Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
Problem is...without radio support those artists that are so "dope" aren't going to be able to make a good living.
They will mostly go unnoticed by the masses while Justin Bieber and Kanye and Beyonce make hundreds of millions of dollars and live like Kings and Queens.
Could you imagine if Jimi Hendrix were to be just starting out in 2015?
We would NEVER even know he existed because he wouldn't have any venues to play at that could actually further his career, nowhere on the radio to play his songs to spread them to the masses, and no big concerts to perform at (because he would be unknown) to make him a legend.
Just think about it.  You can replace "Jimi Hendrix" with any other great musician/legend and it would all be the same outcome.
Hell...Robert Plant, Mick Jagger, etc. wouldn't even make it past the auditions of American Idol because they don't sing according to the "formula".
Reality is, the music industry started becoming homogenized over the years and now it's pretty much hit rock bottom.
With the industry pretty much decimated (bands used to sell a MILLION copies of their albums right out the gate on the first day)...there isn't any room for people to take a chance on a guy like Jimi Hendrix, or The Beatles, etc.
They just go with the formula. Does it have a "producer" who comes up with good "beats" and a marketable face on the clown talking and auto-tuning over the "beat"?
Then it's a hit.
Real musicians and real singers who can write songs and know how to actually entertain a crowd without a stage full of "backup dancers" aren't even part of the equation anymore. |
The old school radio airplay payola scam was just as stifling if you ask me to artists and "classic rock" that made it to the radio was not necessarily the best of what there was to listen to by any stretch. Today bands have plenty of social media tools at their disposal to help get fans and sell music and support tours. Plenty of people know the story of Macklemore by now. Vampire Weekend is another band that generated their own success in the beginning through social media and the labels came to them rather than vice versa. Then there are also bands like Pearl Jam that spent time studying the Grateful Dead model so they could exist well beyond the fads and trends of radio's whims.
There is good music out there. Whether we find it or it finds us, great songs will always resonate and find their audience.
Still, for what it is worth, I have to admit that I didn't mind the booty shaking back up dancers at that Katy Perry concert I went to... all the young hotties jumping around while she sang about drunken threesomes wasn't so bad either...
There may be a difference between songwriting and music making but all of it can be entertaining, even if it isn't necessarily inspiring.