretty good in the ring and he's phenomenal on the mic. He's got all of the tools to be the next face of the WWE, even if he's a heel (bad guy). If Cena sticks around, this could turn into another Stone Cold/Rock era between Cena and The Miz. They've already had a few matches together and they seem to have some good chemistry in the ring.
WWE, as a fan, I'm begging you to look to the future. Start grooming a young guy (early 20's) to be THE guy in seven or eight years. That gives you time to train him how you want and he has plenty of time to learn the business and to create characters that are believable. No more of just HOPING someone has "it." MAKE your new face of the WWE. You have the time, you have the power. You're yet to have (I hope) your finest hour. Yes, I just quoted Queen. Ah, well.
First off, let me say I don't normally do the "What If?" thing, because I figure that there are just WAY too many factors to anticipate for any predictions to be accurate. However, I think I can look at this one relatively clearly, because it's a current situation.
John Cena, the WWE's Golden Boy is suffering from numerous minor injuries, including a hip pointer and a minor neck injury. The WWE, and Cena himself, has been running Cena nonstop between wrestling, promotion, and movies for six straight years and the guy takes no time off except for injuries, which include a previous neck injury and tearing a pectoral muscle off of his shoulder. The movies he has done have either been action movies, so I'm not really sure that counts as a "break," or the movie "Legendary," where he played a wrestler teaching his younger brother to wrestle. That might count as more of a break than usual, but it's not like the guy just sat at home drinking beer.
Anyway, these injuries are starting to pile up and some fans of the WWE (even if they aren't Cena fans) are wondering whether they're going to accumulate to the point where he has to retire. So, my question is: What If John Cena retired tomorrow?
The first thing you have to look at is revenue. Cena is the top dog when it comes to merchandise sales at live shows and on the WWE's online store. With Cena gone, they would lose a HUGE chuck of their merchandise sales, which is a decent chunk of their income.
Secondly is the fan base. Cena has a MASSIVE fan base between kids and women. His mantra of "Hustle, Loyalty, Respect" along with his never-say-die attitude makes him a sort of human superhero. It give the kids something to look up to. With Cena retired, they don't really have a "hero" to root for, so they may not watch. That causes the WWE to lose advertising revenue, as well as possible ticket revenue.
Thirdly, and most importantly as a fan, who becomes the next "face" of the WWE? I've seen arguments that Rey Mysterio would be the next "face," but Rey is also 36 years old and his wrestling style, a lucha libre-inspired high-flying offense, takes a hard toll on the body. Rey has had surgery on his left knee six times already. As impressive as the guy is in the ring, I honestly don't think he'll be around too much longer as a in-ring performer, simply because his body won't hold up to it.
There's Kofi Kingston, from Ghana, West Africa. He's over with the kids and he can be mindblowing in the ring when he comes off the top rope. He's 29, so still relatively young for the business, but he may end up suffering a little of what I talked about with Rey. His style is high impact and he leaps so high off of the top turnbuckle that he's got to be damaging himself someone every time he lands. As of right now, he also doesn't seem very natural on the mic. He reminds me of Jeff Hardy. He's a hit with the kids and his in-ring ability is fun to watch he has a natural charisma, but that doesn't translate well to talking on the mic.
Right now, the heir apparent seems to be The Miz. Mike Mizanin, former reality show star turned pro wrestler is the current WWE champion. He's done all of the things he's supposed to as a high profile champion. He's on TV every week, he's making appearances on the talk show circuit and showing up for media appearances. He has been an effective champion so far, regardless of whether you think he's a GOOD champion. Miz gets a reaction from the crowd where ever he goes, which shows me that he's a good character.
The main problem here is that the WWE has no backup plan for John Cena. They have thrown all of their money on this horse and that horse has given them everything for the race. But what happens when that horse breaks a leg in the third turn? Okay, bad analogy, because you can't bring in a backup horse.
