I’m gonna take a minute to get something off my chest. Most of today’s pop music is a total joke. All the songs are the same chord progressions regurgitated with slightly different productions, and are usually accompanied by the same boring lyrical content. It’s just lame.

Whenever I can, I try to turn people onto music that is actually innovative (in my opinion.) If you want to hear real talent, listen to Dream Theater, Rush, or my all time favorite band – TOOL.

I may have a slight bias toward the progressive rock scene, and I get that that’s not everyone’s cup of tea – which is completely fine. That being said, not ALL pop music is bad. Every now and then you stumble onto an artist that has real, raw talent. One of the few newer artists that I have a lot of respect for is Sam Smith.

Sam absolutely sings his face off. He doesn’t necessarily sing my style of music, but holy smokes, you gotta give credit where credit is due, and Sam deserves all the success that he gets. If you happen to be a Sam Smith fan you’ll be thrilled to hear that he’s playing the Xcel Energy Center on August 14th. His performance starts at 8 pm and tickets are on sale now for a cheap as $40 a ticket.

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