That’s So Ignorant!

Author’s note:  For added fun while reading this post, take a shot of Tequila (or spirit of your choice) every time you see the word “ignorant”.

 

Too often I have heard the word “ignorant” used in a very incorrect context.  Generally, people use it to describe someone who they think is rude.  Because of this, I am often confused as to which context a person refers to when using this word.  Do they think I’m rude?  Or am I unaware of something that they’re not telling me about?

I happened upon a comment on a YouTube rant which stated:

“I respect your opinion. But the way you rant makes me see you has ignorant.”

The ranter in question was ranting about a particular band that she did not like.  We know she had listened to this band as she played some of the music during the video, and stated exactly why she did not like this band.  So, it’s difficult to say that she was ignorant (correct context) of the music because she had listened to them and formulated her opinion as a result.  If she made this rant without listening to the band at all, that would make her ignorant (correct context).  My assumption is that the commenter, spelling and grammar aside, meant to say “the way you rant makes me see you as rude”.  There may be a third meaning to the word “ignorant” that I’m unaware of, but you never know with kids these days.

I particularly find that, in my home town, the word is flung about intentionally as an almighty insult.  I remember some time ago while tired and cranky in work, I denied a customer something they weren’t entitled to because, contrary to popular belief, the customer is not always right (but that’s a blog post for another day).  With that, the customer muttered to her companion “She’s quare* ignorant”.  I was a little confused because I wasn’t sure what exactly I was being ignorant of.  It couldn’t have been her consumer rights, surely.  I explained that her request was against company policy, and when company policy comes into question it means, “I don’t make the rules, I just enforce them”.  I decided she thought I was rude as I was rather cranky that evening anyway.

The other day I was in a room with someone of mild acquaintance.  He said to me: “You were quare* ignorant in town earlier.”  Now this certainly confused me.  If he had noticed me in town when I hadn’t noticed him back, then technically, yes, I would have been ignorant.  However, in my experience, and particularly with Irish folk, the word is used to insult.  More often than not an argument between the locals will contain the phrase: “Don’t be so f***ing ignorant!”.  I figured perhaps maybe he thought I was refusing to acknowledge him in town, so to be safe I just said sorry.  To this he replied, “What are you sorry for?  You’re just ignorant.”  I had never been so confused about the context of a subject so I just said nothing.

I’m not sure why people ever thought “ignorant” meant “rude”.  Maybe the phonetics of the word has something to do with it.  The “ig” part is similar to “pig”, but now I’m just grasping at straws.  I suppose “rude” and “ignorant” often go hand in hand certain circumstances and I guess people who are ignorant of the real meaning of the word “ignorant” have kind of made it their own.  But maybe I’m just being ignorant…

*For those of you not familiar with Irish slang, “quare” derives from the word “queer” which means “very” i.e.  ”That’s quare cool” = “That’s very cool”.  I know it makes complete and utter sense, I just wish I knew how it ninja’d its way into Irish colloquialism. 

 

Why Feminists are Wrong about Video Games part 2

While following the blog of http://gomakemeasandwich.wordpress.com, I became rather disheartened at the attitude of feminist gamers.  While the blogger in question seems to blow a fuse over every little side boob on a video game promotion poster, her followers mostly appear to mindlessly agree without their own point to add.  It’s as if the blogger is leader of a feminist cult set out to destroy the gaming industry because she feels it misrepresents her gender.

While I somewhat agree with some of the points she makes, whenever I challenge her with a rational argument, I often get rather rude responses, making me feel like I had no right to an opinion.  I was rather pleased that others, however, share my views and have really given her a piece of their mind after her latest article.  A few of the latest comments point out her irrationality in this particular post.  It’s nice to see I’m not alone in the universe, and I’m not a freak of nature girl who embraces her sexuality in what ever form.

 

Today’s faceplam is brought to you by: Misogynistic Gamers

I happened upon this article on themarysue.com earlier and I’m a little speechless.