The WWE seems to be trying to find the guy that has "it." Hulk Hogan had "it." Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock had "it." John Cena has "it." So far, though, nobody else really has "it." Instead of pushing wrestlers to develop their character and make themselves more versatile, these guys are being trained some and then throw to the wolves, so to speak, to see if they have "it." Personally, I think The Miz has "it."
Miz is 30, so like Kofi, still young. He's pretty good in the ring and he's phenomenal on the mic. He's got all of the tools to be the next face of the WWE, even if he's a heel (bad guy). If Cena sticks around, this could turn into another Stone Cold/Rock era between Cena and The Miz. They've already had a few matches together and they seem to have some good chemistry in the ring.
WWE, as a fan, I'm begging you to look to the future. Start grooming a young guy (early 20's) to be THE guy in seven or eight years. That gives you time to train him how you want and he has plenty of time to learn the business and to create characters that are believable. No more of just HOPING someone has "it." MAKE your new face of the WWE. You have the time, you have the power. You're yet to have (I hope) your finest hour. Yes, I just quoted Queen. Ah, well.
Friday, January 14, 2011
The Ogre's Den: Who's in charge here?
The Ogre's Den: Who's in charge here?: "Hey, everybody. Sorry I didn't blog more from New Orleans, but the hotel internet was poo and totally not 'high speed.' Anyway, ..."
Who's in charge here?
Hey, everybody. Sorry I didn't blog more from New Orleans, but the hotel internet was poo and totally not "high speed." Anyway, I didn't get any pictures taken, so nothing to post on that front.
Anyway, today's topic is gaming and more specifically, being the Dungeon Master/Game Master.
I was looking over some forums and came across a thread that was something like 7 pages long about things that were banned or nerfed (decreased in power or effectiveness) in their campaigns. A lot of the postings had things that would seem to be taken care of by simply good DM'ing. One in particular was that a spell called Planar Binding was easily broken (able to be abused by players). Planar Binding allows the caster to trap an outsider in a magic circle and demand or bargain for services, with release from the trap being the "payment."
Some of the problem this person had with Planar Binding were that you could summon and Imp and use it's Commune ability. That would make non-combat situations easier. Okay, I can agree with that, except that IMPS ARE EVIL! They are allowed to lie. And the spell says that you can demand or bargain for the outsider's services. Nowhere does it say that the creature has to AGREE to the task. It can simply stay imprisoned.
The next problem was that you could summon a Glabrezu (a demon) and take his monthly Wish spell. He says that you don't call a specific Glabrezu, just "Glabrezu" in general, and you should get a new one every time you summon, so you can do it multiple times a day. Under the Monster Manual entry for Glabrezu, it says that "unless the Wish is used to create pain and suffering in the world, the Glabrezu demands either terrible evil acts or great sacrifice as compensation." Now, unless you're playing an evil campaign, you're PC's are the "good guys." They probably aren't going to go in for the 'evil acts' part of the deal. The poster goes on to say "If you fail to overpower his spell resist, he's only CR13.
So, right before that, if your party can't kill a CR13, summon an Archon and request he help you with your next encounter against a demon or devil, something they're happy to do (so it should succeed)."
Well, that's fine and dandy, but what happens when the Archon shows up and sees that it's being asked to help with the outsider by the people WHO CALLED IT ONTO THIS PLANE? Seriously, Archons are not stupid. Once they deal with the outsider, they're more than likely going to go after the person that called the outsider in the first place. That would be the caster.
Next up is to "bind a Succubus and have her seduce the local King/Lord/Magistrate/High Priest and you have blackmail against them, which again can trivialize a lot of non-combat encounters." Well. If you read the spell description, "If you assign some open-ended task that the creature cannot complete through its own actions (which I think seducing someone would count, since seduction requires two people to complete, not to mention that 'seduce' is and badly defined word), the spell remains in effect for a maximum of one day per caster level and the creature gets an immediate chance to break free." And it gets another chance every day. Since a wizard has to be 11th level to case Planar Binding, that means the succubus will have 11 chances to break free from the spell.
