The Day That Music Died
This immortal line taken from Don McClean s classic “American Pie” unintentionally foresaw the state of the popular music industry nowadays. The onslaught of file-sharing, downloading and burning of popular music have the charts being reduced to the most popular download heading the list. Therefore, reducing the concept of popular music into a three-minute file. You could say that this has really taken us back to the fifties when Rock n Roll first hit and the youth market first clamoured for that latest three minute song from Chuck Berry or the like and laid the foundation of the record shop as we know it. Whereas in the fifties the case was demand outweighing the supply forcing home grown talent to mimic the sounds coming from the USA and becoming popular in their own right. Todays situation seems to have a slightly different twist.
As we progressed from those early record shops the popular music industry was born and investment in an artist or group came from belief in talent. So nurturing became the order of the day and anyone with something to say and the right image were given a chance to produce music in the form of a long player. This opened the doors of indulgence and experimentation culminating in listenable or “unlistenable” sounds. Either way it made it an interesting journey for the music buyer who was prepared to venture into the work of an artist and maybe find something not at first noticed. Because of this, the record companies had more patience with artists and allowed them the chance to have difficult third and forth album release in hope that they may formulate and produce a best selling classic of ten or more songs, which made the wait worthwhile for all involved and therefore moving on experimentation in music.
Today with the long player all but consigned to the dustbin. The way popular music is developed now has become a hit based download with record companies showing the door to any artist failing to make an immediate impression. This stifles any artist development and rids any artist of creating a following. You could say that this has been a revolution akin to Punk in that anyone can put their music out there, therefore bypassing the record companies and going straight to the public is the best way. The problem I see with this is that this new way is directionless and unformulated without any quality control making finding good music for the buyer harder and by losing the record company you lose the guidance and experience from people involved from the sound engineer upwards.
We now have a instant pick n mix music business where artists are picked up and dropped as instantly as switching channels on a TV with no place for a record store where like minded people can share thoughts on the pros and cons of any particular artists work We just have music as a commodity alongside milk and beans in your local supermarket with them only investing in what sells and at the cheapest price and leaving us with a chart full of Easy Listening classics.
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