"We are not groupies..

Groupies sleep with rock stars because they want to be near someone famous.  We are here because of the music.  We inspire the music.  We are "Band Aids."

The classic rock kick I've been on has shown in all the books I've read lately.  In all honesty, I haven't read/finished this many books in such a short amount of time, ever.  Since December I've read 6 books and finished 2 others.  In order I've read Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N' Roses, Reckless Road: The Making of Appetite for Destruction, The Dirt by Motley Crue, Hammer of the Gods, and Let's Spend the Night Together.  I've finished Rock On by Dan Kennedy and SLASH by Slash.  I just picked up the Stanley Booth book about the Stones, and if every single bookstore wasn't out, or had such a crappy copy of Walk This Way I'd be reading that right now as well.

All this reading has been entertaining, obviously, knowledgeable, and frustrating.  Never again, in my life, I think, will something like this ever happen again.  Gone are the days of actual ROCK STARS.  After reading Let's Spend the Night Together I tried so hard to think of a band out there right now that would have legitimate Band-Aids, but I couldn't think of a single one.  Would The Killers?  I doubt it.  Are they really rock stars?  I sure wouldn't make a big deal out of seeing one of them on the street.  Would my dad recognize one of them? Hell no (this argument could be rendered invalid as back then there was no MTV so maybe I'm misjudging but I'm assuming here that even if you were born the day before you'd know who Led Zeppelin was- exaggeration yes, but probably true).  There is no group out there right now that transcends generations, except maybe Coldplay but give me a break here, they're only rock stars because Chris Martin is married to an actress.  Would he be in any of the magazines if he wasn't (besides the obvious Rolling Stone, Spin, etc.) you don't hear of anyone else in the band do you?  Even if you didn't like Led Zeppelin, even if you didn't listen to them, even if you wished they never stepped foot on American soil, chances are you knew who they were..  

Further proving my point is iTunes top songs list.

The top 10 songs on iTunes Rock list are as follows:

1. The Fray - You Found Me (Soft)

2. Kevin Rudolf & Lil Wayne - Let it Rock (Rap)

3. Shinedown - Second Chance (Who?)

4. Matt Nathanson - Come on Get Higher (Since when are acoustic singer/songwriters rock?)

5. Seether - Careless Whisper (Give me a break.)

6. Nickelback - Gotta Be Somebody (This makes me sick.)

7. Theory of a Deadman - Bad Girlfriend (Again.. who?)

8. Journey - Don't Stop Believin' (I find this hysterical)

9. Papa Roach - Lifeline (hm)

10. Apocalyptica - I Don't Care (Who? And how do you expect people to pronounce your name?)

I'd like to think that I'm pretty knowledgeable when it comes to music, and I don't even know who most of the people in that list are!  Granted, I do not listen to top 40 radio, but that's never usually stopped me of being aware of what's popular in music at the time.  Do these bands have groupies?? I'm so intrigued.  I assume that there are a bunch of girls who follow Nickelback (for reasons completely unknown and frankly, shocking to me), just as I assume that Chad Kroeger has no shortage of backstage "offerings".  But are there really women out there, and I use the word women and not girls, who are there for the music, whole-heartedly?  I'd like to believe there are people in the world who don't believe Nickelback is the Rolling Stones of our generation, but you can never really underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups (Disclaimer: I stole that from a t-shirt I saw in some trashy boardwalk t-shirt store).  If there are girls, and I use girls purposefully here, that honestly believe in Chad Kroeger's music God help us all.  I can think of maybe two bands / artists that I would be a Band Aid for, but they are by no means rock stars.  They also do not strike me as the type that would even allow themselves to fall prey to groupiedom (but what do I know?)  Is this because it is socially unacceptable (was it ever?) to be a groupie?  Or is it because there are no bands deserving of the honor?  Has music prospered no legitimate rock stars, and therefore produced no groupies to go along with them? Has America progressed so far passed promiscuity that being a groupie is not really considered groupie, but rather just now an acceptable form of after concert behavior?  Has groupiedom just become another part of the show?  Or rather, maybe it's just moved on to a different genre of music altogether- rap.  Has rap and hip hop so eclipsed the music world that it's virtually impossible to be a rock star?