You can, apparently, "summon an Efreeti for unlimited wishes for only a 6th level spell at no real cost to the player. Take a piece of it's flesh before it leaves, make a simulacrum of it, and you've got three wishes every day for the rest of your career." Okay, except the spell states that unreasonable requests are not granted. I can see getting the first three wishes that the Efreet can cast per day, but after that, I'd assume he/she would get a little hardheaded about this.
Now for the fun fact: unless you use the spell Dimensional Anchor, any outsider with dimensional travel abilities can simply poof away from your Planar Binding. Succubi can use Ethereal Jaunt, so that problem is solved. A Glabrezu could use Power Word Stun on the caster and then Dispel Magic on the trap, since there's nothing in the spell description that prohibits the creature from using magic.
The larger problem here, though, is that if your DM/GM let's you do things like that, then they aren't doing their job. If nothing else, a trapped outsider will be EXTREMELY angry about being trapped and will try to twist the wording of the demand into something they can do without breaking the contract, usually trying to involve the death of the spell caster. If they can get free of the Planar Binding, you can bet your bippy that if they don't attack now, they will be back. And they won't be happy.
Until next time, be excellent to each other.
Anyway, today's topic is gaming and more specifically, being the Dungeon Master/Game Master.
I was looking over some forums and came across a thread that was something like 7 pages long about things that were banned or nerfed (decreased in power or effectiveness) in their campaigns. A lot of the postings had things that would seem to be taken care of by simply good DM'ing. One in particular was that a spell called Planar Binding was easily broken (able to be abused by players). Planar Binding allows the caster to trap an outsider in a magic circle and demand or bargain for services, with release from the trap being the "payment."
Some of the problem this person had with Planar Binding were that you could summon and Imp and use it's Commune ability. That would make non-combat situations easier. Okay, I can agree with that, except that IMPS ARE EVIL! They are allowed to lie. And the spell says that you can demand or bargain for the outsider's services. Nowhere does it say that the creature has to AGREE to the task. It can simply stay imprisoned.
The next problem was that you could summon a Glabrezu (a demon) and take his monthly Wish spell. He says that you don't call a specific Glabrezu, just "Glabrezu" in general, and you should get a new one every time you summon, so you can do it multiple times a day. Under the Monster Manual entry for Glabrezu, it says that "unless the Wish is used to create pain and suffering in the world, the Glabrezu demands either terrible evil acts or great sacrifice as compensation." Now, unless you're playing an evil campaign, you're PC's are the "good guys." They probably aren't going to go in for the 'evil acts' part of the deal. The poster goes on to say "If you fail to overpower his spell resist, he's only CR13.
So, right before that, if your party can't kill a CR13, summon an Archon and request he help you with your next encounter against a demon or devil, something they're happy to do (so it should succeed)."
Well, that's fine and dandy, but what happens when the Archon shows up and sees that it's being asked to help with the outsider by the people WHO CALLED IT ONTO THIS PLANE? Seriously, Archons are not stupid. Once they deal with the outsider, they're more than likely going to go after the person that called the outsider in the first place. That would be the caster.
Next up is to "bind a Succubus and have her seduce the local King/Lord/Magistrate/High Priest and you have blackmail against them, which again can trivialize a lot of non-combat encounters." Well. If you read the spell description, "If you assign some open-ended task that the creature cannot complete through its own actions (which I think seducing someone would count, since seduction requires two people to complete, not to mention that 'seduce' is and badly defined word), the spell remains in effect for a maximum of one day per caster level and the creature gets an immediate chance to break free." And it gets another chance every day. Since a wizard has to be 11th level to case Planar Binding, that means the succubus will have 11 chances to break free from the spell.
You can, apparently, "summon an Efreeti for unlimited wishes for only a 6th level spell at no real cost to the player. Take a piece of it's flesh before it leaves, make a simulacrum of it, and you've got three wishes every day for the rest of your career." Okay, except the spell states that unreasonable requests are not granted. I can see getting the first three wishes that the Efreet can cast per day, but after that, I'd assume he/she would get a little hardheaded about this.
