What happened to music...

The music industry used to be run by those who actually LOVED music and record companies that actually cared. Sadly enough, the scene has changed drastically and we live in a world that only cares about images not words. I totally agree, even though it is sad to say. We no longer care what anyone has to say, we just want to see Britney Spears shakin it and listen to music we can dance to.

In the frontline video, ‘The way music died’ past band members discussed how they used to make great music and make millions. Now a days, you only get one shot, and if your single fails, you fail and will be forced to “work at Starbucks.” David Crosby said that he began singing in coffee houses during high school and how it was all about the love of the music. He didn’t care that he wasn’t getting paid; he just wanted to get his message out there. It’s sad that artists no longer feel the passion that these artists once did.

By the late 70’s the baby boomers were getting older and wiser and began buying less. Sales were down and vinyl records were being digitally re-mastered and put on CDs. The industry focused on past works and didn’t sell any new artists.
The whole idea behind producing new records was changed. It began to be all about deadlines and release dates and the inspiration and creative aspects were thrown out the window. The battle of art verse commerce emerged.

In the 80’s hip-hop and rap began a whole new scene that wasn’t yet exposed to radio or TV. It wasn’t mainstream and was still fresh and exciting. The record industry didn’t even understand how it worked and what they needed to do to market this new genre, so they allowed the new artists to spit out creativity and people soon loved it. However, once the industry did get a handle on what they were doing, it was no longer hip-hop, it was just the same old commercialized junk.
It’s funny how Guns and Roses was considered the real deal / biggest band in the world and that they had so much power that their fans would do anything they suggested. They were making so much money that they had their own plane and could drinks and do drugs all they wanted.

The new members of Velvet Revolver discussed how there is so much pressure on them and how difficult it is to come back into a changed economy with smarter people. The music industry is tougher than its ever been now! They not only need to produce great music, but they need to recognize how the markets have changed.

Wal-Mart is a huge distributor of music sales, but they only sells “clean” music. If Velvet Revolver wants to be a part of this big market, they are forced to re-do records without the explicit content.

So what it all comes down to is that things aren’t the way they used to be. It used to be all about the music, creative aspects and enjoyment and now it’s all about what you look like. It’s about the Britney Spears and Jessica Simpsons types who look hot doing it, but whose lyrics say Nada. People simply just don’t care; I mean, a lot of the time I don’t even care. We just want the fun, fluffy singles that get played on the radio. Nobody cares about the rest of the “deep” crappy songs on the rest of the CD. No wonder we just download the songs we want from Limewire.

We don’t care about the Sarah Hudsons who really can sing, have great voices, good messages, and different looks. We want Britney and that’s all.