Reader Michael Gross chimes in on my post about the tragic death of Chris Cornell with comments on the music industry that are so incisive, they merit his own guest post:
Music started to worsen in the 90s as the music industry sabotaged itself (so to speak) as sales declined and it was blamed on “taping.” Bono correctly called out the real reason: crap music. Grunge was a fad, but it did succeed in blowing pretentiousness out of the water… until the champions of grunge also became pretentious.
It’s a strange thing when someone like Tom Petty, in “The Last DJ,” nails the situation that mass marketing has caused to music. You have ageist radio and marketing people blocking good music from older acts (why hasn’t Pet Shop Boys’ fantastic album, “Super,” been played all over the place since its release 13 months ago?) in the name of shielding inferior acts from competition on the airwaves. Lame.
RIP, Chris Cornell. I put together a Google Play playlist today in your honor. I’m finding it weird how many albums you and Scott Weiland guested on — separate but together, just like your grunge days’ classification and radio play.
Here is Michael’s playlist in honor of Chris Cornell. If you’re in the mood for several hours of good music, free; consider checking it out.
On the topic at hand, I’m with Bono. Although in light of U2’s work over the last decade, his remark does come close to the pot calling the kettle black.
Michael adds:
I think the record companies are reticent to put money into A&R and/or scouting the way that they did before. How else to explain YouTube folks getting record deals instead of garage or club artists? It’s about saving money on the front end as they’re losing money to the digital age. It’s been recouped by convincing younger listeners that digital music is better than LPs, CDs, or cassettes, but that’s my theory. Of course, ratings bonanzas like The Voice and American Idol help them find talent while raking in advertisement money from TV.
My good alternatives are found on indie labels, although most are older bands. The 77s, The Choir, The Lost Dogs, Michael Roe, Kerosene Halo, The Swirling Eddies, Daniel Amos, Terry Scott Taylor, and Steve Taylor are all intertwined and most of the bands have common members, but are my go-to “not mainstream” bands. Problem is, they’re too religious (Christian) for the mainstream and not safe enough for the Christian labels because they dare ask questions rather than just write platitudes as lyrics. So, most of them release new records via crowdfunding now.
The pioneers of this era in music are virtually DOA — or maybe we have lost creativity because artists are too busy “trying to say something.”
Message fic rears its ugly head again; this time in the record industry.
Only four rock/pop acts have managed to reach the pinnacle of popularity and stay there: Michael Jackson, Madonna, Metallica, and U2. These are the last megastars. All of them rose to prominence in the 80s. One is now dead. The self-sabotaging structure of the record industry ensures that no one is coming up to replace them.
Incidentally, if you’re interested in science fiction that puts fun before message, it just so happens that I’ve written a few books in that vein.