There was a time , not too long ago, when bands actually had instruments in them with people that could play them. Their popularity was decided by the audience via radio play. They had to work their way to the top of the charts and into our homes!

The continual struggle of the true artist is reflected in their music which appeals to the working class. We could relate to the struggle overcome and commended these bands for their hard work. More often than not these bands' anthems would be coursing through our veins while we worked, while we played, and while we slept.

These archaic enigmas of lore would mutate themselves in the basements and garages all over the world, only to seek our attention when the rythmic howl of their work had reached perfection........Man!!......Those were the good Ol days!!!

So what the hell happened!?!?

Today we see and hear nothing more then marketing agencies' plasticine digital harmonics spewed forth with the repugnant tempo of an advertising jingle.

The pseudobands of today produce whole albums without an instrument , the members of the pseudoband didn't grow together under the strife of the starving artist, they are introduced to one another and thrown together based on looks and height under the energy-efficient fluorescents of an audition call.

Musical talent of the pseudoband is never a concern, lipsyncing and digital editing will most certainly alter even the most horrible of American Idol cast-offs into a popstar.

Have the music companies condensed and reduced the musical taste of our world into nice prepackaged generic vitiman capsules to ingest once a day or as needed. They must not think it matters that we're missing the true flavor of good old band music, the blandness of the music scene today is comparible to a diet of rice and water.

Luckily the bands of lore are forever secured in recording for us to get our fix.

I can still be entranced by the wail of Hendrix's guitar or the haunting ascendancy of Plant's vocals of Zepplin. Fortunately I can still sit in awe at the eerie spectacle called Floyd, I can still close my eyes and hear the beats of Bonham for it isn't the beats he hits its the ones he doesn't.......without these I would surely wither and die.

I hear ya brother.

Loud and clear.

The recording industry and marketing companies have sucked the innovation out of every artist that hits the charts today.

The sad part? They are actually killing a lot of these artists who have come up with some very listenable stuff by overplaying and overmarketing the hell out of them.

One example I can think of is the band Jet. Ok, they were no Led Zeppelin or Eagles, but, they had kind of a fun sound on that first album they put out. It's a kitchy and retro and very listenable. Their record company marketed them right out of business, we the consumer never got a chance to hear what they could do artistically as they matured. Their one or two singles made some money, and the company was done with them and didn't allow them to morph and grow... they may have bombed eventually, but it was a shame we didn't get to see what they could do, if anything. Half of Zeppelins songs and even entire albums DIED when they were first released and got horrible reviews. But, since their record company allowed them to maintain control of their art, fans were allowed to make a decision about whether or not they liked what they were hearing.

Do you that if you call a radio station and request a song today, if it's a format station, they can't play something independent by popular demand? It actually breaks their contract with their ownership, who has contracts with record companies. It's abysmal.

I know, that 10 years from now, i'm not going to go to the record store and go looking for Nickelback's "Best Of" album, I'm not going to go looking for Rancids "decade of hits" It's just not going to happen.

There's no question that 10 years from now I might wander into a store and look for Bob Dylans best of or a Rolling Stones Best of.

It's criminal what record companies are doing.

The ONE bright spot might be the new MP3 market... NOW we might finally get to listen to what we like with out the recording industry telling us what we like.

The music industry is dead. Now is a good time to stock up on old favorites, and look into local musicians.

My mother listens to a music station on the radio every morning, that calls itself "Today's best music, KixyFM." All I hear on it is utter crap. The newest popular American music that I can still stomach is from the 80's.
Strangely, today's popular music in Japan still has talent involved, in my opinion.
They still get by on more than catchyness and looks over there.

WHY is there a difference? This question burns.

I love Jet......that was some good Rock and Roll!!!

But yes they were over marketed. The record companies had them everywhere from radio to TV. then gone. Your right the record companies didn't let them morph and grow.

Its like they know that consumers are going to spend a certain amount of money on music. The record companies then dictate where that money is going to go by only supplying what they want the money to be spent on.



This is truly sad. there was a time that radio stations played music based on public approval.....crowd-pleasers so to speak.

This is what happens when record lables own radio stations, it is a conflict of interest, similar to oil companies owning stock in media companies.

There is also alot of bribery from Record lables to get what they want played.


http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1210920,00.html

They sad part is is that the true muscians coming up from the sludge of the world with solid innovative sounds won't get signed or airplay because there isn't room for them in a market that is being saturated with these psuedo bands.

