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Topic: The Way the Music Died |
Tony Palmer
From:
St Augustine,FL
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Posted 28 May 2004 6:28 am |
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Name of a Frontline TV show on PBS last night http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/perfect/
This finally put a slant on why we're left with such a schlocky assortment of music, and especially country music, today.
It goes like this:
The advent of the CD gave the music recording business a huge boost...people were buying CD's of vinyl records they already owned, re-issues were coming out every day and business was booming.
Financial investors got wind of this and bought up the recording companies, but put new management whose only interest was keep milking the cash cow.
Enter MTV and throw in "looks" as an important ingredient in a performer's success.
Simultaneously, laws changed that allowed media companies to become giants (translate: monopolies) and you have Clear Channel Communications, who owns hundreds of radio stations...dictation what gets played on the radio.
Lastly enter WalMart, BestBuy and Target and a huge market is created that only wants to sell "hits", no small stuff.
Once you have recording companies owned by accountants, new artists driven by looks instead of talent, loss of independent radio stations and mega giant sales outlets that only sell what "sells".....is it any wonder Ray Price can't get on TV to receive a music award?
And all this becuase the CD was invented! |
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Rich Weiss
From:
Woodland Hills, CA, USA
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Posted 28 May 2004 10:35 am
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Yeah, that was an informative show.
I have a recorded interview with Frank Zappa from 20 years ago, in which he saw this all coming; the music biz being run by the beancounters. |
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Alvin Blaine
From:
Picture Rocks, Arizona, USA
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Posted 28 May 2004 11:09 am
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| How about that David Crosby? I think he had some of the best quotes. |
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Ron Sodos
From:
San Antonio, Texas USA
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Posted 28 May 2004 12:42 pm
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Don't let all the garbage on the radio and tv keep us from playing good ol sweet steel. Country music came from the heart and soul of back porches anyway, didn't it? All we gotta do is keep playing that way and ignore the commercialism. I only listen to ol George Jones CD's and some of the guys who advertise here like Robbie Turner and Jim Cohen and of course "the Hag" and Big E anyway. The radio lost me years ago.......  [This message was edited by Ron Sodos on 28 May 2004 at 01:43 PM.] |
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Alvin Blaine
From:
Picture Rocks, Arizona, USA
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Posted 28 May 2004 1:50 pm
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To me the most shocking statistic on the show was the one about how many records made get airplay or how many make it on the shelf at Wall-Mart.
They said there was 32,000 albums made last year. Of those albums Wall-Mart only caries about 700 and the dictate album content to the industry.
Now of those 32,000 albums Clear Channel will add around four songs a week to its nation wide dictated play list.
If those 32,000 albums have an average of ten songs each that's 320,000 songs and only 200 are going to get airplay for the year? That's not even a half of a percent of all the songs recorded last year. Some people only listen to music on the radio so they aren't even hearing 0.5% of the new music being recorded. |
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Ron Randall
From:
Dallas, Texas, USA
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Posted 28 May 2004 8:22 pm
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| Listen to XM radio. YOU dictate what you want to hear. no commercials, 100+ channels. I no longer buy CD's like I did. Check it out. |
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Mike Selecky
From:
BrookPark, Ohio
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Posted 29 May 2004 7:26 am
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| I don't listen to commercial radio stations anymore - and not ready to shell out subscribtion fees for the satellite radio quite yet. In my area, and probably most major metropolitan areas, there are college stations with rotating formats that will actually play non-mainstream music in a variety of genres. Also, all of my CD purchases for the past several years have been online - usually any music I am interested is just not available at even dedicated CD music outlets, definitely not at Walmart or any of the big chains. |
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Dave Boothroyd
From:
Staffordshire Moorlands
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Posted 29 May 2004 9:38 am
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Ever considered re-emigration guys?
I was reading in Music week yesterday (the Music Trade paper) about how a girl called Katie Melua made it to quadruple platinum CD sales without the involvement of any of the major labels. Eva Cassidy and Norah Jones came to light the same way.
How did it happen?
Well, we have the BBC, (long may it thrive!) and especially Radio 2, a nationwide channel for grown-ups, with a bigger audience than any of the pop stations.
CD sales in the UK increased in 2003.
Could there be a connection?
Have a listen to www.bbc.co.uk/radio2
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Cheers!
Dave
[This message was edited by Dave Boothroyd on 29 May 2004 at 10:39 AM.] [This message was edited by Dave Boothroyd on 29 May 2004 at 10:41 AM.] |
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Tony Palmer
From:
St Augustine,FL
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Posted 29 May 2004 11:28 am
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The whole time I was watching this show, I was thinking, how can a new band, say with original country songs and sound, make it today...if they're not MTV or CMT video-type material (translate: young and photogenic)
Is it even possible?
David, I haven't heard of Katie Melua but she's probably good looking!?
I don't think Eva Cassidy received any measure of fame until after she died, and Nora Jones definitely had some musical connections, what with her father and connection to the Beatles.
Can talent sell music anymore?
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 29 May 2004 7:24 pm
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Nora made it on talent. Her father had nothing to do with her success ( and close to nothing to do with her). She avoided Clearchannel for as long as possible.
You guys in the UK better watch out. Last month I was over there and saw how Clearchannel is starting its take over. They have decimated/strip mined what they can in the U.S. and now need to expand markets to prop up phoney stock prices (ala Enron).
As most people that have to deal with them or work for them say "Clearchannel is the Devil".
Bob |
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