I was thinking about music as of late, and I am frankly tired of American Idol and the Disney Channel dominating what Americans, and the world, consider popular. Justin Beiber follows Miley Cyrus, who followed Jonas Brothers, and before that we had Spice Girls, Britney Spears, and Backstreet Boys. I think the last time music was interesting was probably in the early 1990s when hip-hop and dare I say even grunge rock were prevalent. Back then you had House of Pain, Salt-N-Pepa, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Dr. Dre and others making very potent music that people respected and cared about. Lately, I can’t think of music/artists that people respect and care about. It’s alot of rappers saying nothing with catchy hooks sung by females, with “auto-tune” on full-blast, making everyone sound digitally manipulated and party-ready. Well, the party isn’t as good as it once was.
I feel like the music biz and show business in general have run out of creativity. It seems like everything’s a remake of something already done before…Where are the artists taking music to different places? Where are the new Michael Jackson’s and Beatles? Who is re-defining American culture through song these days? I can’t think of anyone. Sure Rihanna has had a lot of hit singles, but I can’t see how “Umbrella” will matter ten years from now, except to get people on a dancefloor perhaps? Just seems to me that music today is alot of noise but little substance.
Now I know you can go online and find obscure bands and singers and support them by downloading their tunes for 99 cents these days, but the problem is they have small audiences. The industry used to be controlled by gatekeepers which helped Joe so-and-so become a superstar. Now with all the labels pretty much kaput, and artists doing it for themselves, you don’t have superstars, you’ve got minor, niche successes. Fall Out Boy is an example. They’re big but not HUGE. Where are the Celine Dion’s? The Aerosmith’s? The Journey’s? Today the music world is splintered by the web and it’s something that really bugs me!
I should talk. I am planning on being an independent artist promoting my music online in 2010. I don’t know if I will “sell” 10 downloads or a million. We shall see. Would I like to influence many people thru music? Yes! Will that be possible in today’s “Facebook” world? Who knows? What a weird wired world we live in right now.
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