Now for the fun fact: unless you use the spell Dimensional Anchor, any outsider with dimensional travel abilities can simply poof away from your Planar Binding. Succubi can use Ethereal Jaunt, so that problem is solved. A Glabrezu could use Power Word Stun on the caster and then Dispel Magic on the trap, since there's nothing in the spell description that prohibits the creature from using magic.
The larger problem here, though, is that if your DM/GM let's you do things like that, then they aren't doing their job. If nothing else, a trapped outsider will be EXTREMELY angry about being trapped and will try to twist the wording of the demand into something they can do without breaking the contract, usually trying to involve the death of the spell caster. If they can get free of the Planar Binding, you can bet your bippy that if they don't attack now, they will be back. And they won't be happy.
Until next time, be excellent to each other.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
The Ogre's Den: Notes from N'awlins
The Ogre's Den: Notes from N'awlins: "Hey, everybody. Today, I'm coming to you from the Joint Mathematics Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. So far, things have be..."
Notes from N'awlins
Hey, everybody. Today, I'm coming to you from the Joint Mathematics Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. So far, things have been pretty good, considering it took us almost an hour to get from the airport to our hotel because of the Sugar Bowl, which neither of us really care about. The streets where we got stopped were a constant stream of red shirts. This is due to THE Ohio State Buckeyes playing (and defeating) the Arkansas Razorbacks. Go team. I guess.
This is our second trip to New Orleans since the hurricane and things around where our hotel is seemed to have improved a lot in three years. Everything seems to be a lot cleaner and buildings that were empty before have businesses in them, which is awesome for the are. We're on the edge of the French Quarter, on Canal Street.
One thing I noticed when I walked around the French Quarter was there seems to be a lower number of "adult emporiums" than the last time I was here. There are still a lot, to be sure, but the number seems smaller to me. Maybe I just didn't notice as many.
At around 3 pm Central time, as I was walking through the French Quarter, I was one of few people simply walking around and looking at the architecture and people watching. This probably marked me as a tourist. Anyway, four times during my walk, I was approached by pitchmen hoping to get me to come into their drinking establishment where there just happened to be women taking off their clothes. I declined each time, though I did have a conversation with one of these pitchmen, who seemed bored, about the drinking establishment and how they had "the prettiest ladies you even seen, no matter where you from." Given the number of signs I could see for such establishments and how many of those signs made the same claim, I should have brought a salt shaker. If you get the idea.
Overall, I enjoy the part of New Orleans that I've visited. Most people are friendly and helpful and the city itself, that I've seen, has a lot of character.
Hopefully we're going to go out and do some tourist-type stuff tomorrow. If so, I'll try to post some pictures on my Facebook page and on this blog. Hopefully I'll get some good shots. Maybe ghosts or jazz musicians or jazz musician ghosts riding crocodiles from the swaps. Who knows? Who dey?
This is our second trip to New Orleans since the hurricane and things around where our hotel is seemed to have improved a lot in three years. Everything seems to be a lot cleaner and buildings that were empty before have businesses in them, which is awesome for the are. We're on the edge of the French Quarter, on Canal Street.
One thing I noticed when I walked around the French Quarter was there seems to be a lower number of "adult emporiums" than the last time I was here. There are still a lot, to be sure, but the number seems smaller to me. Maybe I just didn't notice as many.
At around 3 pm Central time, as I was walking through the French Quarter, I was one of few people simply walking around and looking at the architecture and people watching. This probably marked me as a tourist. Anyway, four times during my walk, I was approached by pitchmen hoping to get me to come into their drinking establishment where there just happened to be women taking off their clothes. I declined each time, though I did have a conversation with one of these pitchmen, who seemed bored, about the drinking establishment and how they had "the prettiest ladies you even seen, no matter where you from." Given the number of signs I could see for such establishments and how many of those signs made the same claim, I should have brought a salt shaker. If you get the idea.