If you judge music based on how it is made rather than on how it is, then you have some ****ed up priorities.

This is true, but nothing popular over here today sounds good to me. I don't even like Dragonforce.
But of course, it does help to know that your music is made by real people, that it's coming from real hearts...

But.....you don't. Relation to the artist is just make-believe, you don't know the persons behind the band, you will never know them, no matter how much you fan-boy over them. It's just an added extra that people need so they can judge their music, which is totally unnecessary.

I know I don't know them, but I know they're making their music. (Whether performing, composing or both.) And that's what I mean.
And I agree that it's unnecessary when it's the music that counts, I did say that it only helps.

Edit to add:
Sort of like when someone likes an actor for the roles they play and how well they play them, when it's the movie that counts.

You know SOMEONE is making that music, you don't know who it is, and it's very unlikely that you will. The artist shouldn't have much more meaning than a simple label.




Yes, but again, in this case you are merely projecting something on him that shouldn't matter in your judgement.

At the very least I do know who's performing it. I watch a lot of live videos. Whether the bands I like compose their music or not, I know that they play their parts (instruments) and play them well.

Yes, they are little more than a label. The only thing else that matters is their skill. Not the person.

The skill and the sound it produces.
But of course, a person had to dream up the sound to start with. Whether it's the band themselves or someone else, doesn't really matter to me.
I'm a fan of composers as well, by the way.

Yes of course, but like I said, you have no chance of knowing who that is, so they don't really come into the equation.

Agreed! One has to wonder if the last several messages were even necessary.
It stands though, that no matter who makes today's popular music in America, it does not sound good to me.

When a true artist produces music from their own creativity or a collaboration of bandmates, the music is diferent , it is pure and artistic.....the label should not matter it is irrelevant

This what i believe your missing. When original music is created by an artist you can see the relationship not between the listner and the band, but you can see the relationship between the band and their music.

When you have manufactured music like BackStreetBoys, Brittney Spears....this pure and unadulterated creative process is not felt in the music or the performance.

Cheers!

You see a connection where you want to see one. It's unlikely to be the same as the artists.




No kidding.

Unlikely perhaps, but maybe... Just maybe... There exists an artist who both composes and performs their own music.
Just maybe.

Have you heard some of the travesties they're passing off as dance music lately? Classic songs like Let's Dance by Bowie and Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye, sped up with a dance beat put over the top passed off as something original.

This is truly shameful.

Yet it does prove my point that music needed to be truly original and innovative before it made it onto the charts. The bands of lore were so innovative and original that their rythms are tapped into and hijacked by the pseudobands of today.

I know people when they hear the opening to "Under Pressure" think its Vanilla Ice.

And thats what the record companies are going after, the young audience who know no difference.

Very shameful. I prefer listening to Dead Can Dance. At least they're original.

I am a fan of hip-hop and I dont mind samples being used in music, it's making something original from a wide range of new and old parts, but stealing the bass line in Under Pressure was theft in my eyes.

I doubt there's a drop of talent in Vanilla Ice's blood, compared to the oceans of talent Bowie and Mercury had.

It's funny, last night I went to a pub and briefly to a dance club. They played some new stuff I didn't recognize really... I'd say the vast majority of what the DJ played was the good old dance music.. Prince, Talking Heads, even some of the more kitchy stuff like the Romantics and Thompson Twins. I almost cried that I was hearing really good dance music by really good and talented artists.

I'm SO sick of the pure unaduterated JUNK coming out these day.

I have recently become something of a fan of Dropkick Murphy's... at least that's a throwback to some of the punk-ish stuff I really loved.

I just reloaded the CD changer in my car... Traveling Wilburys, Pretenders, Jackson Browne, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Steely Dan. A little something for every mood. Most of them are "Best Of" CD's... we won't be seeing a best of from hardly any of the artists that have come out in the last 10 years.

There's some bands out there still good, but you will never see them on tv. Check out rat dog. (Bob Weir's new band---basically the dead without garcia).

I agree 100% with everyone here. but to put a bright spin on it thier are some good bands still out there in the mainstream making albums of blistering good sounds, example. Radiohead. Wolfmother. Foo fighters. to name but a few.

Once a person developes a personalised taste of music , regardless of classification, then possibly the state of music developement today is not a threat.

But the psuedobands and the means that they are marketed, do target the impressionable , the young, and those that know no better.

This is what scares me.......I personally do not want to live in a George Jetson type world or a Star Trek where things are created in a replicator.