The one constant in arts and entertainment history is that there's no such thing as a constant.

Sometimes it takes a while for things to change, but at least since the Romantic period ended, things have changed more quickly.

Since God invented the Internet in 1996 (the year I used MSN for my research project on physicist Niels Bohr), the arts world has moved at a speed of at least 28 kilobytes per second. Now, we have such expansive music genres as "post-grunge" and "alternative metal" and "hip-hop." It's a wonderful world we live in, and, in all sincerity, anyone who thinks there isn't any good music anymore isn't looking hard enough.

This is just as true in State College, a college town with what should be a bangin' college music scene. In the past year, many new venues have emerged off campus, and on campus the Student Programming Association (SPA) is now running the show.

Coincidentally, a few of these themes overlap in this week's Venues: We've got a feature on how SPA is promoting this history of musical change on campus (page 24), including tonight's Akon and Rihanna concert at the BJC (pages 14-15). And off campus, one of those new venues (The State Theatre) is hosting Alioune, an Afrobeat singer who says Akon is practically his cousin (page 22).

So, just as anyone who longs for the old days of music -- when Grand Funk Railroad was popular and nobody gave a crap about the Velvet Underground -- is a fool, likewise is anyone whining about a lack of it here. At worst, you can go to the BJC tonight and hope Akon doesn't throw you off the stage, as he's done to a fan before.

And even if you don't like the combined musical talents of Akhonna, you can still observe the physical talents of the fella and the bella (ella ella eh eh eh).