The gist of it is, since moderators can’t/won’t impose consequences on misogynistic douchebag gamers for being misogynistic douchebags, they’re just going to ban women from a Battlefield lan party to spare any hurt feelings.

facepalm

While there’s nothing wrong with a boy’s only club, the rationale behind this one is that male gamers are assholes and there’s nothing that can be done about it.  All gamers trash talk on some level, and misogynistic, racial or even homophobic slurs are not uncommon over a lan game.  Trash talk is never exactly called for, but “resolving” the issue by excluding anyone who isn’t a white male seems like an almighty contradiction.

As you can imagine, there are mixed reactions to this article.  The phrase “it’s only sexist when men do it” is being tossed back and forth in flame wars, as if to justify this gender segregation.  Insinuating that women are at fault for why men behave anti-socially is a lazy excuse for men to behave anti-socially.  It’s like saying the only way society can prevent sexual assault is if women never leave their home.

Guys, seriously, just grow up and play nice.  Is that so much to ask?

 

Why Feminists are Wrong about Video Games

If there’s anything that annoys me more than feminists, it’s feminists who game (or who refuse to game because they are feminist).  While I’m all for equality of the sexes, women who refuse to game simply because they believe it’s just for the boys are simply sexist.  I should not have to feel shame on behalf of my gender for choosing Ivy over Hilde in Soul Calibur.  When we consider the unrealistically proportioned, half naked men in that game (not to mention Voldo who is wearing a menagerie of leather and chain-mail bondage fetish….things), we can see that the issue of hypersexualized characters occurs with both genders, not just women.

What the hell is Voldo wearing!?!?!

Sexism in games doesn’t exist.  It’s just something that’s imagined by high-strung females, threatened by a male dominant media.

 

Fingers are generally pointed to games with multiple playable characters such as beat-’em-ups and MMOs.  More often than not, it’s the impracticality of a female character’s attire that is brought to everyone’s attention.  Take these lovely ladies from Everquest 2:

Chances of survival doesn’t look promising for these girls

 

Ok, their outfits are silly, but they don’t make me fem-rage.  Really, I have to laugh at the games company, too afraid to sell a game without boobs in it. This “sex sells” motive is rampant in all media, not just games.  If feminists attack video games for sexualizing females, they may as well picket outside every advertising perfume company while they’re at it.  However, in my opinion, video games are that little bit more set apart from most other media.  For example, getting back to the topic of MMOs, I must point out that most MMOs are of a fantasy genre.  I repeat: fantasy.  As in, it doesn’t have to follow the rules of everyday life.  When someone complains about a scantily clad female character it must be said that a) the overall look is supposed to be more artistic than conventional and b) it’s fantasy.

Soul Calibur's Ivy

Soul Calibur is set in an alternate universe and has much entitlement to feature the buxom Ivy as it does with other characters like Voldo or Lizardman.  While emphasis on cleavage is a bit excessive, I still admire the level of detail in each character design.  As I’ve said, this is art, not porn.  If it were up to feminists, all female game characters would be boring, flat chested, tracksuit-wearing frumps.

So I’ve justified our fantasy games, but what about games set in the real world?  Let’s take Tekken while we’re on the subject of beat-em-ups.  Yes, the girls of Tekken show a bit of flesh but not to the extent of our fantasy genre games.  In fact, it’s difficult for me to say that these characters are hypersexualized at all (except maybe Christy Montiero who’s just a waste of space anyway).  These girls are sexy without over-the-top female parts and lacey bikinis.  They are bad-ass without the need for dominatrix chain-whip things.

The lovely Tekken girls

 

 

Perhaps the only character that is deliberately exuding sex appeal is Anna Williams (bottom right, red dress), but her character is supposed to be sultry and seductive.  I presume this is simply to contrast her sister Nina, who is a cold assassin, and their sibling rivalry is prominent throughout the games.  Now to this someone might say there could still be a story without the need for sex appeal, to which I would reply “Why the hell should there not be sex appeal?”  Sex appeal can be very empowering for a woman.  I mean just look at Ivy up there.  No man would want to mess with her.  She could kick your ass before you can figure out what cup size she is.

