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Poor music stems from listener apathy, corporate greed
by Tom Holzerman
Published: Friday, August 6, 2004
"Video Killed the Radio Star" was the first music video aired on MTV. It seemed apropos at the time, and it was somewhat prophetic. Music video became the star-making entity; well, they had become that entity up until recently. Now, all you need to succeed in music is a pretty face and a prepackaged voice that sounds like every other singer out there. That is, unless you're a rapper. Then you just need to make videos with budgets that rival those of Titanic or the Lord of the Rings trilogy, replete with all the large-breasted "hos," big cars and enough diamonds to fill a South African mine. Or unless you're a rock band. Then you just rip off Alice in Chains or Weezer as much as possible musically, and insert your own self-hating, angst-ridden lyrics about how your parents mistreated you or about how your girlfriend dumped you because you were a whiny jerk.
Sure, there is still a lot of good music out there. It's just not in the mainstream. If you dig deep enough, you can find a good musical act, like Rasputina, Mason Jennings or Soilwork. That's the rub though; you have to work to find good music.There once was a time when you didn't have to do that.
Why though? Why is it that, in the past, bands that displayed creativity, authenticity, talent and sheer musicality received so much airplay, while today, the majority of what gets national attention is unoriginal and mass-manufactured? It's simple. You can't turn on a radio in this city without hearing a station owned by either Clear Channel or Infinity, the two media giant conglomerates that own nearly every radio station in this country. Judging by the playlists of stations owned by them, you can tell right away.
These stations inundate listeners with songs from the same artists the record companies they're in cahoots with want to push. It's indoctrination, and songs are popular nowadays because people hear them so many times that they can't help but like them. In some cases, it can cause blinding, "Sakulichian" hate, but that usually happens among the fringe, which I'm a part of from time to time. In fact, if I hear that God-awful Nickelback song "Figured You Out" one more time on my radio, I will rip it right out of my car and throw it at the next person who cuts me off on I-76. There aren't many independently owned stations around anymore, and even they fall into playing the same ol' same ol'.
However, in the past, radio played new, cutting-edge music. Whether it was rock, folk, funk or Motown, you could hear it somewhere on the radio. Sure, the record industry was seedy then, and there was funny business going on to get certain songs played and anthemized, but, by and large, it was the judgment of free-thinking DJs that won out in the end.
Now that corporations have gotten a hold of music, the artistic mentality has gone out the window. Now, one thing connects with audiences, and instead of playing that along side of different-sounding acts, the record companies churn out millions of clones for the public to digest.
http://www.thetriang...ed-697670.shtml
by Tom Holzerman
Published: Friday, August 6, 2004
"Video Killed the Radio Star" was the first music video aired on MTV. It seemed apropos at the time, and it was somewhat prophetic. Music video became the star-making entity; well, they had become that entity up until recently. Now, all you need to succeed in music is a pretty face and a prepackaged voice that sounds like every other singer out there. That is, unless you're a rapper. Then you just need to make videos with budgets that rival those of Titanic or the Lord of the Rings trilogy, replete with all the large-breasted "hos," big cars and enough diamonds to fill a South African mine. Or unless you're a rock band. Then you just rip off Alice in Chains or Weezer as much as possible musically, and insert your own self-hating, angst-ridden lyrics about how your parents mistreated you or about how your girlfriend dumped you because you were a whiny jerk.
Sure, there is still a lot of good music out there. It's just not in the mainstream. If you dig deep enough, you can find a good musical act, like Rasputina, Mason Jennings or Soilwork. That's the rub though; you have to work to find good music.There once was a time when you didn't have to do that.
Why though? Why is it that, in the past, bands that displayed creativity, authenticity, talent and sheer musicality received so much airplay, while today, the majority of what gets national attention is unoriginal and mass-manufactured? It's simple. You can't turn on a radio in this city without hearing a station owned by either Clear Channel or Infinity, the two media giant conglomerates that own nearly every radio station in this country. Judging by the playlists of stations owned by them, you can tell right away.
These stations inundate listeners with songs from the same artists the record companies they're in cahoots with want to push. It's indoctrination, and songs are popular nowadays because people hear them so many times that they can't help but like them. In some cases, it can cause blinding, "Sakulichian" hate, but that usually happens among the fringe, which I'm a part of from time to time. In fact, if I hear that God-awful Nickelback song "Figured You Out" one more time on my radio, I will rip it right out of my car and throw it at the next person who cuts me off on I-76. There aren't many independently owned stations around anymore, and even they fall into playing the same ol' same ol'.
However, in the past, radio played new, cutting-edge music. Whether it was rock, folk, funk or Motown, you could hear it somewhere on the radio. Sure, the record industry was seedy then, and there was funny business going on to get certain songs played and anthemized, but, by and large, it was the judgment of free-thinking DJs that won out in the end.
Now that corporations have gotten a hold of music, the artistic mentality has gone out the window. Now, one thing connects with audiences, and instead of playing that along side of different-sounding acts, the record companies churn out millions of clones for the public to digest.
http://www.thetriang...ed-697670.shtml
Listener apathy stems from poor music, too. It's an unbreakable cycle.
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