Is Music Dying, Dead or Am I Just Out of Touch
This thought came into my head strangely enough while watching the preview for the movie Notorious coming out on DVD Tuesday. I am not saying that Notorious B.I.G’s death served the death blow for the music industry in the same way it was told the deaths of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Bopper’s Death foretold of the death of music. It merely served as the impetus for this post.
I am aware that I am out of touch so maybe the last part of the title is moot, but I began to think of when the last mainstream band, singer or musical act of any kind burst on the scene and excited me in the slightest bit. I honestly cannot remember. Does that say more about me or the recording industry?
These days I pay more attention to sports, movies and television than I do the music industry so it is possible that I am just out of touch. I imagine that there is some good music that is not mainstream that is out there somewhere, but that is not really my point. My point is really that mainstream music is dead.
"I just want to give up to BIG, Burger King, Proactive and most of all myself, whatever my name is, as without me none of this would be possible."
Not too long ago I watched the movie the Wackness, which really reminded me just how big the hip hop movement was in the early 1990’s. The mainstream rock was just as big back then with the Seattle grunge scene.
Now all you here about is American Idol or Disney Tween stars. The next American Idol contestant who impresses me will be the first. Obviously the Disney Tween stars are not targeted to my demographic so I will not get too worked up about them. There were terrible musicians targeted to those demographics before too such as New Kids on the Block or the Backstreet Boys.
There are so many different people or things to blame for the downfall of music that I do not really know where to begin.
Napster and Peer to Peer
Obviously Napster and peer to peer file sharing dealt a huge blow to the profits of record labels, but that shouldn’t mean that there is less quality music available. It would just mean that the record labels do not get obscene profits like they used to get.
MTV
MTV is to blame for many reasons. First they went away from at least attempting to try and play good music videos years ago by targeting the tween market solely with shows like Total Request Live. I remember when they had music countdown shows with diverse lineups. Maybe you would not like every song, but there was a little something for everyone. Sure MTV probably realized that everyone was going to be downloading music online and that they would be able to watch whatever video they wanted on demand. That doesn’t mean they had to go from showing music videos to horrible reality shows like the Hills though. I refuse to believe that there was no middle ground between playing videos all the time or terrible reality shows all the time.
YouTube and the Internet
As previously discussed YouTube and the internet made it possible to listen to or watch whatever you wanted on demand so how could that possibly hurt the music industry? Well since much of what everyone was getting was free there was little incentive for record labels to search for new talent. Sadly new musical sensations like Chocolate Rain while watched by millions never received much compensation for their services. Also when people actually have the ability to choose what to listen to or what to buy they are less likely to listen to or buy whatever garbage is being forced on them. That at least sounds positive.
My hypothesis is that good mainstream music is probably never going to be the same again. Much in the way that good adult movies won’t be, no I did not mean that kind of adult movie, as I was reading recently that the only movies that are guaranteed to make money these days are the Disney Tween movies. Of course there are still plenty of good movies available if you look for them. Netflix is probably full of good movies that you have never seen. Many people also say that there are not any good shows on television, but I actually think there are more than ever. You just have to search a bit as many of them are on cable. What do you think the status of mainstream music is? Is it dying, dead or am I just out of touch?
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