Fellow Dopers, I’m aware that there’s another monster sized thread at the moment which is concerned with the RIAA’s efforts to sue a 12 year old girl. I’ve chosen to start this thread because I’m concerned with another aspect of what’s happening in music these days, and I was originally going to post this in the other thread but it would have ended up deep in Page 4 and got kinda lost - hence, the conceit within me has created this little epic. It’s more of an essay than a rant, so I won’t be offended if you bail early. But if you’re truly passionate about music, please share your comments.
Before I begin, as always, let me preface everything by saying that I have nothing but the fondest regards for the USA and her people. This little rant deals more with the insatiable greed of unchecked commerce, and where it’s leading us, in terms of our culture - and where music fits into that culture.
Some points I’d like to discuss are…
(1) The US music scene - and in particular, how the US record buying public unduly influences the rest of the world’s musical choices and culture.
(2) The relevance of popular music in culture today, compared to the relevance of the RIAA being in bed with the US Commercial Radio Industry.
(3) The abhorrent way in which music has been commodotised, and turned into some “digital audio” equivalent of a poor 3 year old child who is being torn into pieces by ugly parents fighting to the death over a custody battle.
Firstly, the US Music scene. My single greatest sadness nowadays regarding the US Music scene is that in the last 10 years it’s effectively become a 100% “export only” industry, and in turn, it allows almost zero outside influence to penetrate “in” anymore. Music acts like Coldplay are very much the exception to the rule these days - and the general consensus I hear amongst musicians who hail from countries OTHER than the USA is that it’s a market which is effectively impossible to crack.
This isn’t a good thing. Nobody knows everything. Music is like water being poured over a boulder. It doesn’t flow in just one direction - it flows in every direction.
So I did a quick check of the Billboard list of top selling albums per year (within the USA) in the last 10 years. With the exception of U2’s “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” in 2001, none of the Top 5 selling albums per year within the United States has hailed from a country outside the USA. The last album to be a multi-million mega seller in the USA and win the Number One spot in annual record sales was U2’s “The Joshua Tree” in 1987.
Why is this the case? Ultimately, it’s probably due to magnificent market manipulation and my theory is this… all of us, around the world, take a teeny bit of pride when a local act “makes good”. When a band from our local region makes it big on the national stage, we take pride in that as well. And when a band from our country makes it big on the international stage, we take pride in that too. (Although please note I’m STILL embarassed about INXS - fucking no talent wankers - so many Aussie acts are so much better.)
Now, this pride thing works on many levels. And the people who are involved in marketing are very much aware of this. Further, for a long time now, US Entertainment Conglomerates have effectively ruled the roost around the world - (with the possible exception of Britain’s EMI). When you combine such a thing with the knowledge that the US record buying market remains the single biggest market in the world - well, when it comes to flogging a record, and doing all the typical marketing and exposure and manipulation which the Big Lables are so good at these days, well it’s only natural that the first stop, every single time, in terms of trying to create a “blockbuster album” always commences within the United States, and then the flow on propagates elsewhere around the world. And it’s obviously easier to flog an American act to an American audience than some darn foreigner I suspect.
Nonetheless, I put it to you, my American Doper friends, that surely there must have been at least ONE foreign album in the last 10 years (other than U2) which was good enough to crack the Top 5 sales figures in a given year? Surely?
Indeed, the “rest of the world” is a very big place you know. I refuse to believe that (by default) that the best musicians and songwriters on this globe are exclusively American by birth. But that’s what the sales figures would have us believe.
And just to underline what I’m getting at here, go and look up Billboard or whatever your personal fave chart is. Have a look and see how amazingly few “non USA” artists are getting airplay these days (within the US). I truly believe that talent or songwriting isn’t the issue. And of course, if you were to peruse some of the uniquely American demographic charts like “Urban Hip Hop” or “Country” well, it stands to reason that absolutely no foreigners are gonna get a look in at all.
Which leads me to my 2nd point…
(2) The relevance of popular music in culture today, compared to the relevance of the RIAA being in bed with the US Commercial Radio Industry.
OK, let me confess, one of my fave ever songs is “My Girl” by The Temptations. I don’t care one little bit that The Temptations were black guys - I don’t give a shit - they were first and foremost fantastic songwriters, musos, and quality singers. As was Sam Cooke, and Wilson Pickett, and the entire Motown songwriting machine of the 60’s.
But the sadness for me nowadays is that with the exception of “Babyface” from about 8 years ago, the only music I hear from black Americans these days is utterly stereotypical R & B, and Hip Hop, and Rap. I simply can’t remember the last time I heard a quality tunesmith come out of the USA who also happened to be black. And I refuse to believe, I point blank refuse to believe that somehow, every black American muso has lost the ablity to write quality memorable melodies nowadays. It’s an impossibility that such a thing has happened. Ergo, it’s my contention that the “machine” has changed. The “machine” as I like to call it (and note, it was actually Pink Floyd who really coined the term on their legendary album “Wish You Were Here”), well, the “machine” has decided that black Americans fill a certain demographic these days, and they get their own special radio stations - and if someone tries to cross over and crack into the “rock demographic” they can go whither on the vine.
