The US Music Scene - leading the rest of the world ever downwards? (Long)

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.

Hurrah, Boo, and as a fellow axeman let me stand at your shoulder as we harmonise an Iron Maiden solo together.

The problem, as I see it, is the singles chart. This is essentially the ony chart which matters, and music TV and radio is filled almost solely with the music doing well in the singles chart.

The question is: Who the hell buys singles any more?

The answer is: Twelve year old girls.

Hence, the entire music industry is geared towrads saccharine blandness since the singles chart is effectively the only way to get on TV. Even major album acts like Coldplay, Dido or David Gray need a “big single” to launch their album success, even though album sales far outweigh those of the CD single (a CD single itself being an absurdity since they are designed for 70+ mins of music!).

How to remedy this? We can only hope that downloads become part of the charts, since this would genuinely reflect the music people are listening to. However, since this puts the consumer directly in touch with musicians with the only middleman being a registered server, no wonder the labels are whittering like petulant toddlers.

Bravo!! This post confirms my opinion that any thread that Boo Boo Foo posts to is worth reading, if only because of that.

How is the US leading the rest of the world down? Just because your musicians can’t crack our charts? Are they cracking the charts in other countries? I don’t get it.

I got lost reading the essay, but I think I get the gist…

Anyway, the “commoditization” of music, is definitely a major problem.

My take on it is this. First, there’s the “big bang” theory of rock music. Initially, there was a dense cluster of artists mining a similar vein. As time went by, the dense cluster became more diffuse. No real unifying scene or sub-genre of rock has the world’s ear anymore.

Second, the advent of music videos made the visual aspect of artists more important. Who wants to watch Elvis Costello when you can watch Britney Spears? The problem with this is that now music is being produced basically as a by-product of video and merchandising for artists like Spears. That’s fine, but really, should this type of performance be classisfied and counted the same as something by say, Coldplay? Shouldn’t the millions that Britney sells count as “lip synching dance music” rather that just music? I think that the sub-genres are so diffuse now that it warrants further classification. That way, Britney can be at the top of “lip-synching dancing poptart” charts, and Coldplay or Radiohead could be at the top of the “modern rock musicians that actually play and write their songs” chart.

I hate to say it but this rant could have been posted by anyone from ANY generation.

My grandmother used to tell me how much she hated the stuff my dad would listen to non-stop (swing-era stuff) and my dad bitched all the time about music in the 60’s and early 70’s.

It wasn’t until the 80’s that I could even get him to acknowledge that there WERE other genres out there that had at least some redeeming value.

There. My 2 cents.

I agree with the substance of your post, but it’s important to remember that there’s a vital and active indie scene.

Sonic Youth. Radiohead. The Flaming Lips. Belle and Sebastian. These bands all sell respectably without singles or videos. It’s a matter of building up a loyal fan base and putting out quality work, regardless of how it’ll sell.

I think it’s awful, though, that so many people simply will not go to the trouble to find really good music: they’ll turn on the radio, or buy some random album at the top of the charts where they like a single. Obviously taste is taste - but it really is sad to see the blatant, cynical commodification of music.

What Maiden song are we gonna play? Can I play bass? I’m not all that good but I might be able to get through it.

I think that what’s going on now has always been going on. There’s always crap music playing. Come on how often do you hear Maiden on the radio? Or any other good music? The majority of people do not want to hear complex music which is why the “good” bands don’t get airplay.

However, the people, like me, who are into music know to look other places. It’s a shame that the better bands don’t get airplay, but it’s the same with books and other mediums as well. How often are really good books bought by the masses? Or how often are the really interesting movies seen by the public? For the most part it’s pure sugar the masses want.

NP: Sampson, Shock Tactics.

Well, if it’s any consolation, I’ll bet that when all those classical composers were laboring in obscurity, there were shallow, talentless gits making all the money and getting all the sex/glory. But I’ve heard of all those classical composers, hundreds of years later. I am not aware of any of the Britneys from the classical era…

Ummm… I though about that, and with respect, I disagree that my Opening Post could have been written by any generation. Well not quite. Certainly, yes, I’m happy to concede that every generation likes to think of the music of THEIR generation as the one which has the most merit - and I suspect that that’s only human nature after all.