It seems that the feminists’ pet peeve is a female character who shows strength through her sexuality, or has grown strong from a traumatic past.  I was rather appalled at some of the negative reactions to the new Tomb Raider game footage.  Remarks regarding the brutality of Lara Croft’s endeavors have speculated that this was pandering to male fantasies of abusing women.  I don’t even know what to say to this, apart from maybe these people need to be in serious therapy.  The Tomb Raider reboot is a survival game and, as such, involves Lara

Screenshot from Tomb Raider 2011

fighting her way through a very harsh environment.  This is Lara’s first adventure and is what moulds her into the character we all know.  It has been said that a character shouldn’t have to be brutalized to be strong and that she should just be strong by herself.  Now correct me if I’m wrong, but no one in real life (man or woman) suddenly wakes up one day to be a master marksman or gold Olympic acrobat.  Even characters without a “traumatic” past have at least undergone years of training to be the heroes of the story.  It makes sense right?  It’s the bones of a good narrative.  If Tomb Raider was just a game in which Lara trained in a safe environment, well that would make for a very dull origins game.  I was also rather appalled by comments stating that Lara’s anguished facial expressions and cries of pain in the demo were undoubtedly sexualized for the approval of men.  Now feminists, I know that all men are brainless barbarians but surely cut them a little slack.

Ok, so maybe I’m being a little harsh here.  I’ll just slip into my feminist pantaloons for a moment.  I do need to mention another fighting game (and it’s ludicrous spin off beach volley ball game), which actually does pander to the male audience and the male audience only.  I was initially attracted to Dead or Alive due to the variety of female characters in it.  The game was disappointing however due to the mediocre game mechanics and the painful grind of a single player mode.  Not only this, but the characters were incredibly hollow.  The girls, whom I hoped to be a squadron of bad-ass chicks were just silly, giggly, jiggly and other things ending in “iggly”.  The outfits were unimaginative and all the faces looked the same.  There was clearly more development time put into the jiggle physics than to actual artistic value. Feminists, you can have this one.

DoA Volleyball: This one just doesn't do it for me

And the pantaloons are off again.  I have brought this topic to discussion on a site called GirlGamer.com (exactly what is says on the tin), and asked the members of this community about their opinions on sexualized female game characters.  I was rather surprised at the responses such as “sex sells” and “games are marketed for men”.  The girls just shrugged it off, which was rather refreshing.  It’s nice to see that there are some girls who are not bothered about how games are marketed, and will play them simply because they are fun.  They also admitted to creating sexy female avatars in RPG games.  Now this I can also relate to.  I’ve mentioned before how sexuality can be empowering.  I’d rather play a hot, bad-ass chick because I suppose, in a way, it makes me feel like a hot, bad-ass chick.  I don’t understand why some girls need to have their character in a turtle neck and practical foot wear.  Perhaps they have difficulty distinguishing between sexy and slutty.  Let’s evaluate, shall we:

Sexy

Slutty

See, while Rubi Malone (left) is reasonably covered up, her jacket is rather tight fitting and her holster straps sort of…draw attention to that area of her body.  Her pose and sultry expression is suggestive, but only suggestive.  Rubi emits sex appeal without having to be practically butt naked.  Blood Rayne (right) on the other hand…well…coming from a game that advertises “sex appeal” as a feature shows the sheer desperation to hook a male audience.  Blood Rayne stands out in the gaming industry like the girl in a nighclub with a pound of makeup, heels she can’t quite balance herself in and a dress that’s just a bit too small for her.

Video games, as a media, are still quite young compared to literature, music and film.  As such, it is fair to say there is so much elbow room for female role models.  On saying that, there is also room for more realistic male characters.  We should have less Marcus Phoenixes and more Gordon Freemans, less Kasumis and more Chells.  It is becoming less likely that the gaming industry will try to insult the intelligence of the average gamer with games like Blood Rayne.  Gamers today demand a rich gaming experience that no amount of pandering can fulfill.  My advice to feminists would be to look past the use of cleavage or macho brutes in a game and enjoy it for what it is.  You might actually have fun.  And on that note, I have some tomb raiding to do.

