On May 27 & 28, PBS Frontline aired The Way The Music Died. Click here to read more about it and/or stream the entire show.
In the recording studios of Los Angeles and the boardrooms of New York, they say the record business has been hit by a perfect storm: a convergence of industry-wide consolidation, Internet theft, and artistic drought. The effect has been the loss of billions of dollars, thousands of jobs, and that indefinable quality that once characterized American pop music.
“It’s a classic example of art and commerce colliding and nobody wins,” says Nic Harcourt, music director at Los Angeles’s KCRW-FM. “It’s just a train wreck.”
..Vying with Hudson for a place on the Billboard charts is Velvet Revolver, a “super band” backed by RCA Records, a label that is betting heavily on the group. FRONTLINE follows the marketing of the band as its members struggle to return to the spotlight. Velvet Revolver’s manager says success takes more than an expensive video and a marketing campaign. “It’s still all about the kids. If the kids want to request it, it gets played more and more. The more it gets played, the more people buy. The more people buy, the more records they sell. The more records they sell, shazam, you’re a rock star,” David Codikow says.
Shazam, you’re a rockstar! What a fucking joke. Talk about a pathetic sampling of artists. Particularly Velvet Revolver, a bunch of cynical, washed-up hair metallers being marketed by the beancounters so they can reclaim their late 80s/early 90s glory days and support their drug habits. I’m hoping consumers are starting to realize they’re being scammed, getting tired of music that’s made solely to make money.
The hour long program was a big letdown. It glossed over the RIAA issue, and barely scratched the surface at what goes on in the music industry, and how most artists on big labels end up in debt after the expensive marketing campaigns fail to, shazam, make rock stars of 99.5% of their rosters. If nothing else, it was illuminating in how the industry is shooting itself not just in the foot, but in the groin and head. If the producers had more collective brainpower than a gnat, it might have occured to them to acknowledge the existence of the indie world for a more balanced view. See why, in contrast, The Shins are selling records like hotcakes, and indie labels in general are thriving more than ever.
The best quotes came from another drug addict, hippie burnout David Crosby. At least he still has some wit. Watching the likable, sweet-natured and modestly talented Sarah Hudson haplessly squirm as her handlers try to jam her into an MTV-palatable personality was somewhat illuminating, and painful to watch.
