bad scene, everyone's fault.

Want to know why I love music? Not because I search out a good hook the way a crack addict searches for his next fix. Not because I want to get into shows free. It's because of the people.

The people who are into the scene I am in are here for one reason - they are incredibly passionate about what they do. I have never met more driven people in my entire life. These people live, breathe, eat, and sleep music, whether they be onstage or behind the merch table or in the crowd. They love it so much that they will spend ridiculous amounts of time and money to be out there as much as they possibly can.

At least, most of the older portion of the crowd is like this. The younger segment, I'm not so sure about. The scene has become a place not to see, but to be seen. It's become a fashion forum. It's become more about just being there to say you were there, and to stand around sidekicking it or taking myspace pictures instead of listening to the bands.

It used to be that people went to shows because they loved the bands and they loved them hard. I'm not doubting that kids don't still feel connected to the music. But if you go to a Cartel show, the crowd is drastically different than the crowd at a Saves The Day show.

It used to be that if someone fell down in the pit, everyone would be trying to help him up immediately. Now, if you fall, then it's tought beans for you. Hope you don't die. Now there's excessive shoving and screaming just because kids think they're being cool for shoving or that they might get that cute bass player to sleep with them if they screech loud enough.

A lot of the passion I originally fell for is gone. It's still there if you look hard. Really, really hard.

I've met a ton of amazing people over the years through music. I know a lot of them feel this way too. Maybe we're just getting old for this scene, and will be talking about the "good old days" forever. But I love this too much to just turn my back on it and let the kids fend for themselves, with their hair in the faces and their jeans too tight. I'm holding out hope that they'll grow up a little and realize that no one cares what they look like or whether they met so and so, and that they will find music that strikes them harder than your average screamo band is capable of.

What do you think?