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In Reply to: Re: Sad indeed posted by Martin Taylor on March 22, 2007 at 13:40:13:
Maybe? These huge companies took the same saturation marketing techniques they used to help drive ever growing LP sales into flat sales in the early/mid 80's, fed the public a new medium on which to listen to the same old music, sold them that new medium at seemingly inflated prices, re-saturated the market with tons of "product" and are now suffering because no one in charge seems to have any foresight beyond the next quarterly sales reports.The future for recording artists lays in boutique labels and direct marketing/sales, downloads and the Internet. The days of "blockbuster" breakthrough releases is a thing of the past, and that's what the big labels lived for and depended on, and what they haven't yet figured out how to survive without. They need to find a way to survive and possibly prosper while learning to turn down the volume. EVERY sale needs to count.
You're a kind soul, I think the music megacorps very much deserve what they now have, which is a creation of their own greed and lack of foresight and a dependency on outdated marketing and sales models.
"I always play jazz records backwards, they sound better that way"
-Thomas Edison
Follow Ups:
WELL SAID...and I think the same criticisms can be levied upon FM radio and its looming deimse. Same old tired playlists, boring DJs, and market driven sales and advertising darkness!
"The days of 'blockbuster' breakthrough releases is a thing of the past, and that's what the big labels lived for and depended on, and what they haven't yet figured out how to survive without."The problem is in recent time, there is little substance behind the "blockbuster".... It's basically an empty suit.
Just like the music media shapes public opinion by "validating" certain music as "best", "relevant", or "significant", it has also tipped its hand where anticipation is created before release (maybe with a pre-album single), as if the public would automatically embrace the music. And some of the worst music I've heard in recent time has had such hype applied to it. Often with a consensus parroting the media, "this stuff is great".....
While at the same time, what is released that's actually good is in total obscurity. Often from bands that have no budget to follow it up.
... well, actually I mean the music fan, or a good portion of them.
Do you believe the hype of international mega-corporations in other industries?
Oil companies?
Military suppliers?
No, of course not.
So why expect these corporations to be any better?
In the 60s CBS used the slogan "The man can't bust our music". NIce use of "our".
Well, he doesn't need to bust it, he just uses it to promote whatever he is really selling and is actually interested in.
I think when a musician focuses on societal issues, the expression becomes limited in both musical imagination and situation. When a piece of music is labeled as "timeless", it's usually because such focus on society wasn't there in the first place. Aside from the musical style itself.I mean, there is a recent song by the Who called "Man in a Purple Dress".... Depicting a perspective of an outsider toward a mystical "wizard". The song has the paradox of seriousness and goofiness, and makes me paint an interesting picture inside my head..... But how is this tied to society? In no way whatsoever. It's maybe a subject matter that's I've never before heard in a rock song. And the best part- I'll probably enjoy this song 20 years from now (provided I'm still alive).
And in retrospect, the music I've enjoyed the most seem to deal with subject matters that are unique, and hence enables a freedom of style that I think makes the music special. Not just timeless, but maybe of classic stature.
Maybe the ideal intention for music is not to depict society, but to provide an escape from it.
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