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By After three weeks of the 21st (well, sort of) century, I am filled with bitter disappointment that t

Think about it. The pop music world of today is divided into two camps: fluffy, bubbly teen pop (e.g., Britney Spears, 'N Sync and Christina Aguilera) and hard, testosterone-driven rap-rock (e.g., Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock and Korn). Mainstream hip-hop and RandB have so many carbon-copy artists that it's unbelievable.

Music just hasn't been all that interesting lately. A lot of songs seem to be blatant rip-offs of other people's work, whether it's Orgy's uninventive cover of "Blue Monday" or the painfully atrocious "Sweet Home California" by Zen Mafia. Hasn't anyone noticed that Puff Daddy's entire career is really just a kareoke act?

All this points to a good reason for the end of the world, or at least a little semi-apocalyptic chaos to shake things up a bit.

The early '90s music was a direct reaction to the lameness of the late '80s, but now we're back, full circle. Britney Spears is to Paula Abdul as Limp Bizkit is to Whitesnake. Dance music and hard rock may have been annihilated by Nirvana and the coming of "alternative" (possibly the worst music industry term since "adult contemporary"), but now that all seems pointless.

So I guess I'm waiting for the next Nirvana or even just another Weezer album. I'm sick of Carson. I'm sick of TRL. I'm sick of the fact that every popular mainstream music act is the creation of a music label weasel. No one makes it from the garage to the limelight anymore. For all this, we are in need of a musical apocalypse. If we don't get one, maybe we should just stop listening altogether.

Jim Duncan heard "Bawitdaba" way too many times in the last week. Can't you tell?