However, I personally like everything for every era - and I suspect I’m not alone. Everything from Sinatra at his height when he was working with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, through to Hogey Carmichaels “Stardust” to Zeppelin to Nirvana to Floyd, the Beatles, and the Foo Fighters and Pearl Jam all the way back to even some of the early blues stuff from 20’s. And let’s not forget Mozart and Beethoven etc.

The difference, as far as I can see, is somewhat analoguous to the modern spate of “smash and grab” movies which get made nowadays. Obviously, heavyweight films like “Saving Private Ryan” continue to get made and that’s just great, but there seems to 10 “Fast and the Furious” kinda films made to every “Royal Tennenbaums” if you get my drift.

And in music, the same thing tends to happen. As Eddie Vedder so succinctly opined at his famous speech which inducted The Ramones into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, “It seems as though modern music is designed to rip off every last cent from every pubescent teenager in the world by bringing us perfectly groomed contrived acts who look like they’re nothing but clones pumped out by the Disney factory”.

Great line Eddie! You da man!

My main gripe is that the major labels have perfected the symbiotic relationship with mass exposure houses. Music television, movies, and Commercial Radio. In doing so, I find I can’t bear to listen to the majority of music in those mediums any more. It has become, for want of a better description, the fast food of songwriting. And that’s something which didn’t exist in the past.

The process has been perfected to the point that probably 95% of all albums which are sold around the world (and I’ll gladly concede that I’m speculating there so let’s dial it back to 85% then) well, 85% of all the albums which are sold around the world these days are most likely as a direct result of the perfect symbiotic relationship which the RIAA has with MTV and Commercial Radio. And yet, those two exposure mediums consciously choose to dumb down their playlists specifically to maximise viewer/listener saturation.

Hence, in that context, my OP is very much a sign of the times for mine. I honestly reckon it’s worse than it’s ever been, and in my OP I’ve tried to fathom why.

The thing is, though, a lot of us don’t KNOW where to look for better music. We get our recommendations from our friends, usually. Say you don’t have many friends. Or say that your friends aren’t into music. Trying to find a good band like that can be nigh on impossible. Sometimes, you get lucky and stumble across a decent band; other times, you can’t find anything. Therefore, it’s not that I want sugar; it’s that it’s the only think I know how to find.

The answer is analoguous to the pervasive nature of crap American TV programs. Trust me Neurotik, if you were to travel to other countries in the Western World and just soak things up, you’d be sorely disappointed how much of the “bad end” of American culture is propagated ad nauseum around the world. It’s caused by the fact that the biggest media congolerates in the world are American and for them to flog their content overseas is just pure money for jam.

Which is not to say that I don’t recognise that America produces many, MANY wonderful contributions to culture too. I eagerly wish to point this out.

It’s just that the “shlock end of town” sells really easily, and selling is what it’s all about obviously.

Hence, in musical terms, the majority of music which is heard in the Western World (at least) is American because the RIAA has franchises in every major market the world over. It’s really dispiriting because the great majority of THAT music is just plain crap, sadly. And it really influences foreign markets as a result.

Nah, it ain’t that hard these days. In fact, it’s pretty damn easy, if you spend a few minutes. There’s plenty of places on the Internet where one can find new music or new bands to check out. As a reference starting point, allmusic.com is great. I’ve found many bands by typing in the name of a band I like, pulling up their bio, and checking out the similar artists, artists they influenced, artists they’ve been influenced by, etc., and have worked from there. This takes a little effort, but it’s not at all difficult. Even Yahoo!'s Launch radio station has occassionally turned me on to a ban I’ve previously never heard of. Their musical selection is actually pretty full of independent and obscure acts.