Overall, I enjoy the part of New Orleans that I've visited. Most people are friendly and helpful and the city itself, that I've seen, has a lot of character.
Hopefully we're going to go out and do some tourist-type stuff tomorrow. If so, I'll try to post some pictures on my Facebook page and on this blog. Hopefully I'll get some good shots. Maybe ghosts or jazz musicians or jazz musician ghosts riding crocodiles from the swaps. Who knows? Who dey?
Sunday, January 2, 2011
The Ogre's Den: Playing Favorites
The Ogre's Den: Playing Favorites: "Favorites are funny things. Some people have a favorite everything, whereas people like me have a hard time nailing down a favorite an..."
Playing Favorites
Favorites are funny things. Some people have a favorite everything, whereas people like me have a hard time nailing down a favorite anything. I suppose my favorite ice cream flavor is strawberry. That's about all I've got, though.
Favorite movie? Maybe "Big Trouble in Little China." But there are so many other movies that I love, it's hard to pick just one.
Favorite song? I could say that it's probably something by Elvis, but I don't know for sure. This category is REALLY hard for me because what I like listening to is based almost solely on what kind of mood I'm in when I'm listening. Take last night for example. I did an entire darkwave show, because that's what I was in the mood for. The next show I do might be all 60's and 70's or it could be prog rock or heavy metal or who knows.
I can say this, though: I do have favorite sports teams. Well, I should probably say I have teams that I cheer for. Being from Ohio originally, I cheer for the Cincinnati Bengals (American football) and the Columbus Blue Jackets (ice hockey). I don't really follow baseball anymore and I stop caring about basketball back in college. I still keep tabs on sports, but I don't watch them religiously anymore. Right now, I'd have to say my favorite sport is ice hockey, because it's more exciting than football.
I might be able to find favorites for a lot of small things, like role-playing characters and the like, but all of the "major" things that people associate with favorites, like songs or movies, I just don't have. Maybe I'm just funny that way.
Favorite movie? Maybe "Big Trouble in Little China." But there are so many other movies that I love, it's hard to pick just one.
Favorite song? I could say that it's probably something by Elvis, but I don't know for sure. This category is REALLY hard for me because what I like listening to is based almost solely on what kind of mood I'm in when I'm listening. Take last night for example. I did an entire darkwave show, because that's what I was in the mood for. The next show I do might be all 60's and 70's or it could be prog rock or heavy metal or who knows.
I can say this, though: I do have favorite sports teams. Well, I should probably say I have teams that I cheer for. Being from Ohio originally, I cheer for the Cincinnati Bengals (American football) and the Columbus Blue Jackets (ice hockey). I don't really follow baseball anymore and I stop caring about basketball back in college. I still keep tabs on sports, but I don't watch them religiously anymore. Right now, I'd have to say my favorite sport is ice hockey, because it's more exciting than football.
I might be able to find favorites for a lot of small things, like role-playing characters and the like, but all of the "major" things that people associate with favorites, like songs or movies, I just don't have. Maybe I'm just funny that way.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
The Ogre's Den: Music and Genres
The Ogre's Den: Music and Genres: "Hey, everybody. I hope you had a wonderful and safe New Years Eve and welcome to 2011. Tonight at 10 pm Eastern, I'm doing the f..."
Music and Genres
Hey, everybody. I hope you had a wonderful and safe New Years Eve and welcome to 2011. Tonight at 10 pm Eastern, I'm doing the first show on PartyFM that has a live DJ. I have nothing special planned and I'm doing an all darkwave show.
Darkwave is a style of music that branched off from New Wave back in the late 70's, adding dark, introspective lyrics and more of a melancholy style. Given that description, it's not surprising that darkwave and the Goth subculture are linked together. Some of the original artists in darkwave were Siouxie and the Banshees, The Cure, Joy Division and The Smiths, among others. If that sounds like your kind of thing, please feel free to listen in at listen.partyfmradio.net and join me in the PartyFM chatroom at chat.partyfmradio.net. My DJ name is DJ_Drak. Look for me and say hi! I'm friendly! Really!
