Pirating music. Glee. Guitar Hero. Fall of the recording studio. Auto-tune.
Music is dying. The music industry is dying. When is it going to turn around?
You may object, "The music industry is certainly not dying! Music is everywhere, The Beatles are on iTunes, and Glee is in full force, and everyone loves Rock Band and Guitar Hero, and my friend downloads so much music its just ridiculous, and he also records his own albums in his basement and..and...why are shaking your head at me...?"
I'm shaking my head at you because you see the problem, you are so aware of it but at the same time you are completely oblivious. You don't see that all of these things are the downfall itself.
I shall try to put all of the reasons into this post but I will surely miss some, but here they are in list form.
1. Smaller record labels and recording studios are dying because of how easy it is to pirate music and because of how easy it is buy recording equipment that give you the illusion of a professional recording studio.
Pirating music: Studios and labels put about 15% of their money into developing new artists. Popular artists (not new artists) work their way up to the large commercial studios that do not need to make the effort to search for new talent. At any one instant there are over 750 million music files being transferred over the internet for free. Smaller studios and labels cannot continue to invest in developing new artists because they do not have enough money because so much of their music is being stolen instead of being bought.
HOW ARE NEW ARTISTS SUPPOSED TO GET FOUND BY A LABEL OR STUDIO IF ALL THE SMALLER ONES DIE?!?!? Oh many bands have done it without studios helping them, there are examples, but it is so hard to make it without any help at all. And if all the small studios die then there will only be the big companies that spew mainstream monotony. Musical progression will die because of this.
People buying recording equipment: Almost every person and band that wants to make it nowadays has their own recording equipment. And they record themselves and it sounds fine. They do everything themselves and its a real experience. But unless they want that lo-fi sound thats what their stuck with, because they do not have profession equipment. Its kind of like buying a Vizio TV. Looks great. Real cheap. Not actually as good as the top brands. Unless you go all out and spend thousands upon thousands of dollars (and probably more than that), your home studio will never be as good as a professional recording studio and therefore the products will not be as good. But people look at professional recording studios and say, OH HOW EXPENSIVE, and I CAN DO IT MYSELF, and you know what, congratulations on your beautiful new Line 6 8-channel interface, its gonna be great. People recording in their basements to try to "make it" are hurting the small studios and labels because they just arn't going to them.
Because of pirating and people not seeing the need for recording studios, these smaller studios are dying and making it even harder for up and coming artists to "make it".
2. Rock Band and Guitar Hero are driving kids away from learning instruments
Ill make this one a lot shorter. PLAYING ROCK BAND DOESN'T TEACH YOU ANYTHING ABOUT PLAYING MUSIC. umm....i really like rock band...im not saying its not fun...but I play guitar way more than I play rock band, so...if u can get 100% on Through The Fire and Flames....WHOOPPIIDYYDOOO!!!...I can play real guitar ZINNNGGG
3. Glee and Mainstream Music
Glee....I love how Glee brings back a lot of older music that I want to be popular. And I absolutely love how Glee takes all those songs and makes them into these mainstream drones, replications of the sound we constantly here on the radio today. I love how when the characters start singing there is an obvious, unnatural echo to their voice that wasn't there before. I just love...wait....nevermind...
MAINSTREAM MUSIC IS NOT ABOUT MUSIC ANYMORE
Its about the money mannn. Its about letting some guy write you a catchy song while you roll around in your vault all day long smoking the best weed with lots of really hot chicks. Nickleback's got some great new music. Look at Weezer's newest album, insane right?!?!?!?! WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN TO BANDS? Why do they get turned into mainstream drones? Why do major record labels sign them to contracts that force them to play regurgitated shit? I don't know, but it scares me to death.
DON'T GET THE BLACK KEYS!!! PLEASE DON'T HURT THEM MAINSTREAM MONSTER!!! I WILL FIGHT YOU IF YOU TOUCH THEM.
I'd like to take this moment to say, hey Jack White and Third Man Records.....you guys rockkkk!!!
Let music breathe....the industry is dying...creativity is being squandered
i dunno if rock band and guitar hero are contributing to the fall of the music industry... if anything they might be inspiring people to play more. sure, i think most people would agree that playing a real instrument is more impressive than playing the plastic equivalent - but i dont think someone that would otherwise have played an instrument would become satisfied with a video game. plenty of people that play guitar hero or rock band would have never played an instrument anyways. i would argue that after playing guitar hero, more people would be more interested in learning real guitar afterwards... im just saying i probably wouldnt have included these games in a list of 3 reasons the music industry is dying...
ReplyDeletemaybe it has something to do with music being put on the internet, making it hard to differentiate one band from the flood of other artists out there. with the internet, there are so many ways to hear lots of new music besides the radio and its also a lot easier for bands to put themselves out there - a fact which wasn't true in the past. in order to be accepted in the mainstream, you just have to be catchy whereas good music isn't always as universal. there could be a lot of talent out there, but it's harder to find since big recording companies aren't trying to sell it... maybe once a truly good band "makes it" into the mainstream, they are bought up by those same recording companies, but there are still so many good artists out there if you look and that's what really matters to me.