Cowabunga!

HELLO! David Cook vs. Lionel Richie

When Top 12 American Idol Contestant David Cook sang Lionel Richie's "Hello" he brought the house down. With a rocked out version of Richie's 1984 hit pop song Cook managed to not only impress the judges and America but Mr. Lionel Richie himself. So which version so you prefer? American Idol Rock or 1984 Pop?

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Beatles or Rolling Stones

Lensmaster Margaret_Schaut poses the age old music question. The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. This is a tough one for me because I like both bands for different reasons.

When The Beatles came across the pond in 1964 and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show the world changed. That historic event in and of itself is a reason to pick the Beatles.

However, the Rolling Stones were edgier, wilder...The Stones changed the music world and paralleled the chaos that was happening in the world during the late 1960's and early 70's.

So I am going to have to say the Stones just because three of my favorite songs are Angie, Paint it Black and Ruby Tuesday. What do you think?

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Ukulele is better than guitar

Lensmaster cutshaw lets us know that a Ukulele is better then a guitar. Now I'm no expert in stringed instruments but after reading cutshaw's lens I am going to have to agree! See what you think?

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Can the music business be saved

Head Squid sethgodin asks a really interesting question, Can the music business be saved? Now some people might be saying, "I didn't even know it needed saving" Well the answer to that question is yes, especially if we are talking about the 1970's & 80's music business model. Here's why...

Growing up in Cleveland, OH in the late 70's, early 80's meant that your ear was tuned to 100.7 WMMS and your ass was hanging out at Record Den deciding if you should buy Genesis, Journey or Rush on vinyl. "Tom Sawyer" was on the radio the entire summer of 1981 and that's what you listened to. You saw Rush in concert, you bought a T-shirt...life was good. No iPod, no downloads, no pirating just good music...Right?

Wrong...I hate to burst anyones bubble but music pirating is not new, the medium has just changed. Bootlegged copies of music ran rampant in the 1970's they were just a little harder to create. Today Bootleggers are just average Joe's sharing music. It's the same thing.

So where does that leave the music industry? Trying to stop digital duplication is like trying to stop water leaking from the Hoover Dam with chewing gum. It ain't gonna happen. The music industry is in transition right now...so take a look at Seth Godin's debate to see what creative, insightful and just down right brilliant ideas he's got to take the music business into the 21st Century...and no it does not involve bringing back vinyl...Damn!

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Vinyl Is Better Than Digital

Here's a great debate from Head Squid sethgodin!

That would be a resounding YES...As a child of the 1980's I cherish the days of spinning my Duran Duran, David Bowie and Adam Ant albums while drooling over the cover art with my friends. Music was a group activity, sitting around the stereo picking out the tunes, dancing...not some solitary iPod act...BUT if you disagree...

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