Ermz
¯\(°_o)/¯
Hey James,
You make good points, and I'm in agreement with most, if not all of them.
My qualm is with the music industry, rather than the music itself. I understand that there is always going to be all sorts of music. Some good, some bad, some purely filler and some done as a blatant grab for as many wallets as possible. That's all good and well, but I don't like seeing the mainstream - the most commercially and financially successful projects - being reduced to what they currently are. I understand that I have a fairly limited personal perspective as far as the flow of years goes, but from all I've heard and seen lately it seems that we are heading head-first into remaking the mistakes made in the 80s. Over-production is rampant to a degree where I can barely stand even having the radio filling up ambient noise in the background. The hits for the last few years have been rehashes of the same simplistic formulas, strained entirely of individuality from the homogenization of the lead vocal (commonly the most identifiable element of popular music) and the incessant over-gridding of the beats and sampling of the instrumentation. The top acts may as well be interchangeable, and I wonder at times: 'is that maybe what the labels want?'.
I know these things work in ebbs and flows. Some times they feel like they stagnate and at others that they jump ahead. At the very moment we seem to have peaked at a period that could almost be called musical regression. Everything has been refined and worked into the ground so much that there is nothing new and remotely refreshing hitting the air waves. As always, the guys in their garages and bedrooms are going to push the limits, but we usually don't see the fruits of that in popular music until many years later, and usually in pretty watered down form.
An industry where where the most transitory and disposable music yields the greatest financial benefits is one that doesn't sit well with me, and never really has. An industry that doesn't foster over-production and the need for repeatability to ensure regular income is one that might actually promote development and progress. Such ideals are perhaps counter-productive to music, and in some ways might lead to another debate about what place big business really has in music. Hopefully in the future, with how things are changing, it will be possible for artists to sustain themselves almost entirely independently and this vulture of an industry will have collapsed around those who lorded it.
My biggest compass, and one of the most ironic aspects of my life was that for a very long time I hated music - or at least I thought I did. The problem, I realized, when I got into my teens was that I was only being exposed to the radio. I had no connection at the time to anything below the surface because my parents were never that big into music. Delving into metal, discovering raw emotion being injected into music so forcefully really resonated with me. From there discovering the power of orchestral and ambient electronic music only furthered my growing love for it. Basically, the point I'm making is that on some level I've *always* hated the majority of popular music. It's always felt soulless, and the industry has always felt wrong. This may be hopelessly preachy, as the idea of changing something that has such rock solid roots seems immensely futile, but it's important that I at least voice my view that the industry which sustains popular music seems to be a detriment to the artistic integrity of music as a whole.
It's something I feel at odds with, being in this line of work. Where will my role lead me down the track? At best, will I just be another extension of one of these corporate mechanisms, just polishing and shitting out yet another transitory product for someone else to get rich off? Is my loyalty to the artist and their vision, or their financial success? I despise the business aspect of the industry, and yet I'm a part of it. It's a contradiction I'm still trying to overcome, if one can truly do such a thing.
You make good points, and I'm in agreement with most, if not all of them.
My qualm is with the music industry, rather than the music itself. I understand that there is always going to be all sorts of music. Some good, some bad, some purely filler and some done as a blatant grab for as many wallets as possible. That's all good and well, but I don't like seeing the mainstream - the most commercially and financially successful projects - being reduced to what they currently are. I understand that I have a fairly limited personal perspective as far as the flow of years goes, but from all I've heard and seen lately it seems that we are heading head-first into remaking the mistakes made in the 80s. Over-production is rampant to a degree where I can barely stand even having the radio filling up ambient noise in the background. The hits for the last few years have been rehashes of the same simplistic formulas, strained entirely of individuality from the homogenization of the lead vocal (commonly the most identifiable element of popular music) and the incessant over-gridding of the beats and sampling of the instrumentation. The top acts may as well be interchangeable, and I wonder at times: 'is that maybe what the labels want?'.
I know these things work in ebbs and flows. Some times they feel like they stagnate and at others that they jump ahead. At the very moment we seem to have peaked at a period that could almost be called musical regression. Everything has been refined and worked into the ground so much that there is nothing new and remotely refreshing hitting the air waves. As always, the guys in their garages and bedrooms are going to push the limits, but we usually don't see the fruits of that in popular music until many years later, and usually in pretty watered down form.
An industry where where the most transitory and disposable music yields the greatest financial benefits is one that doesn't sit well with me, and never really has. An industry that doesn't foster over-production and the need for repeatability to ensure regular income is one that might actually promote development and progress. Such ideals are perhaps counter-productive to music, and in some ways might lead to another debate about what place big business really has in music. Hopefully in the future, with how things are changing, it will be possible for artists to sustain themselves almost entirely independently and this vulture of an industry will have collapsed around those who lorded it.
My biggest compass, and one of the most ironic aspects of my life was that for a very long time I hated music - or at least I thought I did. The problem, I realized, when I got into my teens was that I was only being exposed to the radio. I had no connection at the time to anything below the surface because my parents were never that big into music. Delving into metal, discovering raw emotion being injected into music so forcefully really resonated with me. From there discovering the power of orchestral and ambient electronic music only furthered my growing love for it. Basically, the point I'm making is that on some level I've *always* hated the majority of popular music. It's always felt soulless, and the industry has always felt wrong. This may be hopelessly preachy, as the idea of changing something that has such rock solid roots seems immensely futile, but it's important that I at least voice my view that the industry which sustains popular music seems to be a detriment to the artistic integrity of music as a whole.
It's something I feel at odds with, being in this line of work. Where will my role lead me down the track? At best, will I just be another extension of one of these corporate mechanisms, just polishing and shitting out yet another transitory product for someone else to get rich off? Is my loyalty to the artist and their vision, or their financial success? I despise the business aspect of the industry, and yet I'm a part of it. It's a contradiction I'm still trying to overcome, if one can truly do such a thing.
