The wonders of music

Last weekend I watched School of Rock for the first time. I know, I know...it's been around for ages. Its just been one of those movies that I never got around to seeing. Until now.

This posting, though, is not about School of Rock. This movie reminded me of my opinion of the music industry. An opinion that I would now like to share with you.

Record labels suck. Big time. They are companies that are following a business model that came into existence over 50 years ago, and are extremely reluctant to change, no matter what technological changes occur.

The media often run stories on the decline in CD sales, and how the record companies are blaming the proliferation of illegal MP3s on the internet.

I can not remember where I read it, but I have read someone pointing out that the sales of CDs has been artificially inflated due to the number of people replacing their vinyl and cassette tape collections with CDs. This replacement phaze is apparently petering out. Therefore the number of CD sales has been dropping, as people are scaling back to be only making new purchases, not purchases to replace vinyl LPs or cassette tapes. Yes, some CD sales wil be lost by free mp3 downloads, but how many people in the past have had a taped copy of a CD they "pirated" from a sibling or a friend? I know I have.

If record companies want to win back market share from internet downloaded music, then they need to be offering something extra that you can not get via download. Not just a CD with a bit of cardboard acting as a cover. Something else needs to be offered. Something that you can not access through downloading the songs. Some bands have made their record companies follow this path e.g. Pet shop boys re-released some early music, and added a booklet for each CD (slotted into the cover). these types of booklets can be a fan's nirvana, providing extra background and inside information on the music and the band. Not many bands have done the same thing. Why would people bother to pay for a CD, when they can get a copy for free, either by downloading it, or burning a copy of a friend's CD.

MC Lars' song "Download this song" is a great thesis on the new music distribution model, and the hipocrasy of the major record companies.

$18.98 Iggy Pop CD?
What if I can get it from my sister for free?
It’s all about marketing Clive Davis, see?
If fans buy the shirt then they get the mp3
Music was a product now it is a service
Major record labels why are you trying to hurt us?
Epic’s up in my face like, “Don’t steal our songs Lars,”
While Sony sells the burners that are burning CD-R’s

As a side note, I find microsoft's Digital Rights Management a laugh. Windows media player will not let you directly copy a protected CD (e.g. straight from CD-ROM drive to CD-R/W drive). However, it will not even raise a murmer if you rip the CD to your hard drive, and then burn the CD's contents to a blank CD-R or R/W. Great protection!

Anyway, That is my first major issue with the music industry. I was reminded of my other beef while I was watching School of Rock.

My other beef is the lack of originality in many of today's groups and/or atists.

Where are the supergroups? While the majority of the music industry's new artists are RnB and rap fuckwits, there are no new supergroups like the days of old (60's-80's), like The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, Genesis, etc. The only thing we have today, even slightly resembling the supergroups of old, are...those same supergroups themselves. Revived, and pushed back out onto the world stage in a last ditch effort to prop up the record companys' bottom lines. There are fewer and fewer bands and/or artists with the ability to put on a good show these days. Even the middle aged reanimated groups of yore are not as energetic as they used to be.

Tied in with all this is a problem that I refer to as the lack of virtuosity in bands today. We rarely see bands with members who could be said to be a virtuoso of their instrument. I remember the days when concerts used to have a certain period when each band member spent time doing a solo, showcasing their virtuosity on their instrument. We don't see that anymore.

All we get now in new bands is RnB and Rap shite, or bands emulating the sounds of the 60s and 70s, like Wolfmother (blurgghhhh!) and Jet, for example. The record companies are not interested in nurturing and developing new and different talent. They want to be able to quickly produce a product that they know will work, because it sounds a lot like something else that was very successful in the past. They are not willing to take a risk and try something new. They will keep trying to find acts that will reproduce a sound that has already prooved to be successful in the past.

Of course, there are always exceptions to any rule, as there are some groups and/or artists that do not fit into this mould, however on the whole, my setiments hold true.

There is nothing new in the music scene. Except for Ultimo, of course.

DPS