Ever felt that all the bands are starting to sound the same and that you can't find someone with a unique sound? Ever felt that when you finally find a band with a new and unique sound that a couple of weeks later there will be another band that sound very similar? or is it just that I don't like listening to the same kinda thing all the time. (i have a really short attention span those of you who know me will already know that) Is it that their record labels manufacture them to sound like what they think is going to be the new sound.

Thinking about this late one night I started wondering if any band was truly just about the music, all bands start out with the good intention of doing it just for the music and indeed some of them continue to do so but aren't these the bands that have been copied time and time again. What is that makes all these bands lose their originality and just copy what other great bands are doing. Is it purely because they can no longer keep the hype up that is required in the music industry and have the constant pressure of their labels to make money, and so give in to making their individual sound work about cave in to a heightened form of pear pressure.

Is this really what music is about? I was under the impression ( at the risk of sounding arty farty) that music was a use for free speech and for their enjoyment and satisfaction. Surly with manufacturing music you are taking away its soul and making it just like all the other things in life which people try so hard to escape from. The clones of people, people trying so hard to be someone they are not. Is this anything to shout about, yes there are plenty of new good British Bands coming through at the moment but how many of them can we honestly say that they don't sound like someone else even if its just a hint of it? Ok so they have to be influenced by bands and people but could they not be influenced by that bands talent and passion for music and the way that the write and compose their music rather than being influenced by them so much that they just become a strange tribute band only with slighlty different wording and phrasing.

Maybe thats why local bands are so great. That they haven't been corrupted by the minds of record labels and have the ambition to get to the top. Although not all of it sounds polished to perfection. That roughness of it makes it all the more pleasing. Their friends and family support them and slowly over time you can watch them get better and better. They have that ambition to be at the top and thats what drives them. Maybe once you've reached the top you lose the ambition and don't feel that you need to be the best that you can be and thats why music is starting to sound the same. So who's more about the music? the local bands that sometimes we just talk about briefly and don't give them enough credit for? Or the bands that have made it all the way and perhaps have lost their ambition.