ABC
Host: Regis Philbin
Co-host: Ashlee "Lip Sync" Simpson
Acts: Big & Rich; Ciara; Earth, Wind & Fire; Fabolous; Kenny G; Billy Idol; Los Lonely Boys and Simple Plan.

NBC
Host: Carson Daly
Acts: Avril Lavigne, Maroon 5, Duran Duran, Donald Trump, "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams

FOX
Host: Ryan Seacrest
Co-host: A bunch of lists
Acts: Hoobastank, Evanescence, Usher

CNN
Host: Anderson Cooper
Acts: Green Day

MTV
Host: Lindsay Lohan
Co-host: A tape of Lindsay Lohan
Acts: Lindsay Lohan will act like she sings

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This is pathetic entertainment for a drunken celebration.

Another fine American tradition shot to hell.

Unless, of course, the acts on the board with gigs have an alternative...

For the most part, I look down the list and wonder; Who are they?

So much for famous, eh?

Carson Daly is my hero. He's so hot and cool and totally ruled on TLR. I love his show and it's so totally better than Leno or Letterman.

Seriously though, green day should not be mentioned in the same breath with the musical atrocities mentioned above. But that's what happens when you sell your soul to the RIAA.

Earth, Wind & Fire a great group and they do sing their own stuff. Way more talented than most of the "entertainers" mentioned above.

Curl up with a good book/woman, turn the tv off.

Since I live in Tempe, I can sit in my back yard, listen to SmashMouth playing by the river and watch fireworks.

No long drive home.

bring back Guy Lombardo reruns. Just cut away to the ball dropping to 2005.

"Seriously though, green day should not be mentioned in the same breath with the musical atrocities mentioned above. But that's what happens when you sell your soul to the RIAA."

True dat.

Anyway, who thought that CNN would get the best act, even though Green Day isn't as good as they were, possibly due to the pollution of other lousy bands.

I just do whatever 'till 11:50 or later, then turn on Dick Clark. It's like cutting the fat out of a steak. Cut out the lousy parts, keep the good stuff.

or just show re-runs of the ball dropping too. nobody would know the difference anyway.

skater, i think they just grew up. They aren't teenagers anymore. Like thestoneface said about earth, wind & fire, they too play their own music. I have no problem complimenting an RIAA-related band on a political site like this one.

"Curl up with a good book/woman, turn the tv off."

I think that is the best idea for New Years I have heard so far.

"I just do whatever 'till 11:50 or later, then turn on Dick Clark."

Good luck.

I plan on going to work. then when I get off from that job, I'm going to my other job. then I'm going home and have my daughter tell me who the hell lindsey lohan is.

Are they showing the ball drop live or is it tape delay in case of ball flashing nudity.

Yep. Coming home late from work, curling up with my girl, probably play some games, then have my mom-in-law call me to the living room for the count down. Have some grape juice, get phone calls from my parents, and call it a night.

Cuz I gotta freakin' open the store the next day. No freakin' fun for me.

Since there isn't a stitch of clothes on the ball, maybe all the networks will get together and decide they can't take the chance of offending FCC and not broadcast the ball coming down...

Well, I guess it'll be me, my collection of digital music & CDs, that giant bottle of Grey Goose vodka & Playstation 2 to ring in the new year, the same way I'm riding out the old one.

Who can blame me?
We survived a torturous 2004 election, in which we were presented with candidates completely unworthy of the office, & probably all voted on the basis of which man made us physically ill the least.

We survived multiple rounds of lawsuits against p2p users by the RIAA & a round from the MPAA.

We survived the vilification of filesharers as "pirates" & crap like that, despite the fact no organization has come up with credible evidence that filesharing somehow deprives musicians & others of money.

We survived a year full of mainstream entertainment (music, movies, & TV) that weren't entertaining in the least. Then surviving the complaining about the "losses" incurred [blamed on filesharing] when we all turned our attention & money to games, computers, DVDs, or other forms of entertainment.

Here's to the hope of a better 2005.

Geez, should I break out singing "Kumbaya"??? ;^)

"Curl up with a good book/woman, turn the tv off."

Better yet, I'll just pop in a videotape and watch Fromage 2004 again.

For those that don't know, Fromage (and MuchMusic has it every year here in Canada) is an hour-long special showing the best of the worst music videos of the year.

The cream of the crap this year? Included Maroon 5 (twice), Lindsay Lohan, Eminem and an annual Fromage contributor, Britney Spears!

If you guys get MuchMusic or MuchUSA, watch this special when it comes on.

I especially dislike the Rockin' New Years Eve every year having some acts perform in Hollywood. It's like they're trying to push across the idea that when it's 2005 in New York, then it's 2005 in Hollywood, even though it's only 9pm in Hollywood. Guess that's why Dick Clark had a stroke. He got tired of himself being usurped by some no account acts pretending the New Year has already arrived.