In essence, I have come to loathe what the “machine” has done to our wonderful collective consciousness known as “popular music”. Lots of folks on this postboard talk about the pros and cons of music downloads - but you know something? You know what I HATE about music downloads? It’s so impersonal. There’s no DJ telling us that “this next song is just great. It’s gonna knock your socks off…” and worst of all, with file downloading, none of us ever get to hear music “en masse” anymore. Indeed, I honestly believe that the concept of having a “Number One” these days has kinda devolved into the equivalent of all those variations on having a World Championship Boxing Belt - you have the WBA, and the WBC, and IBFA, etc etc etc. The same thing has happened in music now. You could have a “Number One” and there’s every chance that a huge portion of the US Market would never hear the song because they don’t watch THAT particular music channel, or they don’t listen to THAT particular radio station. The down side to this is that we, the public, are the losers. Music is one of the great cultural bridges which can exist between divided peoples. Regardless of our backgrounds, or our socio economic strata - we can all groove to a cool tune if and when we hear it - and as such, it’s something that all of us can say that we have in common. But no longer. Music has become the equivalent of anonymous people living in condominums who never introduce themselves to one another.
So, how did this ever come to pass?
My belief is this - the US government allowed Independant Music Distributors to get around the payola laws in the early 1990’s. The way it works now is that the IMD’s take new songs to the likes of Clear Channel and they get on air. But Clear Channel invoices the IMD’s for the privilige of putting those new songs onto their playlists. In turn, the IMD’s invoice the Big Labels. The net result? Unless you’re on a major label, you’ve got a less than 3% chance that a song will ever get national radio play - such is the all pervasive “shrink wrapped” nature of the beast these days.
But it gets worse. US Commercial Radio owns the airwaves in the US. And there is not one genuinely competitive “nationwide” public broadcaster who can play music which is NOT payola driven. At least we Aussies have the ABC which is our version of the BBC - and both of those networks play popular music - but MERIT drives the playlists, not payola. But in the USA, the advertising dollar is king. Indeed, a cynic could argue that Clear Channel honestly doesn’t care one iota about the music scene - all that they care about is that they DON’T SCARE AWAY THE LISTENER between advertising bursts. To this end, they play it safe. The consciously choose music which is non-confronting, and music which is “researched based” - as in, “this is what the public wants - we’ve done the research”.
Recognising that US Commercial Radio remains king by a long way in terms of planting a song into our consciousness, the RIAA has entered into permanently incestuous relationships with networks like Clear Channel and I’ve read figures as high as $3 Billion US dollars per year are paid out now in payola. Between the payola, and the advertising revenue, can you imagine the veritible mozza that Clear Channel must be making these days. Whoah!
The downside to the RIAA’s relationship with US Commercial Radio, is that by extension, only the safest, lowest common denominator gets to be a monster hit these days. And further, because Clear Channel and their ilk have consciously chosen to “ghetto-ise” radio and create a specific station for each particular demographic, none of us (as in all of us all at the same time) ever get to hear the same music anymore. So in many respects, it’s a multi-pronged devolution across multiple demographics where we’re losing out - at least in terms of having the best of the world’s music rise to the top.
And to exacerbate matters, the seemingly infinite tentacles of US Entertainment conglomerates means that nowadays, by and large, what becomes a hit inside the USA tends to become a hit in the rest of the world - well certainly most of the Western World at any rate.
Which brings me to my 3rd point…
(3) The abhorrent way in which music has been commodotised, and turned into some “digital audio” equivalent of a poor 3 year old child who is being torn into pieces by ugly parents fighting to the death over a custody battle.
Call me a bohemian. Call me an idealist. Call me whatever. All I know is this… I love the concept of the entire world being able (if they wish) to sing a shit hot song to 'emselves as they walk down the street. In an age where people fly planes into skyscrapers, there’s something intrinsically charming about the concept of the entire world being able to whistle the same lovely tune.
I put it to you, my fellow dopers, that the world is struggling somewhat in trying to whistle to an Eminem song. And yet, that little dweeb sells mega - absolute mega. And further, he sells absoulte mega in places where, in all honesty, he has zero cultural relevance. I mean, the entire world is not some grimy street corner in Detroit in winter, OK? But man he sells. He sells albums like a runaway train. But I offer this to ponder… who actually owns our free thought these days? Honestly?
Do we, ourselves own our free thought, or have we unwittingly allowed the concept of “popular music” to become so firmly entrenched under the dominion of the US Big Labels that effectively, none of us have a say anymore?
As a result, we’re seeing lawsuits against 12 year olds. We’re seeing a situation where the goal of shipping units above all else has become a tawdry race towards an ever diminishing end zone. I truly believe that “file sharing” is merely a symptom of the syndrome. The RIAA has ruled not only the US charts for so long, but a goodly portion of the world’s charts, that they have come to believe that they somehow now own the very “art” of making music. Certainly, that’s the perception that I personally tend to feel.
We have Grammys, and we have MTV Awards, and the American Music Awards, and the Channel V Awards, and the bloody Rolling Stone Awards - let alone all those stupid magazine polls - and none of us can agree anymore - because none of us ever listen to the same music anymore.
It’s my opinion that musos in the 60’s or 70’s were no better than today. It’s just that the way the industry worked back then was so much better. It was more honest. Naieve perhaps. But one thing’s for sure - if your song was good enough, it rose to the top. But no longer. And that makes me sad, as a music lover, it makes me really sad that so many magnificent artists and albums are going into a black hole simply because they couldn’t crack the RIAA/Clear Channel blood barrier.