Nathalie J Music

Why Machine Head Should Be the Download Festival Headliners This Year

So, two of the three headlining slots for the UK’s iconic Download Festival have been confirmed. But who is going to fill the Friday night space?

It’s one of the biggest dates in the rock calendar. Some of the world’s biggest bands have headlined since the festival began in 2003 – Iron Maiden, Metallica, Linkin Park, Black Sabbath… the list goes on. So who do I tout (or at least hope) is going to be invited to top the procession on Download 2011’s first night?

Without a shadow of a doubt, it should be Machine Head. That band rock so hard you need no deposit insurance on your neck in case you break it while headbanging. If Linkin Park (who haven’t exactly had the most positive long-term record and whose last album sucked) and System of a Down (while good, they’ve not really done anything in 5 years) are worthy of playing, then a band who has been consistently outstanding since the mid-90s with only a little wobble in 2001 deserve to be right up at the top of the list. I mean, My Chemical Romance once headlined what is essentially the Mecca of metal. There’s no way Machine Head can be classed as unfit for the job.

Since their last album, The Blackening, was pretty much universally agreed to be the best thing since Metallica’s Master of Puppets, and everyone has high hopes for the next album hopefully due this year, an epic performance at Download is just what the world needs to show the world that a new era of metal is here to reign.

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Selling out or selling records?

We’ve all seen what happens to the sales of a tune when it features in a movie, TV programme or advert. Glee brought the classic rock tune “Don’t Stop Believing” back to the charts – and I’m hoping that new internet advert featuring Heaven 17 will see “Temptation” being played on the radio again!

But whether you’ve got the prestige of your song appearing in a Hollywood movie or it’s only appearing in a Fosters TV advert, there’s no doubt that any publicity can increase the profile of a new band or increase the sales for an already established act. I have lots of friends who are in bands, ranging from heavy rock stuff that will never darken the doorways of an advertising agency to pretty accessible indie rock that might just be the kind of think marketing execs are looking for.

They’re all pretty much convinced that they’ll never “sell out” and allow their precious creative production to be prostituted in this way. What rubbish! If you want to make it as a musician, then you have to take all the opportunities you get, even if they’re a little bit embarrassing and you may live to regret them in your later career, once you’ve made it as a rock star.

I’m a big fan of the Scottish rock bank Biffy Clyro, though a lot of the ITV-watching audience of the UK will know them as the band that recorded the original version of the X-Factor winner’s single this year. My initial reaction on hearing that Simon Cowell’s all powerful music regime had selected the haunting ‘Many of Horror’ for the winner was one of, appropriately enough, horror. Actually, Matt (I think that’s his name; I genuinely don’t know being more of a Strictly fan) has done a pretty decent job with his cover and this is bound to leads to an increase in record sales for Biffy. If established bands are happy to use these opportunities, then new bands certainly shouldn’t turn them down.

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Podcasts are an Excellent Way to Discover New Music

If you are already a subscriber to a music magazine and if you spend many hours listening to the radio or checking out a few dozen music blogs then you may feel that there is no way that there is anything else that you can do to help you discover new music. But there is always something that can be done in order to help you find something brand new to enjoy. Music magazine will review albums that you have more than likely already heard of and you’ll be paying in part for reviews that tell you about albums that are bad and that you shouldn’t buy rather than paying for a magazine that only tells you what stuff is good.
It is a similar story with the current state of music on the radio. Most of it is pop music and as a result it is unlikely to broaden your horizon and while you will likely find things that will appeal to you, you won’t be really interested and nor will you find that you discover something truly life changing because radio just doesn’t work like that. Music blogs are at the other end of the spectrum. They are so specific and part of a niche that you may find them simply too pithy, and lacking any solid content that you can really enjoy.
A better option is music podcasts. Unlike magazines you don’t have to pay for them, so you won’t be wasting the good money that you earned from your many investments with people like Galvan Research and Trading. Podcasts are between magazines, radio shows, and music blogs. And because you can just load them onto your iPod there’s no chance that you will have to read or expend effort to enjoy them. They are free, and there are hundreds of high quality ones to choose from.

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