This article was published in Teenstoday (February, 2000). Might have been pretty immature, I was 15 then. It was also the first cheque i earnt (500 rupees!). The link still exists.

Check: http://www.india-today.com/ttoday/022000/express.html

What was published……

This month’s expressionist, self-proclaimed rock fan, rock fanatic, rock worshipper (and expletive expert?) Vineet believes there’s no compromise between rock and a soft place…

Enough is enough! What is happening to all the teens in India andin other lands. Why is everyone going gaga over stupid boybands and their stupid love songs. Not to mention the ‘Lollies’ and the ‘Mickies’. I haven’t seen many who are not crazy about them! Is this what music has come to? Backstreet Boys, Boyzone and all these other suckers are getting undue limelight and fan following. Have we forgotten the living legends like Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, U2, Metallica, Eagles and Eric Clapton.

Ask anyone about his/her favourite song and probably 999 out of 1000 would name a boyband song like, “Everybody” (by Backstreet Boys). He/she then croaks out, “Everybody, rock your body…” Is this the best these a******* can do? Compare those lyrics with these lines from a Dire Straits song “Brothers In Arms”:”Through these fields of destruction, Baptism of fire I’ve witnessed your suffering As the battle raged higher…”

Now, that’s what I call lyrics! Another one of those suckers-Ricky Martin
(Eeew, I hate to even write his name!)-what does he have that the whole damn world is going ga-ga over him? He sings a stupid song with blonde bimbos and you call it music! Gimme a break! It is nothing but bullshit, Ricky can kiss my a**! In the recently held Mr World competition, two stupid models said that Ricky should be the man of the millennium! Why? What has he done? Nothing! It is worthy of mention that Eric Clapton auctioned 150 of his guitars and gave the money collected to charity. He is a role model, a hero, a god…

Ask yourself, ‘Will I remember these suckers when I grow older? Will I listen to them five to ten years later?’
The answer is NO!

Trust me, these jokers won’t last for another five years (and then we will have more shit!). Let us take Jennifer Paige, for instance. I bet everyone must have hummed the song “Crush”. Listened to her second album? Blech! No wonder no one asks about her anymore! She was just another one-song wonder…

Not only that, these idiots do not make a damn contribution to their songs. Some idiots write some stupid lyrics, some a****** composes the song and they sing it. You call them artistes? Anyone can do that! Give me a song, give me lyrics. I’ll sing it. Who bothers about voice anyways?!
As far as India is concerned, the only rock bands/singers known (i.e. heard off) in India are probably Bryan Adams, Bruce Springsteen and so on. Okay, they are good, but rock music goes beyond that.

These a******* are making bloody fools out of a rock-starved nation. We are intelligent and mature music listeners. Let us show them what we are made of. We don’t want no Britney, Aqua, Toybox and Company.

We want good music, music that ruled the 60s, 70s and 80s.
Music that rocks. ROCK MUSIC.

“Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles…I don’t give a damn about any trumpet playing band It ain’t what I call rock and roll.” -Dire Straits

Feedback for the article was anything ranging from disgust to anger. Well I really never expected anything more too! Though i no longer have the hard copy of the issue i will never forget the time when everyone in my school, was giving me long stony looks. LOL!