I don’t often use Pastepunk as a soapbox for talking about “”how things have changed ‘in the scene’”" because that’s generally not my natural disposition, but this MySpace bulletin from HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS borders on surreal. Maybe it’s not to those of our readers who have grown up with independent music and the internet being intertwined, but for anyone who remembers having to order indie music by mail because there were virtually no other options in obtaining it, the following message is just too weird to comprehend:

“”Tomorrow, our second album, If Only You Were Lonely will be in stores. We are reaching out to you because Hawthorne Heights can use your help. We need you, your friends and anyone else you know that likes ROCK music to buy our album tomorrow. The only reason we are able to be a band is because of your support. Without you we would not be able to do what we do.

You buying our album tomorrow has much greater meaning than simply supporting Hawthorne Heights. ROCK music needs your support. Our society and culture has put rock music on the backburner. If our album can debut at #1 [on Billboard] all of us will have taken ROCK music back to the top of the charts (emphasis added) where it belongs. You might ask, how has ROCK been put on the backburner? A current example is an artist that we are up against called Ne-Yo. Many people are saying that Ne-Yo is going to outsell us because Ne-Yo has had a tremendous amount of over the top, mainstream media coverage. His album will be in stores tomorrow. Radio has played his single 160,000 times. Our single has been played 3,800 times. We know that does not seem possible but it is the truth. Ne-Yo is on a major label. Hawthorne Heights is on an independent label. ROCK music needs to win tomorrow. Independent needs to beat Major tomorrow. If all of you take action we can create history. The mainstream media may not choose to fully embrace this ROCK band from Dayton, Ohio but all of you have.”"

Regardless of how you feel about HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS, the fact that there’s even a discussion going on about a band like them taking the #1 spot on Billboard is quite a coup. Of course, in the grand scheme of thing, it’s a mostly meaningless ordinal ranking where they are fortunate enough to not have to compete against a much more popular, far more established act (I wonder how many months of schedule release planning went into that!), but it’s still a testament to the ever-increasing role independently owned labels are taking in the highly timultuous music industry.