Otherwise, there are music message boards and internet music magazines such as the ultra-indie-snobby Pitchfork and the such. (Do a web search. I forget most of them.)

If you’re interested, it’s possible. A year ago I was completely lost in what had been happening in the music scene in the late '90s. Now I feel that I’m pretty much on top of it, with recommendations and discoveries stemming from these sources.

Nah… the internet sucks for finding good music.

I’d much rather listen to a really good DJ who truly knows their stuff - indeed somebody who is paid big bucks by a network to really know their stuff - and let them talk about what’s good. And then let them play snippets of what’s good.

Reading about music sucks the big suck. It’s like trying to draw a smell. Radio is where it’s at.

What I would give to hear a nation wide syndicated talkback radio show that did nothing but review albums, and play old classics to give a sense of the new and the old. Have the odd famous muso come in to help in the reviews, and play some of their fave tracks. The internet doesn’t come within light years of that sort of entertainment.

Too true. Many years ago, I was searching for weird covers of classical songs. One of them was a version of “Hall of the Mountain King” by Savatage. Fast forward a few years. I stumble across the song again on my computer. I like it. I download some more Savatage CDs. I like them (especially “Alone You Breathe”). I go out and buy their CDs.

A cousin mentions one of their songs (Morphine Child) sounds like Iron Maiden (a very weird assessment; I don’t recall Maiden using counterpoint…). So I download some Maiden. I get “Hallowed Be Thy Name”. I buy their CDs.

I stumble across a cover of Hallowed, done by some band called “Iced Earth”. I download some songs. I get “A Question of Heaven” and go out and buy their CDs.

Through a random link on their message board I discover Blind Guardian. I hear “… And then there was silence.” I go out and buy their CDs…

And so on. How many coincidences had to occur for me to discover a band like Iced Earth or Blind Guardian, let alone some of the less well known bands like Edguy or Within Temptation? The former are basically as big an act as you’ll find in the modern metal scene (excluding all the carry overs from earlier, like Maiden etc.). Finding their CDs was difficult. I have never seen an Edguy or Within Temptation CD in my life; but I’m planning on going to a specialty shop in the city to pick up some of their CDs.

I would never have even heard any of these bands’ songs without Kazaa. I’ve got all of Iced Earth’s catalogue now, excepting their first and third albums (so 4 studio albums, a live 3-set, a 2 disc “remastering” of songs from their first three albums, and a CD of covers). I’ll buy their new CD the week it hits the shops (if it hits the shops…)

Kazaa could not have hurt their sales in anyway; it’s not like I would have heard of them otherwise. Any exposure Kazaa gives to them is free. I check out JB Hi-Fi, basically the only shop that stocks anything non-mainstream, every week or so, and if I find a rare import by one of the bands I like, I buy it!

The problem is, Kazaa doesn’t help the monopoly of shitty music. People don’t need to be exposed to Britney or even someone like Coldplay (who are played ad nauseum here, and, at the risk of extreme flaming, have created an opus of unparalleled dullness in “Clocks” that is far more deserving of torturing terrorists than anything Metallica has done. Even St. Anger.), because they get played through the mutually beneficial relationship Boo was talking about.

I seem to have rambled a bit and I don’t really have a coherent argument, but it just irritates me that a band with heaps of mainstream appeal, such as Within Temptation (which is basically pop with an electric guitar, and even has a photogenic female front(wo)man. Listen to something like “Ice Queen” or “Our Farewell”. Sure, it has morbid, stereotypical metal lyrics, but who listens to them, anyway? ;)), can’t get even a sniff of radio play, while the inoffensive pap that pervades the airwaves is blown in my ears constantly.

The major radio stations don’t even have to stop playing what they’re playing! Just get a larger playlist, please! There’s one station here that does the same top ten every fucking hour!

P.S. I promise I’ll try and structure my rants if I ever hit the Pit again.

