Why Won't Bands Just Let Me Live

(Via Panic! At The Disco)

Last week on Friday, Panic! At The Disco released a new music video for one of their most recent singles, Victorious.  I had been anticipating the video for a week, just because Victorious is one of my favorite singles for Panic's new album.  So of course, Friday morning, I log onto my computer and go onto their website.  And voila, at 9:30 in the morning, the music video was up in all of it's glory.  A cover frame with Brendon Urie as a wrestler soaked in champagne tempted my click.  So I took the bait, and of course, it was too good to be true. Youtube was blocked on my computer, so I couldn't watch the music video.  I was internally screaming for the rest of the period, but what's new.

Bands choose the absolute worst ways and times to release music.  This example might make it sound like it's my school's fault, but in reality it's not; it's Panic! At The Disco's.  I mean, they should know that the majority of their fans are teenagers.  So, most of them are at school at 9:30 am, or if they're lucky, they're taking that chance to sleep in.  Of course, there are some extreme diehard fans who would try to find a way to watch the video during school, but I'm not that extreme.  My point is, the times bands release new music or music videos are really problematic.

Usually, they don't release music on Fridays at 9:30 in the morning.  It's usually 10:30 at night, on an obscure day like a Monday.  Panic! At The Disco and Fall Out Boy both do this, unfortunately.  Which is slightly inconsiderate of the band's fans because like I've said, most of them are teenagers.  Obviously, if they release music that late at night, I'm gonna stay up and listen to it for a few hours.  It seems like a good idea at the time, but I always end up regretting it in the morning when I only get around five hours of sleep.

And it's not just the date and time they release their new stuff, it's also just their marketing strategies.  For instance, when Fall Out Boy were releasing their new album this year, American Beauty/American Psycho, they made the whole entire album available on Youtube a whole week before the actual release date. Of course, this is partially because someone already leaked it on the internet prior to the early Youtube release by the actual band.  It doesn't sound like a big deal, but when I'm studying for a test in January and an album I had been anticipating for four months is released early, I'm going to drop everything and listen to that instead.  But at least Fall Out Boy actually had a reason to release their album early.  On the contrary, when Twenty One Pilots were releasing their newest album, Blurryface, they actually leaked their own album early on purpose.  It was probably because their record label couldn't control their creativity, or some fake deep stuff like that.  There are plenty of other examples of this, but I think I'll save them for a future blog post.

Basically, bands just won't let me live.  On top of sports and school, bands almost act like an extra homework assignment.  I mean, new music should immediately make me happy rather than stressed out.  But hey, I haven't stopped listening to them yet, right?

The Meme Is Dead; Long Live The Meme

I never thought I'd say it.  It's been around four months now since the two great memes began and thrived.  But unfortunately, all good memes have to come to an end.

The John Cena and the Shia LaBeouf Just Do It memes are dead now.  It truly pains me to say so.  If you know me just a little bit, you've probably had me cut you off in a sentence by screaming "JOHN CENA!!!" right before you were about to say something. (If this has happened to you, I'm sorry.  (I saw the chance and I had to take it; I don't regret anything.))  Or you've heard me whistling the John Cena theme in class and it probably made you want to punch me in the face -- I don't blame you.  Or possibly you've heard me screech "JUST DO IT!!!" in the halls or in class when someone was having to make a decision.  I know it was annoying, but I was in the heat of the moment.  And plus, at the time, you gotta admit those memes were golden.

(Via Wrestling Forum)

If you haven't already figured it out, a meme is a funny or interesting video, photo, or piece of text that's spread rapidly on the internet.  For awhile, the John Cena and Shia LaBeouf memes were the one of the biggest.  They were on every social media website.  In these meme's cases, people took the original video and incorporated it into another one. For instance, I'll describe my first and favorite experience with the meme. My first encounter with the John Cena meme was a great one.  I was on Tumblr and I came across this video that appeared to be the I Write Sins Not Tragedies music video by Panic! At The Disco.  So of course, as the video goes, it shows Brendon Urie pacing the pews in a church corridor.  But after about thirty-three seconds or so, when he goes "what a shame the poor grooms bride is--" the video cuts and changes to John Cena's theme song. (Here's a link to the video if you want to see what I mean.)

(Via Yahoo)

I can't entirely remember my first encounter with the Shia LaBeouf meme. Honestly I think I watched the video before it became mainstream.  I still was a big fan of Shia LaBeouf ever since the Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf theatrical video.  So when I first saw screenshots to the Just Do It video, I thought it was excellent and inspiring. So with that, I sent it to a couple of my friends and I also made a bunch of references to it for around a week. After awhile, the remixes took off and the meme became mainstream.  I can't pinpoint my favorite Shia LaBeouf meme, but the Just Do It one was a pretty good one in general.

So I enjoyed these memes for months; it was a good time.  Unfortunately, like they all do, these memes had to die.  Eventually memes get to a point where they're too mainstream and overused it's not funny or ironic anymore.  But, just because they're dead doesn't mean I'm gonna throw away the John Cena birthday card I ironically bought for myself. (It came with a poster, don't judge.) They had a good run, and I guarantee there'll be a bunch of good memes in the future. After all, we're in midst of a meme renaissance right now.  Who knows what else could happen?