The music 'industry' (vulgar word) from the mid-90's onwards, since the popularisation and homogenisation of 'alternative' music (see Geffen, Creation - what a waste, Rough Trade - what on earth happened, Pure Groove - uggggh, and countless others) has become saturated with pseudo-revolutionaries...small-time entrepreneurs promising innovation but merely delivering more of the same...
"Oh but that's what it sells and we have to move with the market or we won't be noticed! We'll bring innovative, inspiring acts into the fold when the time is right, when we have the necessary financial platform in which to do so"
...Which'll be never, then. Dream on darlings. The 'biz' no longer operates that way. The suited and booted now know exactly what sells, and by god they simply won't deviate from that. The reason we had so much originality and reinvention in the late 60's to early 90's is because they were a) constantly having to second-guess upcoming trends, b) were ruled by, for the most part, idealistic eccentrics, and c) predominantly still using analogue recording equipment, and therefore couldn't yet polish all tracks to the max and far far beyond. Let it be known now that I am not a technophobe by any means, especially not in musical terms - I listen to a plethora of electronic music. But when this technology lands in the laps of such amoral opportunists, it's simply dangerous.
But that's all digression. Why does music now have to be all about business? Why do the small-time operators feel compelled to bother throwing their hat into the same arena as these bigwig shitclowns? Why do they think that they need to turn the acts they apparently cherish into, well, products?? Why do I receive what is essentially spam in relation to a few acts who I used to actually have respect for...until they let their names become synonymous with this filthy practice? In terms of bedroom etiquette, it's much the same as declaring repeatedly what a great shag you are before any manner of seduction routine has even been initiated. Too beaucoup.
Let the discerning be discerning. Mass communication doesn't seem to have been the door-opener we idealists hoped for - rather it has merely let those with the power and the clout reach us through countless more avenues....BUY, BUY, BUY. NO, NO, NOOOOOOOO..........
......................................YOU DON'T LOVE ME AND I KNOW NOW.
(That's me reaching the end of my tether with identical MySpace bulletins about Billy Bob Goatface playing in some vaguely reputable joint and about how it will be the GREATEST THING EVER BUT WE DON'T KNOW WHY!!!)
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
I love everyone, but I don't love music-related spam
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1 comment:
Love you loads Ging but Music is business, sad fact but it is. Every person who forms a band does it with the intention of living from their musical earnings, which is a form of business.
Not all record company executives are faceless people looking to milk the next cash cow – majority – not all, actually do love music. If all music was amazing and genre-defying then we’d inevitably complain don’t you agree?
Everyone is inspired by everyone. It does get annoying though when a particular musical movement is milked to the bones but that’s just the way it is and how it always will be.
Don’t worry, in another couple of years, there’s going to be an amazing musical movement which will again blow us out of the water…Don’t be so cynical, the industry needs people like you to be optimistic. And the reason that music people look at the music industry as a form of business is because so many people are acquring music illegally and they have to churn out mind-numbing music inorder to stay in business - we didn't have this kind of problem years ago x
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