30DBC - What Band or Musician Is Most Important To You?

This is an extremely difficult thing for me to try and hash out. I've always stood by the fact that I don't have a favorite band. I never will. If there's one thing I learned from my dad, it's that music should be taken for what it is. We can't look at country with a classic rock view and label it as bad. It's different, and it should be. If music all tried to fit the same mold, it would be boring.

Music in general is important to me. Anyone who is willing to continue to produce their music, no matter what people think of it, is important. As someone who has written and performed music, it's not easy. I write cheap little 4-chord numbers with Taylor Swift lyrics. I know they aren't the next Free Bird, but I don't want people to discount them.

So how do I answer this question? How can I pick one that is most important? Many genres of music have spoken to me at different times in my life. What is important to me in the music world is someone who fails to lose their integrity. Take All-American Rejects for example. They were extremely popular back in the late 90's/early 2000's. They've lost a lot of their popularity, but they continue to make music. More than that, they continue to make the music that they want to make. They don't apologize for trying something new, or for not changing to fit the mold. I guess in that respect, AAR is important to me.

There are two others that stick out in my head. The first one is Blue October. They create music that they like, just like AAR. The real reason that band is so important to me is because they write openly and honestly. Justin Furstenfeld suffers from bipolar disorder, which has led to a lot of poor life choices. Lyrically, I appreciate what he achieves with writing about extremely real feelings. On a similar note, I also enjoy Macklemore. While he does lots of catchy and silly tunes, he also writes about real life issues. I know that many rappers don't have this issue. Being real in your lyrics is something to be respected. His delivery is what really brings the honesty home. Sure, Eminem raps honestly...but he always sounds angry. I can't focus on him apologizing if he sounds angry while he's doing it. There's a level of sincerity that I really enjoy with Macklemore.

I guess when I look at it, music that speaks to me is honest music. It's written by the artist, it's recorded by the artists, and it's real. There's no Auto-Tune. There's no guest writers that you never hear about. It's not about the superficial things in life. It's just honest.