 

We be Hatin’ on Cher Lloyd’s Swagger

I’m really struggling to understand how being hated is a good thing these days.  Artists who produce terrible music, and are “hated on” for it, claim that jealousy is the reason.  Really?  As I mentioned in my previous music post, the band Blood on the Dance Floor can be known for their catchphrase “Haters make us famous.”  Why is is that artists are under the misconception that bad publicity is better than no publicity?  I’d rather anonymity than to be known as a delusional, talentless imbecile.

The music industry has a lot to answer for having inflicted Cher Lloyd’s Swagger Jagger upon the world.  From what I’ve gathered the term “swagger” refers to someone’s style or attitude and a “jagger” of swagger is someone who steals or imitates it.  The whole song is an obnoxious ego fest from start to finish.  With a generic club beat to the air raid siren noise that seems to be the rage in pop music today, Cher pretentiously declares is so full of “swagger” that everyone is jealous and can’t stop talking about her and wanting to be her.  Really, Cher?  Really?  What maniacal music producer convinced you that acting like a spoiled bitch in your debut single was a good thing?  Not to mention, the chorus is ripped off from the old folk song “My Darling Clementine.”  If every new artist fobs constructive criticism as jealous hate, then the music industry is doomed to spiral into a sinkhole of mediocrity.

Great swagger there, Cher.

The song posted on YouTube stands at almost 3 million views with a staggering 60,000 dislikes and only 25,000 likes.  Comments such as: “She makes Rebecca Black look like Mozart.” and “This has to be a joke, right?”, show just how irritating people find this song.   Cher is clearly upset at the poor reception this song is receiving and yet still hopes it reaches number one.  My advice to Cher would be to ditch the producers that have made her a public laughing stock and perhaps work on that “swagger” she claims to carry.

 

Brain Hacking

Too often I’ve been struck with an awesome idea, only to discover that someone else in the world has gotten there first.  I’m beginning to think that my brain is a satellite receiver for other people’s ideas and that I’ll never have the chance to develop anything original.

When I was 12, I was writing a generic swords and sorcery story.  I wanted the reader to believe it was set in the 16th century but the twist was, it was set in post-modern times, after the world ended and the knowledge of science and technology was lost.  Gasp!  What a twist!  Then I read this:

Lord of the Rings rip off. Don't read.

 

 

 

The Sword of Shannara is not a great book, mind you, and my post-modern, swords and sorcery story might have been a less painful read, but I refused to appear to have plagiarized a terrible book, that had plagiarized a great one.  So I decided to leave Terry Brooks to his Lord of the Rings knock off and abandoned my own story.

 

 

 

Being an avid gamer for as long as I can remember, I had a few ideas to contribute to the gaming industry.  One was a realistic first person game, where the player can look down and see the character’s legs and things like that.  Then Mirror’s Edge was released.  Actually, a different game tried that same concept years before Mirror’s Edge, but it had received poor reviews due to severe disorientation during combat.  I can’t remember the name of it however.  I also had the idea for motion control gaming before the Wii was released.  Also, the Wii U was a concept I mulled over back in September when I was planning my college project, though my idea involved an iPhone connected to a larger screen.

They stole my idea >.>

Quite possibly, the most uncanny example of my imagination hacking into someone else’s, involves a drawing representing that unsettling feeling of not being alone when trying to sleep at night.  I stumbled across it last night, inspiring me to write this blog entry.

Pretty creepy huh?

Absolutely everything about this image is exactly what I had planned to sketch for a long time.  The only difference perhaps was that my creepy dude sported a top hat, and was leaning over the side of the bed.  This image is now used in internet memes and I can’t seem to find the original artist.

Maybe I should wear a tin foil helmet to shut out everyone else’s creative genius I seem to be accumulating.

 

 

The Agnostic-Atheist in Me

I suppose I would have considered myself of Christian faith at one stage.  I was baptized in a Catholic church, attended convent schools, made my first holy Communion and Confirmation, the whole shebang.  From what I can remember, the first time I began to question my faith was during my school days when my religion teacher said that we were all born as sinners.  My initial reaction was ”Hang on, I thought sinners were bad people.  What did I do wrong being born?”  My teacher elaborated by saying that sinners were also people who didn’t believe in God, and that when we are born we don’t believe in God.  I found it unfair that as infants we were doomed to burn in hell until we were old enough for school.  I also considered the type of people that didn’t have a faith, but were genuinely good people nonetheless.  Why did they face punishment when they had done nothing wrong?