Anyway.
Where it gets interesting, though, it when it comes down to what genre does music or a particular song fit in to? Try categorizing, definitively, the band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Are they rock? Rap-ish? Funk? Alternative? As a side note, I would like to say that I hate the genre "Alternative." What is it alternative to? The mainstream? Well, what's mainstream? There isn't really a "mainstream" style of music anymore, so anything that's labeled as "alternative" doesn't mean what alternative meant a decade ago, when grunge and things like Britpop came about.
Off topic again.
You can't really put RHCP into one particular genre. That's what I find with a lot of songs, too. Especially if I use the Auto-Tag feature in Winamp. (Yes, I use Winamp to broadcast for the station.) The genre that they would fit in is up to the listener, which makes it a subjective thing to try to put stuff in one genre or the other. For example (and this is a bad/funny example), one of the other DJs on the station has a show called the Metal Massacre. He's all about the metal. Fine. Except that he plays Nickleback and the Insane Clown Posse. Now, I have nothing against either of those bands (except that I think Nickleback is highly overrated), but they aren't metal! His argument is that Nickleback is signed to a metal label, so therefore they're metal. That label is Roadrunner Records, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. Cuz when you think Warner Brothers, you think heavy metal music. Okay, fine. I've heard a couple of songs by them that someone could potentially call metal. Great.
Insane Clown Posse? Hardly. I have nothing against ICP and I actually enjoy some of their music. Their remakes of "Posse on Broadway" by Sir Mix-A-Lot and "Let's Go All the Way" by Sly Fox are great. One of the other DJs at the station is a huge ICP fan, so listening to her show, I've gotten to hear quite a bit of them and there is NOTHING in the ICP discography that I've heard that I can even remotely say is metal. Nothing. I haven't heard his argument for playing ICP on a metal show, but hey. It's his show and he can play what he wants. I know I do.
Off track again. Sorry.
When I organize my music (a pretty much constant process), I try to keep things simple. I have everything listed by artist, title, album, track length, and genre. The artist and title are important because of rules we have to follow at the station. The album is kind of important, but mostly for helping me find a song. Track length is important because I have a designated timeslot and when I put my show together, I need to be able to see how much space I have left in a playlist, not to mention moving songs around during the actual show to fit times for me to break in and talk. Genre is important for me because when I do theme shows like tonight, I like to have all of one genre in one place in my library.
Take rap for example. When it comes to rap music, I have several genres that I'm trying to convert to one: Hip Hop/Rap. I use that because hip hop and rap are so intertwined that it's difficult to classify them separately, at least for me. But in the meantime, I have Hip Hop/Rap, Hip-Hop/Rap (cuz the hyphen makes a difference *shrug*), Hip Hop, Rap, Rap & Hip Hop, Rap/R&B, Alternative Rap-Rock (Gah, that one's horrible), Aussie Hip Hop (I made up that genre to help me find specific artists), Christian Rap, Conscious Hip-Hop/Rap, East Coast Rap, Gangsta Rap, General Hip-Hop/Rap, Midwestern Rap (that would be Eminem), Old School Hip-Hop/Rap, Rap Metal (Linkin Park), Southern Rap, and Underground Hip-Hop/Rap.
That's a lot of rap. Rock is the same way. And when does something become "classic rock?" That's another genre that bothers me.
Anyway, I guess the point here is that classifying something by genre is the opinion of the music owner. I try to call all of the music that falls under the category of Rock and Roll as Rock. It makes things easier. Granted, I also have the genre Symphonic Metal. Go figure.
Thanks for reading. Until next time, take care.
