Sing It, Friday Five!

Hey, I have to catch up on all the meme-stuff I missed while I was gone...

1. Who is your favorite singer/musician? Why? I always have trouble picking one favorite anything. My standard answer to stuff like this is that my top three favorite bands are Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, and Rush, not necessarily in that order.

2. What one singer/musician can you not stand? Why? Well, I'd probably name a rap "artist" here, if I knew rap music well enough to single any one person out.

3. If your favorite singer wasn't in the music business, do you think you would still like him/her as a person? How the hell should I know? I don't know any of these people personally.

4. Have you been to any concerts? If yes, who put on the best show? This seems to me to be one of those "apples and oranges" kinds of questions, really. I don't think I've ever been to a concert where the artists put on a bad show. They've just been good in different ways. The most recent concert I went to was Weird Al Yankovic, and he put on a wonderfully fun show, I must say. Though I suppose I might award first place here to Jethro Tull. Ian Anderson has so much energy onstage that it's almost tiring to watch him, but it's impossible not to get caught up in his enthusiasm.

5. What are your thoughts on downloading free music online vs. purchasing albums? Do you feel the RIAA is right in its pursuit to stop people from downloading free music? I have kind of mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, yeah, artists deserve to get paid for their work. On the other hand, I think the RIAA has massively over-reacted to a threat that's more perceived than real. Personally, I don't download much music, mainly because I've got a dial-up connection (something that will likely be changing in the near future, though, I hope!). But I don't feel too bad about it when I do. It's a good way to sample new bands if you're not sure whether you'll like them or not. If I encounter something on the internet and decide that I do like it, more often than not I'll then go out and buy the CD. So, at least in the case of people like me, free music on the internet is actually a good thing for the music industry.