[afterthefact]

I definately agree and see what you mean by this, although when you said "I think its a bad thing that these big corporations rule our music scene. Bands like The Strokes, The Shins, Belle & Sebastian are not as independent as I thought they were," you kind of lost me. First of all, I never really saw them as being independant. "Indie" by MTV's standards for sure, but not independant. And if you do like these bands, or any band thought to be independant but actually on a major record label, what is the big deal? The only way that hurts us as the listener is that with them buying all of the public use time, we don't get to hear the music we like as much. But if you like, say, The Shins, for example, and their record label bought time to play their collection in public, wouldn't you actually LIKE this idea? Wouldn't that mean that you have a better chance of hearing these bands, bands that you like? Don't get me wrong, I'm as quick as the next guy to jump on the "down with the man" bandwagon, but in this case, I can't see why it would really bother you.