I just recently purchased the album THE WORLD IS A GHETTO by War and I CANNOT get over this stellar album! I did some research on it and I found out that it was the #1 Biggest selling album of 1973. It sold 3 million(which is like selling 10 million today).
I guess I'm so shocked that the album did so well because the album is actually EXCELLENT musically! It doesn't really have a commercial sound. Heck, there's a 13 minute instrumental on this album.

An album of this quality lyrically AND musically would not do well these days.

My question is when, where, how and why did tastes shift from appreciating musicalities to discarding them these days. I know that $$ has ALWAYS been at the root of the music industry but at what point did the focus shift primarily to $$ and being commercial over the musical content?


Singing...

Did you know
that its true
that for me
and for you
The World Is A Ghetto!

1. Death of mainstream funk. (ca. 1990)
2. EVERYTHING is sampled. (ca. 2001-present)
3. Pitch correction machine and ProTools (ca. Jennifer Lopez-present)
4. Gangsta rap is the only form of rap that is pushed in the mainstream (ca. 1993-present).

Really music fell off big time for me around 2000. I still enjoyed much of the 90's.
[Edited 12/31/06 11:42am]

1. In 1987, when black bands (within the Funk & R&B genre) were overshadow by the hip-hop & rap genre.

2. Since 1988, when the Akai MPC series became THE sequencer/sampler/drum machine of choice for every producer beside hip-hop producers.

3. Since the 1980's, when keyboard synths were becoming just as important as electric guitars.

4. In 1988, when keyboard workstations were replacing live acostic/electric instruments in general (strings, horns, organs, pianos, etc.).

5. Since 1983, when you started to beleve that the following keyboards change the world of music forever like I do: Yamaha DX Series, Roland D-50, Korg M1, Korg Trinity, Korg Triton, Roland JV/XP Series.

6. In 1996, when home music studio set-ups were possible because of computers & these production softwares: Steinberg Cubase, Apple Logic, Cakewalk Sonar, MOTU Digital Pro, Digidesign Pro-Tools LE, FL Studio, Reason, Orion, Reason, etc.

And most of ALL:

7. When image became the most important thing to being successful in the music industry.....according to Milli Vanilli.

When MJ did the first expensive video 4 Thriller. That took the FOCUS away from the MUSIC and onto the video. It was DOWN hill from there.

Graycap23 said:

You know what I can agree...

When synths became the thing for songs to be dependent on...

Graycap23 said:

I agree too. However, I don't think that was Michael's intention. I believe he just wanted to do something a little different, I doubt even he could forsee what happened afterward.

It's funny because after Thriller my favourite Michael's videos are things like the amateurish "Don't Blame it On the Boggie", "Rock with You" and "Don't stop". It just goes to show that a video doesn't have to be spectacular or full of semi-naked bodies to make an ever-lasting impact.

Having said that I think Music changed because people practically ran out of ideas, by the time the 90s came around all that was left was sampling or people just trying to be poor imitations of the greater artists.

Graycap23 said:

By THAT token, you can also blame The Beatles, Elvis, The Rolling Stones, & ABBA for the same thing. Yes, Michael broke new ground with Thriller being more of a mini-movie. But the early artists that I've mention are like our forefathers/foremothers of music videos.

I have an add-on:

8. When Nirvana & Pearl Jam (representing the Seattle grunge sound) help destory heavy metal.

TonyVanDam said:

Arguing the merits of Nirvana and/or Pearl Jam is an entire argument unto itself, but I'd argue that metal killed itself. Much like rap today, it became a parody. Spinal Tap went from fiction to reality.

When Madonna released the like a virgin album...

People who blame music videos seem to miss the point that even great bands make music videos and the 80's were full of great bands AND great music videos. They CAN coexist. Hell they have coexisted since The Beatles.

.
[Edited 12/31/06 17:15pm]

MikeMatronik said:

Boy, are you on a roll with your anti-Madonna comments. BTW, what do you think of Kylie?

TonyVanDam said:

He's anti-Like A Virgin, not anti-Madonna.

When the disco era came and after it's death, MTV was here...

VoicesCarry said:

He also hates Material Girl!

TonyVanDam said:

That's Like a Virgin (the album), not "Like a Virgin" (the song).

LoveAlive said:

TonyVanDam said:

Kylie's better than Madonna...in some aspects

VoicesCarry said:

when new wave left us!

I know a lot of people are blaming disco and MTV, and I admit that MTV made it much more difficult for less photogenic artists to have a hit record, but there were plenty of MTV artists who made excellent music during the 1980's. I would say that music really began to change and go downhill with the rise of corporate radio in the 1980's. Clear Channel really accelerated the crappiness of music in the 1990's. but it really began in the early 1980's when radio stations started setting their playlists by polling focus groups instead of looking at which artists were fresh. That's what led radio from having truly eclectic music programming to the tightly segregated formatted stations we have now.

Like VoicesCarry said, the death of funk really hurt the R&B genre, but part of that had to do with synthesizers being used in arrangements that previously used a horn section, and the other part of that had to do with radio stations blacklisting R&B from top 40 radio unless you were Michael Jackson or Prince. Bands which used to be embraced by radio (Kool & The Gang, Cameo, Atlantic Starr, The Commodores/Lionel Richie) found themselves either scrambling to adjust their sound to get played on pop radio or got themselves being ghettoized on R&B only radio stations. This was also true of new wave and metal as well, as the harder metal went underground and the edgier new wave found itself relegated to college radio and eventually becoming alternative. Also, songs had to be much shorter in order top get radio and MTV airplay, so artists could no longer do seven to 13 minute songs on their albums like they could in the free form days of FM radio.

As for grunge and hip-hop. grunge itself was the mainstreaming of alternative music, which was a welcome change at the time from the bloated hair metal which was dominating the radio and MTV. But grunge would cannibalize itself due to its dark themes and distorted sound. Since most of the music was negative to begin with, people wouldn't be able to listen to depressing music forever, no matter how good it was lyrically or sonically. Hip-hop really didn't begin making inroads into mainstream R&B until the late 1980's, and a lot of program directors initially stayed away from hip-hop like the plague. It wasn't until it started hitting the top of the album charts with airplay only on Yo! MTV Raps that radio started to embrace it. But once record labels and radio realized that they could make a fortune off of hip-hop, they began steering all of their artists towards the same sounds, the same lyrics, and the same beats.

MikeMatronik said:

.....not so loud, Tessa (the anti-Kylie) might hear you.

TonyVanDam said:

And here's something more scandalous:

Kate Bush is eons better than them!

miho9000 said:

Well as least synthpop made a lot of comebacks.

TonyVanDam said:

*humms Destiny's Child "Soldier" with the Casio Keyboard*

MikeMatronik said:

I notice a lot of artists (especially Prince & OutKast) namecheck Kate Bush a lot. I need to check out her work soon.

TonyVanDam said:

you MUST!

So here's the pathway to "Kate-lightment".
Buy these:

Hounds of Love
The Dreaming (her best album ever!)
The Kick Inside
[Edited 12/31/06 18:54pm]

MikeMatronik said:

I was thinking Ladytron (the band).