THE_LEGENDARY_HQB

Bon dia pa tur na esaki friu dia,

Today I'd like to discuss one of my pet peeves.
CORPORATE MUSIC.
As an artist who values my music immensely, and who views it as an extension of my "soul", I find myself alternately disgusted, saddened, and enraged when I turn on the Radio. In Mass. two companies, ClearChannel and Entercom, own most of the music stations. The result is predictable: cookie cutter "flavour of the month" bands, who rise from nowhere, become absurdly popular based on 1 or 2 songs selected by the big labels, then vanish off the face of the Earth, never to be heard from again.

This, I contend, is to be expected.

The megalabels have absolutely no interest in music. Period.
Most of them have diversified to such an extent that music forms only a small part of their revenue. What the lables are experts at, is exploiting the worst tendencies in human nature. Grouthink. Fear of change. Herd mentality.

I direct this message especially at people who might be in a band or musical project. If you have any intention of "hitting it big", throw any dreams you ever had about maintaining your musical integrity out the door. Now. It is nearly impossible.

In order to "reach the masses", you have to create something that is as uncreative and formulaic as possible. The more generic the sound, the more predictable the chord progression, the more "hip" the lyrics, and the more uncreative the style, the more records you'll sell. If you're goal is to live in a mansion in L.A and have your wall lined with gold records, more power to you.
What's unfortunate, is that there are many truly outstanding artists who think they can beat the system. They think they can do what they love, without interference from the lable, and sell millions of CDs. When they find themselves with thousands of unsold albums, and their lable is pressuring them to sound "more like Korn", they soon realize that you can't enter the belly of the beast and expect to not get digested.

This has been the case, to some extent, since the days of wax cylinders. In the last 10 years, however, it has become so blatantly obvious that intelligent, thoughtful people can no longer ignore it. With the spread of mega conglomerates owning hundreds of radio stations, and the consolidation of the major Lables {I think it's down to 5 big companies now}, it is imperative for all people who consider themselves artists, or creative, or who simply appreciate the creative spirit inherent in music, to simply stop buying corporate albums. Now. Don't worry about them going out of business, they have more than enough sheeple to buy their product.

There is no justification for any person to allow their hard earned money to go into the pockets of companies whose de facto raison d'etre is the production and promotion of substandard audial tripe.

If you have a local underground in your area, support it.
Fight any attempts by the mainstream to co-opt and destroy genres such as punk, jungle, industrial, and noise.
Avoid infighting and the resist the temptation to break off and form insulated "subscenes", isolated and fearful of other groups.

Rally around the D.I.Y concept, and accept any performer who adheres to that philosophy as a member. D.I.Y is not just for punk!

Beware those who would deal with the major lables. Discourage "rock star attitudes", for they should be the exclusive domain of the shallow, souless corporate stooge groups. Encourage comaraderie between performers and spectators.

Comments?

D.I.Y FOREVER!

THE MASSES ARE ASSES-WHY LISTEN TO THEIR MUSIC?

Respect,
The Legendary HQB, Esq.

HaysooChreesto!

The music industry has always functioned in the manner you describe, and unfortunately always will.
I remember being a teenager and going to L.A. to see and hear all the local bands.
It was cool hearing tapes that bands would make that they paid for out of their own pockets. The production quality was always bad, but it was still fun to become a fan of a band that was only known locally.
That also gave me access to a lot of unknown overseas bands as well.
But in the end, L.A. metal became a parody of itself with bands like Poison, Winger, and Ratt's second album on (Ratt, btw started out as really hard rock band).
Same with the grunge scene and industrial.

I'll agree though, that it's worse than ever. The idea of people getting famous that don't even write their own music is abhorrent at best. Top 40 music is foul.

August Spies

Lamma,

see the great thing about modern music is that we can record it DIY and have it sound great.

for instance, both things my label has released (http://circlethata.org , but it is metal and hardcore stuff)

HaysooChreesto!

Actually, I was going to mention that us geezers didn't have access to cd technology back in the paleolithic era of the 80's (that's the 1980's btw ), but about a year ago on the way to paintballing, my nephew had my brother and I listen to a cd that some punk band from the local high school had made.
The quality was better than the old 4 and 8 track cassettes that we used to make, but not by a whole lot.
Oh yeah, the band sucked. There's something vile about punk music with Xtian lyrics.
Geez, anyone remember Stryper?

August Spies

well, most real punk/hardcore bands nowadays got to the studio and such. I would say virtually every hardcore band I buy has sound on the level of any major label release, sometimes better.

Of course, bands will still records shitty demos and such. Was this a real cd? or just some CDr demo?

fando

The underground, independent band scene still exists in L.A. I know several bands and like to follow them around as they play in local bars and clubs. They rely on word of mouth and the internet to gain mindshare. I have rarely seen a so called 'professional' band play. Maybe they're caught up in their greed and spend most of their time trying to make it big instead of playing for the masses.