Music Industry and the Mindless Artists It Produces
I hope you don’t mind but I am going to get on my high horse now and have a disgruntled rant at the music industry. We have recently been writing about a few reunions of some old school, classic rock acts. It’s no wonder these old bands are doing so well at the moment. It has been my opinion for a long time that the music that is coming out today is a pile of ****. Please feel free to fill in the blanks. There seems to be no distinction between the artists that are hitting the market like there were way back when. It would appear that the money makers in the industry are dictating what we can and can’t listen to. They see a type of music that consumers like and then churn out another 20 or so bands that all sound exactly alike. And it doesn’t stop there. Their competitors have their own sound-alike artists so our music shop shelves are full of the same drivel day in day out.
Can you name a new band who will ever be a legend like these?
Gone are the days when a new artist hit the radio stations and did extremely well for being different. Also gone are the days when a new band could get their cd to a record company and make it big. The rule of thumb now is, do you sound like anyone else? If the answer is no, you don’t have a chance in hell.
So while we are listening to the same sames everyday ojn the radio while the big cats get rich off their musical ignorance and indifference, there are actually talented bands and musicians out there who could give us all a refreshing change but who will never get that big break they so thoroughly deserve.
My recommendation? Get recording. Lay those tracks down on a cd, send them off for CD replication, sell them yourself at gigs and get your music heard. Put your tracks up on social networking sites such as myspace, bebo and facebook. There are also hundreds of tv talent and radio talent shows out there that are really supporting the new music coming through where you can actually be an individual. Local radio stations are good at raising awareness in a small area. If you are lucky enough to have interest from a record company, before signing ANYTHING, sign up with a music lawyer who will get you the best deal. Make sure you look into the contract and find out how much of you they own. Do you have to wear what they say, sing what they say and do all the songs you write become part of their empire or do you keep the copyright?
The biggest thing to remember is, don’t become a sell out and do what they tell you to do. Don’t become one of the mindless bands and artists that just follow the money makers and have a limited amount of time in our charts before we all get bored and move onto the new craze.
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Good points. But that’s the great thing about the way music is distributed these days. You no longer have to look to the radio or MTV to discover new music. With MySpace and other internet sites, you can access all kinds of new music that you never would have heard otherwise.
I work at a CD replication place and hear a lot of great music on both the local (Minneapolis, MN) and national scene. And the young people putting it out there are very savy with promoting it through social networking websites. I have a friend who grew up with me in rural North Dakota. There isn’t much for radio play up there (classic rock, oldies, country, and top 40), but they grew their fanbase through MySpace and are constantly touring throughout the country on top of playing many shows in Fargo and the rest of the region. Their music would never get radio play up there.
It will be very rare to see any new band reach “legendary” status on a wide scale like the ones mentioned above, but there’s still really great stuff out there. You just have to use a different medium.
Comment by Christopher B — December 4, 2008 @ 11:02 pm
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Thanks Christopher. Thank you for your feedback on this. The reason I wrote the article is becasue of a few local bands I know who are extremely talented, one in particular who was screwed over by a management company and they had no protection from it. I’m sure your advice will be a big help to those struggling artists out there.
It is sad that we are not seeing the artists come through nowdays that will reach the status of those great bands from yesteryear. Maybe its just too diluted now. In the meantime, there are some good bands out there and I’m happy that live music has made a huge comeback over the last decade.
Comment by Jessie — December 5, 2008 @ 11:22 am
[...] 2, 2009 · No Comments As we kick off 2009, I thought I’d share a post I read from UK music blog. The author vents some frustrations about big record labels, commercial radio, and the monotonous [...]
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