The only good act on that list seems to be Evanescence.

eaglesniper, how does Fromage boil down all the crap music videos for the year into 1 hour? That alone should take 6 or 7 days. The best videos, 15 minutes, tops...

After rereading the list of hosts, guests, etc., I'd HAVE to be blind drunk to be able to stand to watch ANY of it.

And these folks have the nerve to do "MTV Cribs" then b1tch about filesharing. Makes me want to puke already!

Sure, but the show doesn't play the ENTIRE videos! The host (which is an ornery sock puppet, BTW!) just plays a clip of it and offers some razor-sharp criticisms as to why that video was cheesy.

Oh yeah, the host is even known to drop an S-bom along the way!

That should've said S-bomb...sorry!

New Years, you mean it's October already?

Ok, that was a joke that no one got, now:

Me and my g33k friends are all going to get together and play a little AD&D that day, or maybe the local rental shoppe will be having a horror movie marathon, or maybe we'll throw a LAN party and play some Counterstrike.

People who sit at home all alone to watch balls drop need to pick up some socially unacceptable hobbies and go socialize. Losers.

New Year's is in worse trouble than I thought. Chicago alone has closed 2000 of its 3300 bars in the last few years.

Considering that even a shitty bar will pay a band $500 for New Year's Eve (and the prime gigs cancel out the no-band bars), Chicago has deprived the city's working musicians of a potential $1 million payday.

Meanwhile, you guys are sitting in front of PlayStations and computers.

It is no wonder that there are no good bands coming out. Why bother?

You know there's trouble when CNN looks to have the most entertaining new years

I spend my new years eve quietly at home. after working all week, dealing with teenagers the quiet time is very enjoyable. besides I have no intention to be out on the roads with all the drinking going on. we all have our different enjoyments. I have a great and beautiful wife, wonderful kids, sucessful business. Looser??? I don't think so.

ahh i'm gonna drink my ass off...a pre-emptive drunk for all the BS that's probably gonna happen in 2005, and hopefully if i drink enough, i'll forgot all the BS that happened in 2004. who knows, if i drink enough maybe i'll die, and my family will get the life insurance.

mmnuc3,
I like that, "pre-emptive drunk". Hey if pre-emptive is good enough for our national defense policy, then its good enough for my drinking tendencies!

gdZiemann
Man, I'm sorry. It sounds as if you can't get a gig for NYE to make a few bucks. Even if it weren't NYE, it still isn't my bag to go out to the bars, even if a talented band is playing. Can't stand being in a crowded room for anything...

Actually, I wasn't complaining about my own fortune or lack thereof, since I don't have a band this year.

I was just trying to encourage any bands that do have a gig to self-promote themselves a little, for the sake of those who are young enough to venture out after dark.

I found a really good jazz bar down in LoDo a few years back. One of the best sax players I'd ever heard was there. You could hear the horns from the street if you stopped at the traffic light. Awesome stuff really. there were 15 people in the bar. they closed down. Plenty of kiddie bars with big screens playing assly simpson videos now though. I guess I'm just getting old but I'm kinda glad I hafta work. I don't have to make excuses for not going out.

"No organization has come up with credible evidence that filesharing somehow deprives musicians & others of money."

But the RIAA wants to use any plausible excuse to cover the real reason: Filesharing results in their CONTROL being diminished, and they CAN'T allow that.
Control first, money second.
(I know; some will dispute me for this. Go ahead.
But I say, follow the control & the money, in that order.)

gdZieman hit the nail on the head, you can't be in a band if you want music to be 'shared' rather than being paid for like any other commodity.

Seems to be so much bad karma here that none of you could enjoy new years anyway.

I've got an idea, why don't you guys think of some more reasons for not actually debating anyone from the industry. It seems to keep you going any other time!

"You can't be in a band if you want music to be 'shared' rather than being paid for like any other commodity."

Well, maybe you CAN'T be in a band and share, if you're under contract by a smothering RIAA label that owns your soul, so to speak.
But if you're an indie, getting exposure by filesharing (since Clearchannel's payola system doesn't help indies), at least that way a number of people can find out there's some worthy music available that isn't blessed by a grasping major label. Am I right about that, Shmoo?

BTW, codeworrier2, there are plenty of us who don't shy away from debating anyone from the industry. Welcome aboard; let the games begin.

" gdZieman hit the nail on the head, you can't be in a band if you want music to be 'shared' rather than being paid for like any other commodity."

Did I say that? I hope not because it's butt stupid. I said I don't have a band this year, as I have little desire to continue to take part in waiting for other people to be sober long enough to play a song or two.

