Monday, September 17, 2007

''L'art pour l'art''


I was having a conversation with a much loved friend about music today; this was after fielding criticism that my blog was becoming a little bit too enamoured with the Rugby World Cup motif. I ask you!

Talk turned to current bands & what we felt the other might be interested in. It blows me away that even in our more "Mature" years we still pick up & listen to new bands. As we compared lists we discussed the state of the music industry in light of my recent Blog about downloading.

I reiterated my argument; that downloading was killing the music industry & not music.
The often heard counter argument from large Music Corporations is that we are robbing them of money to "Develop" new acts. Let's be honest here, the trend over the last 10 years or so has been to dump anyone who did not make a decent return on their first album. There is no "Development". There is exploitation as executives have to return great sales within the financial year or lose their fat salaries. They want sure fire products; not Art or Experimentation. That is all a newcomer gets in terms of developing their music.

If you apply this logic to the previous decades then bands such as U2 & REM, would never have got past album one. Neither for that matter would The Cure, Bruce Springteen or The Smiths. Yet they were allowed to develop their music over the course of at least 3 albums. There was a time when buying a new album from a favourite band always came with the thrill of wondering which direction they were going to go in. Now it is just a collection of the same tried and trusted formulae, as noone wants to be out on their ear for poor sales & you only get one shot.

Listening to:

Lifehouse
iLiketrains
Harold Budd
Bill Nelson

1 comment:

Giselle said...
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