General Music Chat

Most Americans believe that it's not....

http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/02/news/co ... htm?hpt=C2

Most Americans believe that it's not....

Yeah, but most Americans want everything for nothing. A bunch of free loaders that have no idea of the work that goes into a song. And the greed of the big labels helped form that attitude.

On the other hand, I hear people trying to sell crappy stuff they did themselves for far more than it is worth through My Space and a myriad of other sites.

I've noticed that ppl seem to be moving away from album sales & buying only thier favorite songs, & that's yet another reason that sales overall are dropping. Ppl are also missing out on a lot of great music by doing this.

Still, the industry has played a huge part in this trend. how many CD's have only one good song & the rest is either trash or fluff or filler? The industry rep hears one good song from some new budding artist, & backs that act in hopes of making big bucks, only to discover that the artist or band has no other decent material, it's just a one-hit wonder. They go with it anyway, & lose in the end. Meanwhile, the real veteran artists out there, who are still producing quality music, are ignored in favor of the continually new.

How many quality acts have faded into obscurity in the last decade, in spite of thier putting out new music?

The fans still follow thier faves on the web, but there's virtually no coverage on the radio or tv for many of these acts. The entire industry has become way too concentrated on the new, as opposed to quality.

As long as ppl keep putting out trash with one song, this trend will continue. As long as the industry keeps favoring only the newest & most controversial, this trend will continue. As long as ppl are kept from hearing the great, they will continue to be sold rodent droppings & told it's caviar, & in the end, they will buy less & less.

Like any industry its only worth what people will pay. I think the music industry is similar to the movie business. They can absorb many failures to find that one Titanic, Avatar or Taylor Swift. Like it or not. Its just change. Music is evolving and changing almost yearly. Elvis to Beatles to Zep to Bee Gees to Cobain and on. Live to 78s to 45s to 33 to CD to downloads. Radio to record players to boom boxes to CD players while you jog to friggin ipods and satelite radio. It will never end. Next will be an implant.

I've maintained for years that a number of factors have aided the decline in money for musicians. MTV- Redeeming music has become secondary to making a great video. Digital-Free downloads, why pay for music if you don't have to? Raising the legal drinking age and severe DUI penalties- Venues with live music were all over the place in the 60's, 70's and 80's and were PACKED with enthusiastic music lovers. ALthough I'm all for limiting drunk drivers I'm also all for making it easier for young people to have more choices in live music venues. Enthusiastic young people are huge purchasers of music. Higher taxes and more regulations for venues- There's so many taxes and regulatory fees that establishments have to pay it becomes cost prohibitive for some. Karaoke and DJ's- It's much cheaper that hiring a good band.
I don't know what the answer is. The good old days with vinyl was really the way to go. Sometimes advances in technology cause us to go backwards...

It's interesting how different perceptions are regarding MTV-

I was part of that original MTV generation - My perspective was entirely different than yours-

We saw music was staling out, groups like Styx, Boston, Aerosmith, Led Zep, etc.. were staling out, then along comes MTV and they brought with them a new wave of "alternative". Influential bands and artists such as U2, Prince, Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, and the Eurythmics would have never seen real success and radio airplay (eventually) had it not been for MTV.

There was a pretty good space in time where radio completely ignored what was hot among the youth culture and continued playing the same old (zeppelin, etc..) and it wasn't until artists that survived the 70's like Tom Petty, Dire Straits, David Bowie, and Neil Young EMBRACED MTV, that the radio industry finally started moving forward.

Now, things did go down hill.. I kind of blame everyone for it- rap became increasingly popular, creating videos that reeked of sex and violence. Not to say there wasn't plenty of that before, but the "art" seemed to be left out (in my opinion), and videos just became more of a "thug" mentality. Pop stars like Brittany and Christina became all about visual representation and nothing about music, but we had that back in the 70's with the jackson 5, bee gees, blondie, etc.. so was it really anything new? Even the beatles had the image.

The concept of videos became stale as well, instead of a visual representation of what the song was about (I still think of 'song remains the same' kind of story lines), everyone became obsessed with making a flashy overdone piece of sh1t, so it became stale and overdone. Now, nothing is new or inventive.

Now this is all opinion based on perspective, as I was a teen of the 80's, but I'd like to think that I had my finger on what was hot back then. As far as MTV ruining music, I just don't see it.

At that time, they influenced what I might consider the greatest surge in music advancement I've seen in my lifetime. the grunge movement in the early 90's is a distant second, maybe.

The bottom line is the government COULD wipe out illegal downloads, they just won't because somehow the copyright holders are making their money...granted they're signed to a major label.

The rest of the bands out there...well at least they're getting free exposure but otherwise, music downloading has hurt the rest of us that can't be bought into the business or afford to relocate to a major city, build a reputation and be taken into a major record company's "family".

MTV ultimately ruined the opportunity for most of us to make a living in rock and metal based music back in the 90's when they mainstreamed rappers and eliminated 90% of rock and metal bands while showcasing turds like Limp Biscuit and Godsmack.

I feel the government should wipe out the servers in such a way that it means mandatory confiscation of the owners server equipment, major fines and maybe even a penalty that blocks them from doing business in computer services.
They don't need to go after the individuals, they need to go after the middle men.

Then once that's taken care of, the option to simply buy single songs should be mainstreamed. Even the few surviving CD store chains should offer this service. I remember as a kid buying an album for 1 or 2 songs and finding out the rest was pure sh*t. I think to this day, many bands do it on purpose and often enough, their radio hits are the work of a producer more or less writing or rewriting their songs which is why the rest are duds.

It's like cable television.
We're paying for probably 50 channels we don't watch.
Well I sure as hell don't want them. Remove them from the bandwidth and only charge me for the dozen or so I do watch rather than force a product on me I don't want, need or even use yet still get charged for.