It’s an understatement to say that the top 40 today is insulting. This doesn’t mean that every person needs to be listening to metal. It doesn’t mean that there needs to be a new metal album in the top ten every month. What it does mean is that music should be more interesting than a piece of chalk.
This issue isn’t limited to just must either. The film industry is just churning out crap at the expense of the American dollar, but for now i’ll just stick with music.
There seems to be a steady decline in music that started somewhere around 1995 roughly. We’ve replaced Motley Crue with Justin Bieber and Public Enemy with L’il Wayne. Kanye West is out saying he’s the greatest living rock star of all time. YOU DON’T PLAY ROCK N ROLL YOU MORON!!
There was this magical time once, long ago, when one needed talent to actually get a record contract. Record companies would find talented people and then develop them over the course of a few albums. This is what creates the longevity of groups like Aerosmith and Kiss. Some even went into debt to get bands off of their feet. Now record companies will do whatever they can to get a slice of money from the band. Every little thing the band does, the record company gets a chunk.
Now, this is where it can get a little complicated. A main reason record companies bleed bands dry instead of vice versa is due to the free music phenomenon. Groups also don’t work as hard as they used to in general because it’s so easy to expose yourself for really doing nothing. It’s a grey area. On one hand I want to quote Biohazard with their song “Business.”
“Music’s for you and me, not the fuckin’ industry.”
Well, there’s a lot to that. Music should be for anyone who wants to enjoy it. But we’ve seen the consequences of all this free music. There are no simple answers.
Right now bands are looking at concert ticket sales to make their money which is why it’s over 200$ to see the Scorpions this fall. How many people are going to download their new album for free vs people who buy it? Probably a lot more on the download end.
On the other hand, there’s probably a lot of people out there who want to listen to the new album, but they literally don’t have $11 to spare on a new CD or download. Those people should be exposed to the excellence, but a band shouldn’t be expected to just be able to work on being amazing for nothing.
Sure, some of the rock stars have unnecessarily lavish lifestyles and in the rap world money clearly hasn’t resulted in quality at the end of the day. Maybe capitalism swings back and forth. We reach a certain extreme culturally and then start moving in the other way. Once that direction gets out of hand we start swinging the other way.
I do believe there will a quality music renaissance in the years to come. Hard work is starting to be appreciated again and it’s shown with some older bands having beyond anticipated reunion success. Maybe we’re all just caught up in this ride that swings from one end to another and right now it’s on a crap swing.
This is quite an introspective look at the industry – very insightful. When does the pendulum swing back – any predictions?