2008/09/16
I haven't listened to any music for about two weeks, but I have been listening to, and reading a lot about the culture of the music business. I am somewhere around the bottom rung of the music business. I am a consumer. I also used to run an independent record label that managed thirteen artists. The bands were mostly death metal acts, but there were three industrial groups on the roster as well. The Label was also more of a co-op than a traditional label. We had distribution rights for the music we released, but we did not actually own the songwriting credits. Though I'm not sure that more than two of our groups were smart enough to register with ASCAP either, but that's neither here nor there since the publishing wasn't really our concern. Get an entertainment lawyer to explain it to you; I don't have the time, motivation, or expertise to do so myself.
Suffice it to say I know a little bit about the industry. I've made some money selling other people's work, and I do not feel bad for doing so. I am also a strident supporter of independent music, and also a massive downloader of "illegal" files. The funny thing is that the amount I download has very little effect on the amount of music I purchase on CD or Vinyl, but a huge effect on the specific artists and albums I buy. I am also not a fair weather music fan. If a group I like records a shit album I am still likely to buy it even though I don't like it, because I hope that the next thing they record will be better, and I want to give them a chance to do that. I should probably go to more shows than I do, but I live in a place where very few bands that I like will ever tour. I can go to Chicago or Indianapolis for shows, but it is a task to do either.
I do not think that I am in a particularly odd situation, being a person that buys music, goes to very few shows, and downloads a ton of music. I do think I am somewhat unique in my auditory consumption, however. At least in today's culture I am somewhat of an anomaly. When I listen to music I don't listen to a smattering of songs here and there from some artist or other, whatever, in the shuffling capacity that seems to have become the norm for average music consumers. I listen to albums. I have a very short attention span, so I have trouble buying this shit that attention spans are too short, and demand is only for one or two tracks, and no one cares about the whole anymore. Fans care about well constructed albums, and collective ideas. Those people downloading the "radio single" from iTunes are fair-weather, and don't place any real value on the music they are listening to. If those are the type of fans that a musician is going to have, I would say good riddance. But I keep hearing stories from musicians about how every kid in the crowd is singing the words to every song. So someone is listening the right way. Even the kids that aren't going out and buying the record are looking to their favorite band, and paying attention to everything they release.
I am being a bit convoluted, but that is my style. I keep hearing from artists, and I have heard this consistently since the day Kurt Cobain was murdered, that "Music is Dead", or that "the industry is dying." The latter might be partially true, but I think it is just altering. The former is something I think has been said about music since time immemorial. Because the next thing that comes along is either completely different, or exactly the same as something that happened however many years ago. Surely when change occurs in "the scene" it is on its deathbed. This is utter bullshit. There is no more or less good music being produced today than ever before, and the music of the past was no better or worse than what is being produced today. Tastes will absolutely vary, but the truth is that 90% of everything is crap. When consumers come realize that simple fact things start to align in ways that they never before thought possible. The impetus is on the purveyor of the arts to weed the good out from the bad.
A large part of the problem with modern youth is that they expect everything now. I think that as a result of the late 90s technology boom and instant access to good information the new generation expects good material right now for free. I am guilty of this to an extent, but I tent to let gatekeepers make a few decisions for me. I read a lot of interviews, and reviews, and blogs, and news sites. Then I download a lot of albums, but I get on board with some things pretty late in the game. I have this indie streak that makes me believe the bullshit lie that "nothing is any good if someone else likes it." I'll be honest, this is actually a decent metric by which to pick and choose what to listen to, it works a lot, but there are some exceptions to the rule. A few years ago I kept hearing about Interpol in the music press. They were touted as the saviors of indie rock, which wasn't really a big deal back when they were first releasing EPs, but has since become BIG business. So it wasn't until they were in the studio recording Antics that I finally bought Turn on the Bright Lights. In that instance I should have gotten on board earlier, as Interpol are now one of my favorite bands. Last year the new big thing was Vampire Weekend, and I didn't listen to their album until this summer, and well that I didn't because it isn't very fucking good. Yet again, taste is subjective, but how would I have known what to look for without someone "in the know" to tip me off to it.
I read an article, or a blog post, or an essay, or whatever by the lead singer of Hawthorne Heights today, and he espoused his distaste for the current culture surrounding music. I agreed with him on a lot of points, but I think he missed the mark in a few places. For one thing he didn't seem to express himself in a particularly cogent manner. Which doesn't surprise me because he's a Jesus freak from central Ohio, but I also think he wanted to make the world change its behavior. Which is something that is not going to happen. Listen, I think that licensing songs to Rock Band, and video games, and ring tones is hurting the industry too, but it isn't going to stop, at least not today. The simple fact of the matter is that these bands (and their labels) are fighting for every little scrap of exposure they can get in a rapidly decreasing market. Radio plays R&B/Hip-Hop and Top-40 (which equates to least common denominator pop in most cases). Radio no longer plays new music, or rock, or metal, or alternative, or jazz, or whatever else. This is a shame, radio was the primary outlet for new music in the past and it has become a dead end in my lifetime. I remember back in high school I could turn on the local "alternative" music station, and occasionally hear something new and very cool, but they mostly had a pre-gen playlist that was the same for a week or more.
There is no quick fix for the current woes of the music industry. No I will not deny that there are woes. Sales have been down dramatically for the past eight years running and Shawn Fanning and Napster are largely to blame for this current trend, but I do believe that it is just that, a trend. I also think that digital distribution is going to usher in a new golden age for music. The cream will always rise to the top, and the dead yeast is always going to filter to the bottom of the barrel. It is unlikely that bands will be selling ten or twenty million copies of their record, but I do think that people are willing to pay for something they like once a real value is ascribed to it. At this moment in history a lot of music is valueless, but I think that this trend will turn around in the next few years when your favorite band breaks up to go work at Baskin Robins to pay their fucking bills. When that happens a few hundred times and the culture starts to unconsciously understand what is happening the culture will start to course correct. Fare well to your favorite band that got crushed in the rise of the machines, but someone will be there to take their place. Then one of these days we will understand what it means to value art again.
By the way, I listened to Until There's Nothing Left of Us by Kill Hannah, in its entirety while writing this post.
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