Darkwave is a style of music that branched off from New Wave back in the late 70's, adding dark, introspective lyrics and more of a melancholy style. Given that description, it's not surprising that darkwave and the Goth subculture are linked together. Some of the original artists in darkwave were Siouxie and the Banshees, The Cure, Joy Division and The Smiths, among others. If that sounds like your kind of thing, please feel free to listen in at listen.partyfmradio.net and join me in the PartyFM chatroom at chat.partyfmradio.net. My DJ name is DJ_Drak. Look for me and say hi! I'm friendly! Really!
Anyway.
Where it gets interesting, though, it when it comes down to what genre does music or a particular song fit in to? Try categorizing, definitively, the band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Are they rock? Rap-ish? Funk? Alternative? As a side note, I would like to say that I hate the genre "Alternative." What is it alternative to? The mainstream? Well, what's mainstream? There isn't really a "mainstream" style of music anymore, so anything that's labeled as "alternative" doesn't mean what alternative meant a decade ago, when grunge and things like Britpop came about.
Off topic again.
You can't really put RHCP into one particular genre. That's what I find with a lot of songs, too. Especially if I use the Auto-Tag feature in Winamp. (Yes, I use Winamp to broadcast for the station.) The genre that they would fit in is up to the listener, which makes it a subjective thing to try to put stuff in one genre or the other. For example (and this is a bad/funny example), one of the other DJs on the station has a show called the Metal Massacre. He's all about the metal. Fine. Except that he plays Nickleback and the Insane Clown Posse. Now, I have nothing against either of those bands (except that I think Nickleback is highly overrated), but they aren't metal! His argument is that Nickleback is signed to a metal label, so therefore they're metal. That label is Roadrunner Records, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. Cuz when you think Warner Brothers, you think heavy metal music. Okay, fine. I've heard a couple of songs by them that someone could potentially call metal. Great.
Insane Clown Posse? Hardly. I have nothing against ICP and I actually enjoy some of their music. Their remakes of "Posse on Broadway" by Sir Mix-A-Lot and "Let's Go All the Way" by Sly Fox are great. One of the other DJs at the station is a huge ICP fan, so listening to her show, I've gotten to hear quite a bit of them and there is NOTHING in the ICP discography that I've heard that I can even remotely say is metal. Nothing. I haven't heard his argument for playing ICP on a metal show, but hey. It's his show and he can play what he wants. I know I do.
Off track again. Sorry.
When I organize my music (a pretty much constant process), I try to keep things simple. I have everything listed by artist, title, album, track length, and genre. The artist and title are important because of rules we have to follow at the station. The album is kind of important, but mostly for helping me find a song. Track length is important because I have a designated timeslot and when I put my show together, I need to be able to see how much space I have left in a playlist, not to mention moving songs around during the actual show to fit times for me to break in and talk. Genre is important for me because when I do theme shows like tonight, I like to have all of one genre in one place in my library.
Take rap for example. When it comes to rap music, I have several genres that I'm trying to convert to one: Hip Hop/Rap. I use that because hip hop and rap are so intertwined that it's difficult to classify them separately, at least for me. But in the meantime, I have Hip Hop/Rap, Hip-Hop/Rap (cuz the hyphen makes a difference *shrug*), Hip Hop, Rap, Rap & Hip Hop, Rap/R&B, Alternative Rap-Rock (Gah, that one's horrible), Aussie Hip Hop (I made up that genre to help me find specific artists), Christian Rap, Conscious Hip-Hop/Rap, East Coast Rap, Gangsta Rap, General Hip-Hop/Rap, Midwestern Rap (that would be Eminem), Old School Hip-Hop/Rap, Rap Metal (Linkin Park), Southern Rap, and Underground Hip-Hop/Rap.
That's a lot of rap. Rock is the same way. And when does something become "classic rock?" That's another genre that bothers me.
Anyway, I guess the point here is that classifying something by genre is the opinion of the music owner. I try to call all of the music that falls under the category of Rock and Roll as Rock. It makes things easier. Granted, I also have the genre Symphonic Metal. Go figure.
Thanks for reading. Until next time, take care.
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