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Musically Speaking: An industry gone wrong

Does anybody else out there feel just a bit jaded and cynical about the music industry? I think I might not be the only one.

My discontent has been building for years. I felt it when I read that the music industry was suing a 12-year-old girl for downloading MP3 files from the Internet. It was undeniable when I recently turned on MTV and saw one more expertly produced and ridiculously expensive video featuring yet another run-of-the-mill song vocalized by a mediocre singer whose only apparent talent (at least to me) is looking good (by someone’s standards). It was apparent when I found myself flipping radio stations with hardly a pause trying to find (a) a decent song or (b) a moment when there was not an annoying commercial playing. After a while, all of this becomes tiresome and extremely annoying.

I understand that the music industry, just like any other, is in the business to make money. However, like many other corporations and 99 percent of politicians, they seem to think that consumers are idiots. (But let’s not start that discussion today.) Thank God not everyone buys into the crap they pass off as music.

Making money from music is nothing new, nor is it a bad thing — it’s been done for hundreds of years. But so much today’s popular music seems artificial, as if selling as many copies of the album as possible is the defining reason for creating the music. Good looks are emphasized over talent, making as much money as possible takes priority over quality work, and mainstream artists reek of slick marketing techniques and a carefully crafted image. Unfortunately, we are the ones who suffer — from songs which all sound disturbingly similar and lack substance, glossed over by savvy producing.

When I was younger and enjoyed popular music, I would buy cassette tapes (Yes, I am that old) because of one single which I would hear on the radio and had to own. I was severely disappointed numerous times when the rest of the songs on the tape sucked. People who care about the quality of their music don’t get suckered in like that anymore. Compact discs have become so expensive and, containing only one or two decent songs per disc, hardly worth buying, that in the last few years thousands have turned to file sharing over the Internet as a means of procuring their music of choice. I know many of them feel justified doing so because they believe the majority of the revenue from compact disc sales go to the record company and not the artist — and they don’t want to support the record company.

I used to love music videos and I clearly remember watching with excitement the brand-new channel devoted to music. (Yes, I am that old). I still don’t understand why MTV hasn’t shown actual music videos in years and why they created two other channels for that purpose. A station called “Music Television” doesn’t show music videos? What could possibly be more important? Or, what about radio stations? The majority of radio stations are painful to listen to as the programming alternates between the same songs (spoon-fed to them by the music industry) played over and over, and constant commercials. By the way, does anyone else get really irritated that all radio stations have conspired to play their commercials at the same time so that at certain times during the hour it is practically impossible to find any music, crappy or otherwise? I knew I wasn’t the only one! But I digress….

Am I being a bit harsh? I don’t think so.

I am, however, thrilled that the major record labels no longer rule the business as they once did. Let us worship the Internet that allows us as discriminating music listeners to hear streaming music stations (sans commercials) and discover delicious new music that could not have gained that kind of widespread exposure any other way. Let us cherish our home recording studios that allow us as artists to record our work in our basements and disperse it as a well-engineered, professional-sounding recording via CD or MP3 or tape or in whatever format we wish. Let us purchase music put out by the smaller independent record labels that have sprouted in the last decade to provide us with a variety of good music from bands that never would have been signed to a major label in a million years. Let us simply appreciate and support good music.