I've been working on a theory about the direction the music/recording industry would take, based on its present predicament.

In the past, the industry would simply wait for talented folks to come to their door in Los Angeles. This made sense, because this is what you did when you thought you might have some talent. You sold everything, moved to L.A., blew a record exec, and maybe you got a contract.

One night, after mixing LSD, Red Bull, and Whiskas Cat Treats, an executive had the radical idea that there might be talent Outside of L.A., Hell, possibly even Outside of CALIFORNIA ITSELF in one of those other states people in California sometimes hear about.

Thus was born the Talent Scout, whose job was to sift the talent from the masses, for mass consumption. And life was good. Middle-aged, balding, overweight, uneducated, Recording Industry executives could still get laid. Talented, moralless, illiterate people could still get a record deal (Without moving to California). Consumers could believe that what poured from their speakers was nothing but the Golden Manna of songcraft, filtered from the musical heavens by people who were true authorities on what 'good music' really was all about.

Until The God-Damned-Interweb came along, and fucked up the works.

Now, any fool with an Internet connection and a soundcard can hack and wail into their computer and post it to their myspace page. (Ex: www.myspace.com/jaggedspiral ) People across the globe can find, sample, download and Paypal all the music in the world, right from their bedroom, without even getting dressed.

For a moment, the Recording Industry was able to hold off the tide, by doing things that your average home recording enthusiast couldn't dream of: No, not Use Talented Musicians, you silly! I mean: Slick Production. Bob Rock! Brittney Spears! Production so slick it ran through your ears like Castor Oil.

But the tide could not be held back. In fact, the discriminating public, realizing that they had been listening only to bands who would sleep with Middle-aged, balding, overweight, uneducated, Recording Industry executives, began to turn a blind ear to the overproduced fluff coming from the Record Industry, and the Independent (Also known as "Indie", or "Nothing-To-Do-With-The-Recording-Industry") Genre was born.

You are here. Enjoy your stay.

But you can't. Because you KNOW what is good. Really, truly objectively good. You liked Nirvana WAY before anyone else. You liked Cake, and Crystal Method, and Coheed and Cambria...and let's not even mention that you knew that Tapes 'n Tapes were good BEFORE YOU YOURSELF EVEN HEARD THEM! HA!! SO THERE!!

But you find yourself drowning in a barrage of independent music from every direction. Radio stations abound, whose program directors feed every scrap of audio into their playlist and hit "Random". You can't stand in a group of more than four people at the bus stop, for fear that a fucking Music Fest will break out. You are drowning in a sea of, well, everyfuckingbody throwing their demo recordings into the caucophony web of the AudioNet, and everyotherfuckingbody tossing out their blog-review of what is like, the best band in 4EvR!!!

So where is here? You are stuck between two hells. On the one hand, you are not going to fall for what "The Man" tells you is good, and on the other hand, it is impossible to navigate the quagmire of "This is the New Good Music"-dom that floods every conceivable media outlet. Even if you could, there simply isnt enough time in the average human life expectancy to sift through it all. So what is left to do?

I will offer you two solutions, but you won't like either of them.

One option is to re-invent "the man". Yes, you must find yourself a resource that you trust to make judgement calls about what is good music. Even if you don't agree with them 100%, you sill must find some source of filtered music. For instance, www.vita.mn , www.pitchforkmedia.com or the inevitable www.myspace.com

The other option is to embrace the Buddhist approach of letting go of desire. You must let go of the lazy, American desire to have someone, anyone hand you "good" music that you will like, because this is impossible, and only causes suffering. There are two things you have in common with every other person on the planet. You won't agree on pizza toppings, and you won't agree what music to listen to while eating said pizza.

I told you that you wouldn't like either option.

Clearly, Americans are all about the cheap way out. They want someone to tell them what is good, because they can't be bothered to pay attention themselves. They are not fans of music, they just want to hear music they believe is good.

They have chosen poorly. In the meantime, sites such as www.pitchforkmedia.com will proliferate and spread until they start charging admission, or advertising, or sexual favors to get your band a favorable listing.

And the New "Man" is born, build by your own hands to keep you down...

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Business Phenomena, Music Industry