Things are really boring now. Is it just me?

Can you think of anything that has been developing in the last few months of the new millennium that has been really exciting?

OK, the X-Men movie was pretty good. Great, actually, as far as comic book movies go...

But what about music? Has there been any album that you have heard that has been more than just "Good" lately? I don’t think I’ve heard a "Great" album in quite a long time. Now, this is obviously subjective, and I’m sure a lot of kids who bought the latest alterna-metal piece of shit or boy band Britney bubble-gum pop record might argue that, to them, there have been plenty of "Great" tunes to choose from.

Maybe I’m just getting old.

In the past, rock artists used to oppose corporate sponsorship because they realized that if a song that people really liked were used to advertise a product, the association people would have with that song would always be tainted. Afterward, people would think of the advertisement and not of the original emotions inspired by the music.

Today most artists, even the so-called "alternative" artists, feel like failures if they can’t get at least one corporate deal out of their latest record. Even cool bands like Spiritualized have done car commercials. Does anyone else think this sucks?

Sure, music has always been about money. Mick Jagger didn’t major in economics for nothing. Rock is just as much about business as it is about rebellion. So who am I kidding when I whine about the "integrity of the song"?

Maybe there’s just nothing to rebel against anymore.

Think about it... Sure the Clinton administration traded our nuclear secrets to China (or leaked them by accident if you want to believe it happened that way), probably did some shady real estate dealings and had a scandal involving a chunky girl and a blow job. Whatcha gonna do? Every politician is corrupt. If you can look past the flaws, think about this...

The primary points of rebellion that most politically active people were bitching about in the past have at least come to the forefront in the past 8 years... AIDS is now a main political priority. Anti-abortionists have suffered one defeat after another in the last decade and have resorted to violence that makes their argument about the value of human life seem hypocritical. Middle East peace talks, although a long way from being resolved, are at least happening. Medical marijuana has gotten on the ballot, and even though federal laws will keep it in courts, at least it made it as far as it has. Let me put it this way, if Bush were re-elected in the early "90’s, most of this never would have seen the light of day.

Although there’s still homeless people and bad unemployment and racism, at least things have improved. More people have jobs now. The internet has really opened the floodgates as far as access to information and training. And as far as racism goes, does anyone else feel that, on a social zeitgeist level, the O.J. Simpson case kind of evened-out the injustice of the Rodney King verdict? Most people might think this statement is racist itself, but my feeling is that if two wrongs don’t make a right, at least in this case they balanced the scales of corruption to the point of cultural acceptance.

Things are so slow that Spike Lee has resorted to bashing the latest Mel Gibson movie because it didn’t have ENOUGH racism. Sure, people are still pissed that there’s no black people on "Friends", but there’s so many black, Latino, and Asian superstars emerging in Hollywood it’s getting harder to argue about it.

Love him or hate him, Howard Stern and his imitators have taken free speech to the point that having sex with donkeys can be openly discussed on prime-time television and radio just as long as you don’t use the S, F, or C words. Shows like "South Park" have singing pieces of poo and Jerry Springer has midgets in the Ku Klux Klan. All of a sudden taboo is not only accepted,it is expected.

So is it any wonder that there’s no underground anymore? What would be the agenda? What unifying force is there to rally people together when most of their gripes have been heard? Who needs activism, community, or culture when you have video game consoles that let you become Spider-Man or Michael Jordan, TV shows that let you be a voyeur into other peoples’ stupid lives and talk shows that ask their guests if they like it in the butt?

Maybe we were fooling ourselves as a society all along. Maybe the need to "fight the powers that be" was only relevant before the floodgates were opened. Now that almost anything goes and the various alternative communities have mixed their cultural influences into a big brown melting pot of fluff and corporate sponsorships, perhaps the only thing left to do is to heat up a frozen dinner and bump the latest bubblegum pop till your ears bleed.

To read other work by Howard Hallis, click here.