Perhaps Lily Allen was right...

"Happy? Smile! Sad? Frown! USE THE CORRESPONDING FACE FOR THE CORRESPONDING EMOTION!!" - Meg Ryan 

Meg Ryan's incredibly poignant words from "French Kiss" inspire me to sit at my little desk, drum my fingers on my little keyboard and type in capital letters. 

This is all in regards to band photos by the way. How is it, that in most (not all, but most) bands have the tendency to not smile in band photos? What is with the incredibly ambiguous, yet somewhat arrogant tendency to not smile?

I mean, even the Mona Lisa smiles a bit - and thats the most famous painting on the face of the earth!!  Imagine if she wasn't smiling? There would be no fantastic secret to her smile! The term 'Mona Lisa smile' would be questioned and life as we know it would be topsy turvy!!!!

The cat in the photo above says it all. Smiling draws our attention to people (or animals). It makes them look inviting. So WHY! Why on earth don't a lot of bands do it in promo's? I mean, seriously, EVERY band does the 'solemn, 'meaningful' expression.' It really isn't unique anymore. It's exactly like the 'myspace photo' - it's lost its appeal!!  

 There must be an explanation - some foreseeable reason to why people continue to do the 'stares off into distance' look... Are the band members forced to hide their emotions so they reserve the rest of it in their songs? Or is it some secret government conspiracy trying to protect band members from developing wrinkles? Someone help me out here!!!

You know what? If I were flipping through a magazine, and I saw a picture of 3 guys smiling in quirky poses versus a group shot of three men walking along a beach with the sun setting in the background with the whole 'bold-and-the-beautiful-stare-off-into-the-distance' look, I'd totally pay more attention to the smiling photo... Because it almost never gets done anymore!

It's like that South Park episode where Cartman orders Token and Butters to pose on the beach side for their new band. This is EXACTLY what I'm talking about!! Have a look!!! Why is it always on some unnamable beach, melancholic expressions, and look at the picture!! A SUNSET IN THE BACKGROUND! 

Perhaps Lily Allen was right. Perhaps we should all just "go ahead and smi-i-ile."

Perhaps we should protest on the streets near record companies, holding up signs that say: ':-)'

So spread the word. Spread the word from band to band, from ocean to ocean - NAY!  From continent to continent!! Spread the notion of the 'smiling band' photo!!!!

TUT ON SON!! TUT ON!!!!!