With his album "Underdogs", Matt Good managed to say a lot of things about society and the world that we’ve built. I, for one, admire a lot of the man’s views. It takes guts to stand up and say, "this is bullshit." For all of those that I have known and lost in the battle of life, people who died for reasons that they won’t ever understand, or people who in their last minutes performed miracles that they never get to witness, I can think of no better champion. From the girl I knew who silently killed herself alone in a tiny apartment, to the people who walk into a burning building to save someone they don’t even know, and with the full knowledge that they are never again going to walk out of that building.

There are a lot of people out there who, in their own efforts to remain blissfully unaware of the life that unfolds around them, would say that these friends who died, committed suicide, were weak. Fuck them. These people were good people who decided that they wouldn’t be able to make anything of themselves, and stopped taking up space. It’s a lesson that a lot of people could do with learning. The point is, that these "weak" people actually did something that required a great deal of strength and integrity.

"Mama told me to be something, so I’m afraid…"

There are people out there, who in their own narrow-minded sense, try to say that "… no one cares about music- they just listen to it so stop making it seem like it's something it's not". Granted, there is some music out there that is fluff. The kind of music that one listens to when they want to do something else, when they aren’t going to pay attention to it. I’ll include another quote here to help elaborate:

"… Matt Good is a terrible song writer that does not know what people want to hear. People want to hear kick ass bands like Nickelback and Default and Puddle Of Mud because they rock hard and they know how to be rock stars. Matt Good is just a whiner that will never sell many records because he doesn't have an ear for what the peeps wanta hear!"

[I will refrain from pointing out this particular fan’s love and devotion to one of the named bands blatant disrespect done to them by misspelling their name. Incidentally, that’s "Mudd".]

[And their irreverent destruction of the English language by the use of the word "peeps", which I can only assume means "people", and would hardly qualify as ebonics, let alone a slang term.]

The above quote was apparently sent to him by one of his "valued" listeners (apparently, this is not someone who has ever listened to his music, but that’s another story…). Bands like Nickelback, Default and Puddle of Mudd may make acceptable, palatable music. Maybe even some of it has a point. But, even if it did, the point would be totally lost on the radio stations that feature Eric Generic and the No Name Band. These bands are interchangeable. I used to refer to this as "Counting Crows Syndrome". Now, I refer to it fondly as the "music industry." These bands are formulaic and meaningless.

This is not to say that their accomplishments are meaningless. Far from it. In fact, I rather enjoy Nickelback. But, there are two kinds of musicians out there. Ones that work for meaning, and ones that work for marketing. Thankfully, it would appear that most of the music industry falls between these two. There are exceptions, however. Default, Puddle of Mudd, Creed, and others like that are marketers, and no better than the Spice Girls or Brittney Spears. They’re fluff. They’re identical. And they’re inescapable.

On the other end, there are bands like Matthew Good, Great White, Blue Rodeo. These guys are out there trying to play for meaning. For emotion. For the love of playing.

Ever notice how all of the really really popular bands say that they have an obligation or responsibility to their fans?

It’s bullshit. One and all.

There is only one person in the world to whom you are responsible. (Two if you’re Catholic.)

So at the end of the day, the people that leave these inflammitory messages are merely reinforcing Matt Good’s position as an artist because if nothing else, he got a reaction. This means that even if it’s for a brief nanosecond, for the merest of moments, he touched your life, got through to you. Enough to make you respond. Enough to make you mad. Enough to make you think.

Which is probably why you’re so pissed.