Ugot2shakesumthin said:

Tell that to the tons of back catalogs that lay around as garbage because no one wants to redo, remake or or reuse those McSongs. You are talking about artist preference but I am talking about QUALITY. Even this current generation is going back and remaking "classic" songs. You know why? Because a great song stands the test of time. There is almost no money spent on making an artist great these days because their careers are so much shorter. Why? Because their music is disposable. You mentioned Elvis and the Beatles? Well, guess what? Their catalogs are worth more than any of the newer artists topping the charts. Companies still pay to use their music in commercials. I didn't like either of them all that much (not my generation) but even so, I know they made some great music. A lot of the material from the pop market made in the past 17 years or so is worthless. Like Lastdecember said, when Soundscan became the measure of success for the industry, things like classic material and well-developed artists became a thing of the past. So, its not about generational preference (although most of the pop artists today are just barely beyond being children), its about quality music. Yes it exists but the music biz ain't checkin' for it.

I'm the one that's killing it. I've been crossing chicken bones on the floor, I've been casting spells, and I've got voodoo dolls of each of the four major record labels with pins stuck as far up their asses as I can get them. One way or another, I'm going to get rid of this bullshit music of today and if it means no new music being made, that's certainly better than bullshit new music being made. In other words, if you can't throwdown, sit down. Since motherfuckers insist on making dead ass music these days, then it's only appropriate that the labels eventually go to the cemetary where they belong.

I'm not going to look for shit. I don't have the time or the money to do so. I never had to look for it in the 70s and 80s and I shouldn't have to look for it now.

If record labels and radio stations can't put the jams in the mainstream, then they need to go broke and the whole industry needs to die. The days of bitching about new music are over. Now it's time to sit back and laugh while the industry crumbles.




I never heard much that I liked in the daily rotation on pop radio either but I heard tons of stuff I liked on R&B radio. R&B and pop have been the same thing for the last 15 years though, slow, dull, and dead.



I never had to dig for The Barkays or Rick James, they came to me on the local R&B stations.

It's already dead, where have you been?

Prince will bring it back.

Yep, the Lawrence Welk generation didn't like The Beatles or Elvis because it was fast rhythmic "devil" music (translation: white folks making black influenced music). My generation doesn't like today's music because it's no longer the fast rhythmic "devil" music. Instead, it has gone backwards into time and is making slow dull Lawrence Welk tempoed music (translation: black folks making white influenced music).

Vainandy, you want your music to be a specific thing, 80's R&B.
It has never been easier to find 80's R&B.

And by the way, the Bar-Kays are still looking for your ass.

I think the article missed the big elephant that is sitting in the middle of the room; Non-individuality. Labels are looking for the next big thing's copycat, as opposed to the next big thing period.

But people are not stupid, they might let themselves get catered with the "flavors of the month" for awhile, but they'll end up supporting anything with substance when the smoke gets clear.

Damn right! Down with new music altogether. As I've said before, either throwdown or sit down.

I agree with the premise of the article, that the music industry needs to look at itself and not blame everything on file sharing. BUT, that said, there is no question that illegal downloading has had a major impact.

It's hard for independant artists to break through the clutter and find a large enough audience to support themselves without the publicity that a major label can provide.

Here's an article/interview with Casey Stratton, a very talented artist who has worked both with a major label and as an independent artist. He has some very interesting takes on the music industry, and he knows from experience what he is talking about:

http://www.nbcwashington....vival.html

Who said 80s R&B was hard to find these days? I'm not looking for it because I already have most of it and I've had it since it was first made.....and I didn't have to go out and look for it even back then, it came to me all over the radio.

BlaqueKnight said:

I have to agree with BK. If it is destroyed, maybe we will start to hear more music from real musicians that actually have talent instead of all these hip/hop/pop wannabees that are making millions as we speak. I can't even listen to the radio these days. If I have to listen, I always pick a classic rock or soul station simply because the music is so much more superior.

I can break it down to two words: Crap music.

They can try to blame filesharing, new media, excess of radio stations, distractions, or competition however much they want but at the end of the day the thing that's driving audiences away is this inundation of deeply shitty music. Poor quality sounds from artists who coast by on their image or their looks or their tabloid gossip.

Don't get me wrong -I know that there have always been plastic stars whose image is more important than their sound, but they didn't use to dominate the scene. Now they do. And the sounds coming out of these acts? Much of it is lacking a decent melody, repetitive and simplistic, and the vocals are autotuned all to hell. The instruments, if they're actually there at all and not just made with a computer, get lost in the mix of poor production.



Word to the music industry:

Get rid of these dumb shit "artists" and their dumb shit "music" and spend your time and energy investing in and promoting people with talent, skill, and ambition and you WILL have audiences coming back. Make the effort to find creative, innovative musicians and performers with true magnetism and charisma, and work on developing a loyal fanbase that will sustain you for years instead of going for the quick buck with some unlistenable piece of shit you dredged off of American Idol or had Disney breed for you.

Empress said:

It's been ages since I've listened to anything but talk radio or "oldies" stations when I turn on the dial. And it's not like I'm some old lady myself, pining away for the good old days. I'm not even 24. It's just not worth it. I mostly rely on word of mouth these days to pick up something I wasn't into before, but sometimes it's a whole lot of work. I would love to be able to turn on the radio and hear something that doesn't lame out so bad it makes my ears bleed. I don't even care what genre it is -I just want something good!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...

If I obtain a song on the internet without paying, I would never have paid for it in the first place.