To be commercially successful (i.e. radio play, MTV etc.) requires money. The big labels have the money and will promote what they see as a “sure thing”. Personally, I find all of my new music being referred to on message boards and other avenues on the internet. This allows me to make my searches much more targeted. Listening to radio or watching music TV shows in the UK means I’ll end up sitting through Will Young destroying Light My Fire or Atomic Kitten doing the same to another song I previously liked. This doesn’t help me at all as I like rap, soul and rock music amongst other genres.

With respect to singles, I don’t know of anyone who isn’t a pre-pubescent girl who buys singles. This makes the singles chart basically redundant as most people who have reached puberty would have a very different definition of what consitutes good music to these girls. They are interested in fashion and image first, music second. That is why people like Britney Spears and so forth regularly have top 10 singles. Additionally, I would guess (no cite 'cause I’m off to cook some food) that considerably more singles are downloaded than purchased. A genuine chart comprised of downloads and sales would look radically different in my opinion.

I think digitally available music, as long as it isn’t crushed by the major labels, will have a massive positive influence on the world of music. That array of music available for downloading is astonishing, as are the resources to find the styles you like. Compared this to 10 years ago when radio and MTV were the primary resources that were available. I predict digitally available music will, somewhat paradoxically, lead to more and more live venues being available for artists to play at. I can see digital music being the innovation that returns music to the way it was in the 50’s and 60’s when artists had to build a support base by playing live. That will be where the earnings come from rather than album sales. I live in hope that this will spell the end for all of the manufactured bands currently plaguing the music scene.

Well, speaking as someone who, from time to time, lives in the UK I would say you ought to be eternally grateful that the commercially successful british artists have absolutely no success in the US. If you had to listen to one of the hundreds of boy/girl bands or pop idol/fame academy wannabes massacre classic songs like UK radio listeners do, you would be begging for exclusively US artists on your radio stations.

I agree, I enjoy reading them myself.

By the way that was one hell of a de-lurk.

Back in the days when I used to buy the New Musical Express (when it was just an inky weekly on cheap paper) it was filled with long essays by intense young men denouncing the state of the music industry and the contents of the charts. Above all, these writers wanted you to know that music really mattered to them far more than either the faceless capitalists or the mindless teen consumers, and they were really, really annoyed about it.

These days the New Musical Express is exactly the same.

Somehow, the music industry has yet to be brought to its knees by these intense young men, the charts are still full of drivel and good music is still available if you care to go looking for it.

Some things never change.

Boo is insightful as to the negative effects of the industry (I would say the term “industry” is more appropriate than “scene”. The American music scene, meaning musicians and fans, is holding its own against the onslaught of the industry, meaning the suits.) But a word as to the why of it all is appropriate.

IMHO, the natural order of things is not one Brittany Spears selling a jillion records. If the listening public had easy access (like say, radio) to the wide variety of musical styles and talent out there, then we would see hundreds of artists selling 100,000 copies* each, because musical taste is as varied as the individual. But the record companies control access to this music because they believe it’s more profitable for them to spend the money developing and marketing (read: shoving down your throat) one huge artist than dozens of little ones. Their technique is to saturate you with one artist and deny that any other artists even exist. There are no A&R men scouring the clubs for promising new acts any more, because they don’t want them. And that, in my opinon, is the biggest (and unspoken) reason for their war on filesharing. They cannot control it, and that scares them. The suits might actually be forced to learn something about music or, gasp!, hire someone who already knows and perhaps cares about it. The effect of this effort to maximize profits has been an extreme distortion of culture and a slow strangling of the music scene.

Interestingly, I read an article in Wired the other day (which I can’t find online now) about a company which has been monitoring the frequency of which songs are downloaded in which area codes and selling the info to the labels. The downloads have an almost zero correlation with the radio paylists. In some places, playlists have been amended to include the big downloads, and local sales have risen. It’s an interesting business concept–give the people what they want. Why didn’t anyone think of that before?

  • My numbers are completely out of my ass here, but the principle is what’s important.

That’s funny and it also isn’t true.

The Beatles 1 was among the Top 5 selling albums on the Billboard Top 200 album chart for both 20001 and 2001.