I started poking holes in the book of Genesis.  I was particularly bothered by original sin back in the Adam and Eve days.  What we are made to believe is that one day God appeared and said “Hey guys!  I’m just gonna leave this delicious fruit tree right here.  But don’t eat from it or else.  You can eat anything else except this delicious fruit.  You can even eat the fruit of that other tree over there, but not this one.  I’m warning you.”  Silly Christian God, does he know nothing of human nature?  He did create us right?  So when he did catch Adam and Eve nomming on said fruit tree he threw a hissy fit and kicked them out of Eden.  How immature of a deity that is supposedly perfect in every way.  In fact, a lot of the book Genesis makes the Christian God out to be a spoiled child.  Anytime he doesn’t get his way it’s plagues here and floods there and all because he endowed us with free will.  The bible makes humanity out to be God’s failed experiment, and this centuries old grudge is why he doesn’t appear to us in a burning bush anymore.

I became more and more inclined to believe that the reason we are all here is a bit more complicated than some dude that poofed us into existence.  So does this mean I’m an atheist?  Well, yes and no.  I suppose the atheist in me tends to reject most religions, as I generally see them as either immoral or illogical.  I’m strongly opposed to corruption in the church, the abhorrent treatment of women in the middle east and anyone who thinks that mass suicide or murder is a ticket into paradise (a rather stone age frame of mind when you consider sacrificial rituals performed by ancient Aztecs and such).  If, hypothetically, the Christian god came and punched me in the face for not believing in him, I’d say “Ok, fair enough, but I still disagree with your religion.”   My problem with atheism however is simply the lack of belief in anything at all.  For atheists, there is simply nothing beyond this physical world in which we live.  There is also a sense of snobbery towards people who do have a faith which I find somewhat puerile.  For example, I was bickering with a companion of mine not so long ago in which I used the phrase “Go to hell.”  Now it was blatantly a figure of speech on my part but my friend responded rather snidely saying, “Yeah sure…‘hell’”.  His attitude implied that he was insulting my intelligence, that he knew there was no hell and that I was a lesser person than he for thinking otherwise.  I’m not generalizing all atheists, but those who do carry that attitude are really just as bad as devout theists with the utmost belief that all atheists are going to hell if they don’t convert.  I won’t dither on about the war of the faiths, so for now I will change the topic to agnosticism.

I simply refuse to believe in nothing.  Do I believe in an afterlife?  Well, why should that matter when it doesn’t apply to us in this life?  Let’s worry about an afterlife when or if we ever get there.  Do I believe in a deity?  Well that’s a little trickier.  In most religions, deities are given human traits or forms because this is what is familiar to us.  If there are sentient beings that transcend the boundaries of physics that we know today, they are probably so incomprehensible to the human brain that we will never know of their existence.  There is much scientific, and even philosophical, banter relating to a multiverse, but since the universes that comprise this multiverse exist outside our own physical laws, they simply cannot be observed.  So how did we get here?  Let’s assume the Big Bang theory is how it all happened.  Let’s assume that the universe once existed as a hot, dense mass that exploded and cooled into this current ever expanding universe.  It seems fairly reasonable.  So what was there before the Big Bang?  What if our current universe suddenly stops expanding, and is contracted towards a gravitational epicenter?  Perhaps our current universe is the by-product of the previous universe’s system reboot.  What if the universe is just a result of infinite implosions and explosions?  It still doesn’t explain how matter of any kind came into existence.  We are forever faced with the chicken and the egg conundrum.  Currently, scientists are working with particle colliders to figure out if any of these theories hold true.  Maybe that’s what we are: the result of a scientist’s particle collider…  A human’s life is so short that we will never fully comprehend infinity.

