Venting here. Plus I have a cold so I'm feeling a tad bitchy. Readers be warned.

As delighted as I am to have finally heard some music by Placebo, I have some pretty severe loathing for this shit.

Sometimes I get so disgusted with the music industry I can't stand myself. It used to be that people had to work hard for years, pay their dues. It took Rick Springfield nine albums to get noticed. John Mellencamp recorded for something like fifteen years before he had a mainstream hit with 'Crumbling Down'. They both worked hard and waited a long time for the rest of the world to appreciate them.

Now, things are just the opposite. Not many record producers seem interested in longevity or, more importantly - quality. They don't sign people with the idea in mind of making several CDs and nurturing a long career, they sign the thing of the moment and don't give a rat's ass if the CD yields one hit or five, as long as their target audience buys a million of it. I feel as if this is probably because the target audience has gotten younger and younger, with more 10-14 year olds now buying the product.

That must be it, The people who produce records figure that the sacrifice of quality is okay when you balance it out with the sales of CDs hawked to 14 years olds who want to hear music by other 14 year olds.

We have entered the era in which one-hit wonders are the rule rather than the exception.

And John Lennon is still dead.

Fuck.

It doesn't stop there, however. Most of what consumers consume is now being marketed to kids. This is not completely problematic to me, I am still at one with my inner child. I love cartoons, plushy animals, video games and dolls as much as the next kid. Perhaps even more than the next kid, as I hold on to things my kids outgrow simply because I still like them. But am I asking too much when I request makeup that isn't loaded with glitter?

Perhaps I'm a purist. I don't want little metal things in my eye makeup that hurt when they drop into my eyes, applying glittery lip gloss (or lipstick), is like scrubbing my lips with sandpaper and makes them very sore, and glittery blush is just fucking stupid. I don't mind glitter gel and those little tubes of loose glitter because they allow you to have your sparkly stuff on the side, so you can put it where you want it. A little on the neck or shoulders actually looks pretty good. Shiny stuff on the face just makes it look oily.

On a person over the age of sixteen it looks really stupid.

Can we start marketing music and makeup for grown-ups again please?