Kerrap!

A good friend of mine once asked me why I read Kerrap magazine. My answer to him was that it was the best way of getting up to date info on heavy music, that didn't get enough press anyway and probably never would thanks to the increasing numbers of indie, pop and boy bands that were already cluttering up the sewage system that is the music business today. And he responded with a rather sardonic snort... Which at the time I found offensive.

Now however I find myself thinking - "Gosh, he was right! How could I have been so blind?!" - and I'll be honest, I don't find myself thinking that a lot.

Kerrang! was once the epitomy of Metal to me. Switching it on in my house would result in you receiving more dirty looks than Dan Brown at Sunday Mass as bands like Korn, Slipknot and the rest of this year's Download line-up moshed about on the screen, while reading it meant that trips to the PC to check on who a band actually were becoming more and more frequent. And yet now, its all changed...

My family could probably sing along with most of the songs that are played on Kerrang! TV, and my younger brother recognises more of the short haired, clean cut, young lads that are featured in the magazine than I do! Where once stood the heroes of Metal, now stand the mediocre jesters of Emo, Pop Punk and "Dance-Metal."

Every week in Kerrang! we see less and less Metal bands, and more 10-page spreads about what Pete Wentz has had to eat this week. Never mind about Metallica's new album, Metro Station are going on tour with Miley Cyrus!! No, seriously!!


http://www2.kerrang.com/2009/06/metro_station_frontman_cant_wa.html

In fact, a few months ago, just before 2009 started, I made a decision never to buy another issue of Kerrang magazine. They had just announced that Mindless Self Indulgence would be headlining the same Kerrang! Tour that Coheed and Cambria had headlined the year before. This blatant corporate cave-in to the world of music as a business by this illustrious magazine was the last straw for me, never again would I pay £2.70 a week for the new issue of PopWorld or whatever they charge now. And if you read the magazine, I urge you to do the same until they go back to the days of me being able to piss off my parents.