As humans, we should embrace our curious nature.  Reasoning that the creation of all space and time is down to one being with super powers is a bit of a lazy way out in my opinion.  It is so narrow minded to think that nothing exists outside of our physical laws. It is also so ridiculously trivial to declare that one religion is more right than another, when we are all insignificant specks of dust with no control over our own fates anyway.  If there is one teaching I can agree on in Christianity it’s “Do on to others as you would have them do onto you.”  We don’t need a religion to keep us in line though, we should know the difference between right and wrong.  We don’t need to devoutly worship something, that may or may not exist, to stay off the sinners list.  And we certainly don’t need to wage war over our clashing opinions.  We have only one little world to share amongst ourselves and we may as well just tolerate each other while we’re on it.  Peace and love to all, for whatever reason we are here =)

I think this makes me agnostic-atheist.

 

Blood on the Dance Floor: A cold, calculated review

Is music getting worse…or is it just me getting older?  Perhaps both go hand in hand.  For the majority of pop music that I don’t like these days, I at least see the musical merit and understand the appeal to certain demographics.  I have come across certain bands however that have a disturbingly loyal fan base, despite said band’s questionable degree of talent (or rather, lack thereof).  What intrigues me is how these young fans perceive such music as anything but…well…bad.

I must mention a band that particularly annoy me for several reasons.  These guys are called Blood on the Dance Floor and their music is mainly, what I can only describe as, screamo/bubble-gum techno.  If you’ve never heard of them, check them out on YouTube and decide for yourself what you think.  The following points are some of the reasons I resent this particular band:

• They ripped off the title of a Michael Jackson album for the name of their band.
• They recorded a bubble-gum techno cover of Beat It and completely omitted the distinct bass riff.  People, there is nothing good about this cover.
• The lead singer, Dahvie Vanity, (and it pains me to describe him as a singer) is in love with himself.  See below:

Yes, that is a guy...I think

• Mr. Vanity cannot sing.
• Their lyrics make no sense and often consist of a nursery rhyme meter.
• They think that “haters” make them famous (not infamous).

I had recently made it my quest to find out what exactly kids enjoyed about their music.  Upon trawling through comments on BOTDF YouTube videos I came to no conclusion.  My assumption is that kids are dazzled by the band’s style: a mish-mash of gender-confused, colorful attire and bizarre manga styled hair.  Most YouTube comments remarked on how attractive Mr. Vanity was, though personally he is not to my taste.  Another assumption I drew regarded the kids’ giddiness towards the lyrics of most of the band’s songs.  An excerpt from one song, Scream for my Ice Scream, may show you what I mean.

“Got a monster in my pants
And if you ever get the chance
Gunna cram it down your throat
Watch you gasp for air & choke
I’m gunna jizz all in your face
I’m gunna wreck this fucking place
Pull my hair smash the chair
Break the bed & give me head“

I have noticed a sense of smug rebellion amongst the YouTubers in comments such as:   ”My mom walked in on me listening to this song and she totally went nuts…teeheehee.”  except with spelling and grammatical errors.

Now, I didn’t want to have to pull out the “In my day” speech, but in my day, our raunchy, dirty minded music at least had effort put into it.  When I was 12, Bad Touch by The Bloodhound Gang used to be played at our school discos (and our school was a convent by the way); and while myself and my peers did giggle about the context of the song, it was really only because of our nervous curiosity about the subject of sex.  If you thought for a second that I was going to remark on how inappropriate BOTDF’s lyrics were for young teenagers then you’d be wrong.  The lyrics are inappropriate, but so were a lot of things that I listened to when I was young.  My problem with BOTDF is the quality of their lyrics above all else.  Ok, compare the above excerpt with one from Bad Touch:

“Love the kind you clean up with a mop and bucket
Like the lost catacombs of Egypt only God knows where we stuck it
Hieroglyphics? Let me be Pacific I wanna be down in your South Seas
But I got this notion that the motion of your ocean means “Small Craft Advisory”
So if I capsize on your thighs high tide, B-5 you sunk my battleship
Please turn me on I’m Mister Coffee with an automatic drip
So show me yours I’ll show you mine “Tool Time” you’ll Lovett just like Lyle
And then we’ll do it doggy style so we can both watch “X-Files” “  

