david bowie?
you have to let go of the "convenience" of the olden days recording industry.
we used to have some good, conveniently available (on tv, radio, easy to find) music that made it through. you know - visionary artists that made it into the mainstream via a major record company.
now, i respect david bowie as an artist, but it's just not how it is done any more. most of the "artists" we see nowadays are pretty face/tits/arse etc and dance moves, moulded into a pliable, agreeable (the the industry) marketable image.
if you think individual, free-thinking, risk-taking artists are still signed by major record companies - i'm sorry but you're mistaken.
pre-fab boy bands? sure. auto-tune porn starlet dancer girls? well, alright. i-can't-believe-they're-not-gangstas? hmm, ok.
now the record companies are dead, we are left with all this safe, unimaginative boring shit. we all seem to agree on this, right?
you read practically any youtube comments section (i sometimes forget myself and do this) of an old song, and there's all this moaning "music sucks now!" "nobody has any talent any more" - it
appears that way, but it's all an illusion of the media and the dead industry.
it's like a beautiful lake that has been poisoned by an invisible contaminant. the light still shimmers on the lake with all its natural beauty, it still looks the part - but you can sit there with your fishing rod all week and you're not going to catch one fish.
major labels? recording industry?
dead.
not going to promote anything good ever again - just forget it. turn off mtv, forget about the radio. it's all been corrupted, it's decomposing. you can hear it
the days of good, tasty, yet convenient music are - in the current climate/industry/technology - over.
now it's all fast food music.
makes you fat, gives you heart disease, colon cancer (of the mind and soul).
there are countless amazing artists recording and performing now. new artists - fresh artists. shit you (and i) would love.
there are more artists recording albums now than ever before. this is great - but it's the other reason it's
hard to find the
good shit.
with the internet, the ease of recording, the low cost of self-releasing or independently releasing/pressing/distributing music means that we are FLOODED with music.
most of it shit - but still HEAPS of it is good.
it's not like the 90s, the 80s, the 70s or earlier - all you had to wade through then was what was released by record labels.
sure - there were indie labels, that released rarer stuff that was harder to find, that they had their own audiences and signed bands they were interested in. if you found a band signed to one of those labels, you might also have found you liked their obscure label-mate bands too. but even with this, you still might only have dozens, maybe hundreds of records to choose from at any given time. it was possible for even a half-hearted music fan to work their way through a lot of this, sorting the good stuff from that which they didn't like.
now, on the other hand, every man and his dog can put out a cd or fork out to have his home recordings pressed onto vinyl. it was once the domain of the upper echelon of musicians - professionals, and even after that broke down a bit, it was still a very expensive undertaking to record, press, release and promote an album or a single.
you no longer need to convince A&R guys to sign your band, and they no longer need to convince their bosses that your band is a worthwhile risk, a worthwhile investment - you don't need to convince
anyone of
anything in order to release music these days - it's really not that hard to do it yourself.
the whole idea of a recording artist, recording company has melted into the cultural media information morass - to the point that it has been consumed by it.
so here's the big secret - if you want to find the good music, you're going to have to go looking for it!
i know that we used to be spoiled, it was everywhere - it was brought to us by the good people at [insert classic old major record company here]. sure, the company wasted money with decadent spending, payola campaigns to buy hits and chart spots, drugs, strippers, parties etc etc etc - but it also employed people and put food on their families' dinner tables.
when the industry died, most of the record industry people lost their jobs so they were no longer there to do the work involved in finding good artists and help them release great music.
so the point is - that is now everybody's job!
bill from capitol records, or sam from columbia aren't talent scouting any more -
you are! and
so am i!
when you find something good, find out who that band are. get one of their albums - maybe get some of their older ones too.
if you can see them live - go do it.
if you can't - maybe you can find out what other bands they play with, and track down their music too (psssst - a hint! it doesn't cost anything to stream music over the internet, and free mp3s aren't so rare either).
look for articles, see who these bands talk about. who is inspiring them at the moment, who are they impressed by and talking up?
you don't need to buy the music magazine - you can use google, it's free!
there are heaps of free online music zines as well - whatever your particular taste in music, it is surely catered for somewhere online.
if you're not finding any good music online, go see a local band in your town. if you don't have local bands in your town, make a point of it next time you're in a big city.
there is
so much music around these days - people have no excuse in pretending it doesn't exist. it's everywhere. lots of it is good. there's plenty of shit too - but people seem to like to forget that there always was heaps of shitty music.
it's time for music listeners to get with the times, get off their arses and go and find the stuff they like.
if people want to be nostalgic about "the good old days" of music, where it was so easy to find good stuff on the radio - that's fine. but it doesn't mean that the only good shit was in the past, or that the next exciting thing in music will be done the same way as "classic" rock stars.
now, bowie made it big - even though he was weird and subversive. he went through numerous style and sound changes, led the way for many years in the vanguard of popular music.
but he still had an aggressive manager and a record company behind him. he still had the old fashioned elvis presley/colonel tom parke thing.
because the product people used to sell (records) is now a practically worthless (think hyperinflation in germany between the world wars) commodity, artists don't have the economic foundation that existed from the 50s through to the 90s.
the music industry was big bucks. it attracted businessmen, investors - there to make their millions.
these days? the record industry is the last place they'd be.
the cigar chomping, suit wearing band managers are few and far between - it ain't where the money is. those guys went back to pimping and selling coke or working in finance or some shit.
"You're not just selling an idea or music, you're selling a whole package"
- how do you do this in the current climate? what are you selling?
records? t-shirts? concert tickets? (only the second two options are profitable any more)
it's up to all of us to stop torturing ourselves listening to the record industry's dying, auto-tuned breath and just reject that shit. seek out the good stuff (however you please - music is everywhere) and spread it far and wide. if you want to hear good music, it's totally up to you - it's up to all of us.
and if you
like it -
buy something off them. most bands are selling something, be it merch or whatever.
if your favourite local band is playing a show, and the bass player is your cousin's boyfriend, don't ask for a spot on the guest list - cough up the measly five bucks at the door.
if your favourite touring act rocks into town, buy one of those shirts they have at the merch desk - and a poster, and a sticker and a keyring. that is how people make their money on touring these days. sad but true.
PS> i'm not meaning to single you out, dextermeth, your bowie comment just awoke another rant from deep inside me.
he played the game - he played it well (ask iggy and lou) - but he did so within the framework of a powerful industry that included receptive media such as rock magazines and contemporary radio.
i've been trying to make sense of this musical shift that has occurred, and work out how to use it as a positive thing rather than be one of those folks that gets left behind in thinking about how things used to be much better. the kids were just crass...!