John Mellencamp - The State of the Music Business

[driveby]

Had the industry not been decimated by a lack of vision caused by corporate bean counters obsessed with the bottom line, musicians would have been able to stick with creating music rather than trying to market it as well.

[Avernus]

creative difference has been almost completely eliminated in the mainstream (not that it's been all that strong in the past 15 years)....but I find myself listening to older stuff from the 70's and some 80's....and the only recent stuff in the past 10 years is a small portion of underground hiphop and a few unknown rock bands...

 

lately I've been listening to 'If These Tree's Could Talk' a rock band that uses no vocals at all.....I mean at this point I don't even care about the BS that is being said in music anyways...

[AtomicCEO]

File sharing (and Myspace) has become what independent local radio used to be. Without it, I'd have no exposure to good music at all.

 

A vast majority of the bands I've gotten into in the past 10 years has been from people giving me CDs or sharing files to me. 0% of it came from hearing it on the radio. (Shamefully, about 5% came from TV shows or commercials).

[SheikYerbuti]

Had the industry not been decimated by a lack of vision caused by corporate bean counters obsessed with the bottom line, musicians would have been able to stick with creating music rather than trying to market it as well.

 

And then we'd be blessed with hundreds more "Hurts So Good"'s.

 

[j2v]

File sharing (and Myspace) has become what independent local radio used to be. Without it, I'd have no exposure to good music at all.

 

A vast majority of the bands I've gotten into in the past 10 years has been from people giving me CDs or sharing files to me. 0% of it came from hearing it on the radio. (Shamefully, about 5% came from TV shows or commercials).

 

I don't know that it needs to be shameful anymore. A lot of the new stuff I've picked up over the past few years came from shows like Rescue Me (Denis Leary said he would listen to satellite radio indie channels, find stuff he likes, and ask the show to use it) and The Shield. I'm sure there are a ton more like that—more so than the common perception of a show like, say, Gray's Anatomy taking Snow Patrol or The Fray and turning them into the Next Big Thing. Apple ads have some unique stuff as well, and there have been multiple times I've gone from the TV to the computer searching by lyrics or "(company name) new ad song".

 

At least there's some individuality in the commercials; you're absolutely right that there's nothing new on radio anymore.

 

2V

[dmarc117]

i feel bad for john and all his fellow performers

[TimC]

I agree with Avernus. Nothing good since Hall & Oates. Absolutely nothing.

[BeeR]

A good article ("Reagan is the debil" and similar left-wing BS aside - and it generally kinda fell apart at the end). The state of music is pathetic, in all genres. Like pro sports, though, I think this is just an unfortunate potential consequence of capitalism. In the end it's all about money and screw anything/anyone else.