I think I prefer the monkey outfits to what Mr. Vanity is sporting

Firstly, I’d like to point out that there is a considerable amount of syllables in this song compared to BOTDF’s above.  Secondly, the play on words and references to pop culture of the time were quite clever, though a bit silly.  I sincerely doubt that 14 year olds today would understand what “Tool Time” is.  There is obvious humor in Bloodhound Gang’s lyrics, whereas BOTDF seem to try too hard to be inappropriate for children.  Bad Touch is mainly rapped while Scream for my Ice Scream is just… rhymed …and screamed.  Bad Touch made it to number one in the charts which certainly meant it had a wide appeal, which in turn meant the band had done something right when they wrote this song.  Blood on the Dance Floor simply wrote perverse lyrics, with rhyming akin to the Postman Pat theme song, and spoke or screamed it to catchy techno noise.  Their “haters” may make them (in)famous, but they will never bring them to number one.

“But oh, they are not all perverted,” a defiant fan would declare, “Just listen to the song Believe and it will change your life forever.”    Believe is, as far as I can tell, the only BOTDF song with a video.  The video is set in a small, antique style room.  Girls are strewn apathetically on the floor and furniture, while both band members are seated by a piano with an air of melancholy and despair about them.  As we had been promised, there are no perverse lyrics in this song.  What we can expect from Believe is four minutes of Mr. Vanity trying to convince you that he’s the only one to turn to when you’ve lost a friend, are feeling down, had a bad day, burnt your toast and so on.  Some of the more childish lyrics include “We all die; It’s in our fully big adventure” (who says “fully big adventure”…ever?) and “We all fall down, We’ll pick you up”.  The latter line reminds me of the song Ring Around the Rosie.  In my opinion, these patronizing lyrics are a dirty trick by Mr. Vanity to brainwash insecure kids into liking him and thus stuffing his ravenous ego.  In a way I sympathize with the kids.  I’ve been there.  Puberty is never kind and often it seems like no one understands.  To have someone take advantage of all these insecurities is like a guy trying to get a girl drunk enough to sleep with him… I mean it’s pretty low.

I’m going to whip out the “In my day” card one more time.  In my day, our Believe was a song by Cher, a singer who was big in the 70′s and 80′s.  The song, released in 1999, was Cher’s big comeback single.  People may comment on how unnecessarily auto-tuned the verses were (I say unnecessarily because the woman had a serious pair of lungs on her), and that in the video she wore a nest of glow sticks in her hair (but I think that was just Cher trying to be some sort of hip granny).  This song is very simple but the message is powerful.  I know I’ve made a criticism against the simplicity of BOTDF’s lyrics, but there is a difference between “simple yet effective” and “just plain simple”.  Cher’s Believe doesn’t require much dissecting.  It didn’t need flowery metaphors to convey what Cher wanted to say. This is evident in the following verses:

“What am I supposed to do
Sit around and wait for you
Well I can’t do that
And there’s no turning back
I need time to move on
I need love to feel strong
‘Cause I’ve had time to think it through
And maybe I’m too good for you, oh

Well I know that I’ll get through this
‘Cause I know that I am strong
And I don’t need you anymore
No, I don’t need you anymore
Oh, I don’t need you anymore
No, I don’t need you anymore”

So you see kids, the only person you need to believe in is yourself and not that muppet near the top of this page.

You may have noticed that I have criticized BOTDF mainly from a lyrical point of view rather than commenting on their use of bubble-gum techno.  This is mainly because, as far as actual sound and melody goes, we perceive and appreciate music differently in each generation.  I can hardly criticize when I went through phases from liking the Spice Girls, to Scooter, to Coldplay, to Iron Maiden.  I do have confidence that, as this generation matures, so will their taste in music.  I often find myself discovering classic oldies that I have overlooked in my youth.

 I sincerely hope that bands like Blood on the Dance Floor does not set a trend for the future of music.  I had three more bands to bring to light here but I seem to have rambled on and on about the one.  Oh well, perhaps I will post a few more music blogs at a later date.