The Way the Music Died
p2pnet.net News:- With the record industry clearly hurting, what will it take for an artist to make it in the music industry these days?
What indeed. And the question is posed in a US PBS Frontline show called The Way the Music Died slated to go online tomorrow (May 29).
“In the recording studios of Los Angeles and the boardrooms of New York, they say the record business has been hit by a perfect storm: a convergence of industry-wide consolidation, Internet theft, and artistic drought,” says the intro.
“The effect has been the loss of billions of dollars, thousands of jobs, and that indefinable quality that once characterized American pop music.”
That’s Big Music’s version of events. Whether or not it has any bearing on reality depends entirely on where you’re sitting.
There’s certainly industry-wide consolidation as the labels fight to keep control of the way people enjoy music in this digital era. But the Internet thieves are the labels themselves, and there’s no artistic drought – not even nearly.
Anyway, “The Way the Music Died follows the trajectory of the recording industry from its post-Woodstock heyday in the 1970s and 1980s to what one observer describes as a ‘hysteria’ of mass layoffs and bankruptcy in 2004,” the website goes on.
“The documentary tells its story through the aspirations and experiences of four artists: veteran musician David Crosby, who has seen it all in a career spanning 35 years; songwriter/producer Mark Hudson, a former member of the Hudson Brothers band; Hudson’s daughter, Sarah, who is about to release her first single and album; and a new rock band, Velvet Revolver, composed of former members of the rock groups Guns N’ Roses and Stone Temple Pilots, whose first album will be released in June.
How will these artists fare, “at a time when the record industry is clearly hurting”?
In the meanwhile, “Some critics fear that the industry’s need for quick hits has made it difficult for more adventurous artists to offer the unique sounds and challenging themes that have long been the hallmark of the best album artists,” says Frontline. Thus, it also, “examines the effect of consolidation of ownership on the music industry. ‘What you had were these people who had been tremendous entrepreneurs … bought up by a multi-conglomerate,’ Billboard’s Newman says. ‘And it just changes the complexion. The whole way you’re having to make decisions is based on different models.’
“Michael ‘Blue’ Williams, manager of the Grammy Award-winning OutKast, agrees. ‘We’re run by corporations now,’ he says. ‘We have accountants running two of four majors now, and they don’t get it. It’s a numbers game. And music has always been a feelings game’.”
The radio industry’s consolidation also “negatively impacted the recording industry, observers say,” states Frontline.
“Thousands of radio stations changed hands, and companies that wanted to really get on radio were able to pull up some enormous multibillion dollar mergers,” Los Angeles Times reporter Jeff Leeds tells FRONTLINE. “Suddenly a company that once owned three dozen stations could suddenly own a thousand.”
Should be an interesting show.
May 28th, 2004 at 4:31 pm
Frontline is usually a pretty objective show, keeps fingers crossed
for an interesting read, visit their website and go to the narcotics section…pretty interesting stuff.
May 28th, 2004 at 11:23 pm
I watched it last night. It was horrible and ill-informed. I was very disappointed.
May 29th, 2004 at 5:43 am
I agree it was not a very informed show. It was more like a Major label ad for some select artists.!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 31st, 2004 at 4:39 pm
>> But the Internet thieves are the labels themselves, and there’s no artistic drought – not even nearly.
There is an artistic drought. Just because the number of artists increases faster than cockroaches doesn’t mean that they are doing more than s***ing out the same ‘ol same ‘ol.