I pay for official product if I am a fan of an act. I buy everything: singles, albums, radio promos, DVDs, books, T-Shirts, posters, concert tickets...

Twenty years ago, I'd tape the single charts countdown, every Sunday. I'd later use my tape-to-tape double cassette deck to remove the DJ's banter and adverts between tracks. I'd play that damned tape all week on my Walkman, until the next Sunday, when I'd make a new compilation.

I bought as many records twenty years ago as I do today. I probably spend more nowadays, although the bulk of my purchases are through eBay rather than record stores.

Empress said:

Well this is where i get annoyed with these NEW cats that have the chops but just no support, maybe if it were the 70's or most of the 80's they would. But where are the "rebelious" acts?? I mean take Prince, or an Inxs, or a U2, or REM, all these bands didnt really catch on "mainstream" till at least album 4-5, now that is twice as long as a career for 99% of the acts now, because the system says "U HAVE TO SELL DAY ONE". But im not seeing, for the most part, artists, bands, etc gigging 24/7 at clubs and small places. I mean INXS played 200 concerts between 1982-1983, and thats without any form of hits so to speak. I dont think 10 artists added together that we say "should get play" on this forum have even done 200 shows in their careers. So im not seeing this "movement" that really needs to come from cats like Van Hunt, and others, instead of "blogging" about it, play 100 shows, actions are way better than words. People want to fall back and say well its up to the older acts to help us with this, no its not, they paid their dues and opened the doors, and now those doors are closed again, but guess what, you gotta bust through them yourself.

NDRU said:

I know it is very saddening that people dont know what a good album is anymore other than a good track. Kids calling albums classics based on one or two songs.

paisleypark4 said:

Sad to say, overall, the day of the BIG album is over, sure there have been good ones out there, but for the most part, BIG albums are done, defining Albums are done, you will not see a "thriller,purple rain, faith,control,like a prayer,songs in the key of life, led zeppellin 4, the stranger, etc...you get the point.

Graycap23 said:

[Edited 3/5/09 14:30pm]

BlaqueKnight said:

Like I've said before & I'll say it again: F*** the RIAA!

phunkdaddy said:

Don't forget about me. I've been saying "F*** The RIAA" for a good little while.

vainandy said:

2000's = THE worst decade of music ever!


As much that we agree and/or about the 1990's have its own weaknesses in music history, at least freestyle & house put up a good fight before gangsta rap ran those genres off FM radio. But there has been nothing musically good about the 2000's at all due to its mainstream shit-hop/r&b (rhythmless bullshit), contemporary country, & Disney-pop ruling every damn thing.
[Edited 3/6/09 17:18pm]

lastdecember said:

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was THE last of those kinds of album that I can say was THE album worth owning.

TonyVanDam said:

Sigh...this shit again?!?!?!?

Music released from 1950-1999 is not superior to music released today. That argument is horribly ignorant. Again, go back and look at 40 years of Billboard charting and you'll see the likes of mediocre, awful, here today gone tomorrow types of bands. Yes, technology has made it so that any fucken retard with Garageband and some cool loops can slap together a "hit" but well written and expertly executed songs will NEVER die.

Peer to peer networks, alone, are not responsible for the music industry's woes. The head honchos from those five super labels will promote facts and figures that will make the uninformed believe the hype, but that's all that it is - hype.

Musicians will find a way to play - and they are. Live music is where it's at these days. Fame and fortune are secondary. I'm a musician. I MUST play. I'm a record label owner as well. I could not be any more excited!


Even the very proposition of "killing the music industry" is flawed - you cannot kill music. There will always be music - in films, with adverts, in symphony halls, on radio, marching bands, with opera, in elevators, on planes, trains and automobiles, in malls, on buses, in high school jazz bands, annoyingly in doctor's offices, in playhouses, in jails, in brothels, on stage, and live and in your face. You cannot kill the music industry.


Look, I'll assauge your music industry pain - my album's coming out at the end of the summer. I'll make you believe again!!!!

At last a sane person...

Some very retarded statements in this thread. What kind of a child wants to kill the industry? What kind of bullshit statement is opining that all modern music is crap? So idiotic.

vainandy, if only your frontal lobotomy could be reversed.

Blah, blah, blah Chucci. Nobody said anything about killing "music". We are all lovers of music here. The author of the article obviously was going for sensationalism with the title with regards to the mainstream industry. We know that the business isn't going away completely but its definitely changing. I myself, continue to find good music on the web all of the time but I beg to differ that the chart topping music hasn't had a sharp decline in quality and its "horribly ignorant" to ignore the facts. The lack of usage of recent back catalog proves it. A great song is a great song no matter when it is written but we are not talking about the exceptions, here.
"Peer to peer networks, alone, are not responsible for the music industry's woes. The head honchos from those five super labels will promote facts and figures that will make the uninformed believe the hype, but that's all that it is - hype."
That's exactly what was said in the article. The author made some good points. Maybe you should re-read it.
[Edited 3/6/09 6:05am]

vainandy said:

2. International trade agreements have allowed consumers to buy their music across borders, rather than accepting local prices on music based on the ‘relative wealth’ of nations, rather than the actual value of the product.


Is this true?


I used to buy my music from Russian websites as the price was about 25% of what it is in the US. However, I read about 2 years ago that the federal government put a stop to this practice by dissallowing Visa and Mastercard to do business with these websites, thereby cutting off my lifeline to them.

Has this been reversed? If so

If not, US government!

Actually I liked the point that vainandy makes about how (pop) music used to appeal to an older generation (the parents) as well as the children, because of its quality or songwriting or just plain old JAM-ness.