Not that it matters because there are another 300,000 bands doing exactly the same thing.

I think a band who can gain popularity by sharing its music is much further ahead than the ones who have to pay to get people (aka Clear Channel) to play their stuff.

I think it's a little arrogant to expect people to pay for something they haven't heard. As a result, I would much rather be heard.

If I wanted to create a commodity, I'd be selling junk jewelry or boxfuls of shiny rocks or lipsynching bimbos.

"Seems to be so much bad karma here..."
This isn't even a physical place. You want to see places that reek of bad karma? Been to Motown? The old MCA offices? Souls were sold.

And we must not forget the words of Todd Rundgren...

"The reason why the RIAA comes off as a gang of ignorant thugs is because, well, how do I put this -- they are."

"I've got an idea, why don't you guys think of some more reasons for not actually debating anyone from the industry."

Why, do you have an actual point to debate?

Actually, we did that last year and got to hear Mitch Glazier spout the same bullshit in person as he says on paper and dodge any direct questions, except for one.

That one was the fact that the RIAA has no jurisdiction over any of the rest of us and cannot punish anyone for downloading this authorized music. We can share as much as we want, as long as we don't let the vultures latch on to the copyrights.

Then it becomes a commodity, like an ashtray.

I didn't really mean you compmore, I was really referring to those folks who's year isn't complete unless they watch Dick Clark drop a ball.

Diogenes -- Indeed. The control is more important to them than the money.

This is easily proven by the fact that they have systematically refused to negotiate in good faith with peer-to-peer, preferring to expend millions of dollars fighting to refuse to accept billions of dollars in revenue.

Five years ago, Napster offered them a nickle a song for every download. Had they struck a short-term deal with a mandatory renegotiation after a specified period, inching up a penny or so at a time, the amount they would have collected would be staggering.

Add to this the billions that have been wasted on development of DRM, none of which has or will ever be anything but an irritant to the actual music fan.

We would have paid a quarter for a compressed copy, but they wanted $2.50 a song. Apple forced the market to 99 cents and they've sold a few there.

We'll pay you 25 cents. It's not worth any more than that. Why? Let us remember what Hilary Rosen taught us:

"If you're using KaZaA today, you're getting, in my view, a crappy quality song -- not what the artist did in the studio, not what they wanted you to hear, not their finest work."

Nice job, George. You've got 'em by their own words.

It's so easy, it's almost comical.

They spent three years trying to convince us that mp3s were crap. Then they added DRM, started expecting us to pay $2.50 (actually, I must be fair, it was only $2.49) for the same "crappy quality song" and call us thieves because we won't buy it.

every so often some troll shows up and claims they want to debate. ok troll, let's see you debate what George has told you. more importantly, let's see you post your name and stand up for what you believe in.


we're waiting..


i'm getting old....



i thought so.


good night, I'm going to bed now

It is the music industry's fault that real bands can't make decent money. They have what is commonly known as a "monopoly" ...a stranglehold on the economics in the business of recorded music. And, I blame them in part for the suffering "live" music scene too.

Thank Goodness for the advent of the Internet and p2p. We indie artists now have a way to get OUR recordings heard too. They fear the competition we bring ..and they damn well should fear us! We independents vastly outnumber their enslaved artists, and our music is NOT hampered/restricted by their "one size fits all/least common denominator" limitations. Thusly, we have vastly BETTER MUSIC and MORE VARIETY! ...and the fans/listeners are starting to LEARN that it is so!

The RIAA will shrivel and die off! (It is OUR job to hurry the process along!)

Shmoo, of Electric Gypsy
Support Local and Independent Music!

Even rap can blame its demise on becoming a commodity.

"There was a time when the music was a movement, and it seemed there was room for everybody. Rap was the ultimate reality show, with lyricists spitting rhymes about their lives, real lives. If you had a story, and you could tell it well, then people wanted to listen. Especially if you were telling your story over some banging beats. You could be an intellectual, along the lines of KRS-One or Public Enemy. You could be political like Sister Souljah. You could be silly, like the Fresh Prince or Slick Rick. But then gangstas replaced the intellectuals, thugs replaced the activists, and the culture became a commodity."

(above from today's Washington Post)

One more line from the same story.

"It's all very well to get paid, but somewhere along the line, the love of the music got lost along the way."

Geez some idiot like codeworrier2 comes and spouts off some shit and runs and says we don't want a debate now thats getting old seems they don't have any real balls, just a mere irritant to get everybodys attention I say if trolls want a debate bring it on otherwise go post on your favorite RIAA site we have no use for spouting idiots who say a bunch of crap then run an hide in the shadows like cockroachs that you are.
Boycott-riaa 2005 here we come ready or not the year of less of the RIAA.