Posted on 01/23/2022 3:42:55 PM PST by Yardstick
Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market, according to the latest numbers from MRC Data, a music-analytics firm. Those who make a living from new music—especially that endangered species known as the working musician—should look at these figures with fear and trembling. But the news gets worse: The new-music market is actually shrinking. All the growth in the market is coming from old songs.
The 200 most popular new tracks now regularly account for less than 5 percent of total streams. That rate was twice as high just three years ago. The mix of songs actually purchased by consumers is even more tilted toward older music. The current list of most-downloaded tracks on iTunes is filled with the names of bands from the previous century, such as Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Police.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Fun thing with Rival Sons is they grab from all over but make it their own. First time or two I listen to one of their songs I hear all kinds of influences “ooh Mountain, touch of Cult in the vocals there” etc. But by the 3rd or 4th time I can’t hear that anymore, it’s a Rival Sons song by then. Personally I think they’re the best thing happening in rock and roll today and if the guys in charge of the industry had a single clue between them they’d be pushing them like crazy and all their albums would be multi-platinum.
Everybody’s gotta know their wheelhouse. The great part about the modern world is there’s tons of the internet that’s very good at recommending. Whether it’s reading the wiki page of a band and seeing who counts them as an influence, or going onto one of the service and seeding a playlist. You’d be surprised how much is actually happening out there that comprehends the past and learns from it. Just don’t expect any of them to be signed by Sony and get radio play.
There is great new music. But it’s not the stuff the major labels are pushing. The bigs have all gotten addicted to the formula. Which is worn out and boring, and now make nothing but disposable music. They no longer take risks, they no longer groom and grow and artist. It’s now “you’re marketable, get in the studio, let our producer do his thing, cash the check and shutup”.
Sounds like exactly what Frank Zappa said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZazEM8cgt0
Also, you could argue that it was the gatekeepers -- the record companies and radio stations -- who made classic rock. Play this. Don't play that. Promote this heavily. Ignore that. They don't have that power any more, and there is way too much new music for listeners to go through, pick out things they like, and make them national hits. Hits on the internet are more likely to be cat videos than rock singles, and they're not hits for very long.
Finally, the rock star thing, the mythos, the glory, seems to be dead. Nobody in rock music is going to have the kind of reputation the musicians of the 60s and 70s had, though pop music may still have its gods and legends.
But whites buy it.....it’s once again as I just said here
Black music for white kids
Hip hop and R&B
Except the bottom of the barrel taste and talent wise
Overproduced
It’s a dichotomy and I know this raising kids in this
Average weekend there are a dozen teen kids in my home ..boys and girls ..usually 4-5 boys stay over
Or they go to bonfire out near the barm...not too near lol
I hear their music....2/3 rap....and one third my music .....
The more white boy kids will publicly disown rap but risk being told they are prejudice ...
Not in a serious way...just poking
Girls like rap...so they can bob their heads to it and their taste follow the boys...one of the few things like that btw..
Remember girls at Sabbath...shows early 70s ....they were like what is this tribal zombie fest....am I to be sacrificed????....”I’m not a virgin btw”
There is woke pressure on white rural and suburban kids to not be hostile to blackness
There is a tiny sub culture is kids who like metal metal ....the rejects...but that is ok
Jocks like rap because they idolize black athletes
A black athlete in suburban white culture has his pick of the litter of stupid whites girls who hide it from thier parents
There can be a half dozen of them in a 2000 student school and they will leave their Mark
White girls are scared to say no....be called a racist
Folks I don’t think know how wacky it is ...and I’m in the south albeit a Yankee dominated part...
What kids listen to reflects all this....it’s a a mess
My oldest boy bucked this and did not care but it made for a limited social life and he’s still sort of that way...at 21 working for himself
He knows urban culture today for what it is...trash
Sticks to his guns
Yeah, and that interview was about 8 years before they codified the formula. It’s so much worse now because they literally have software, it’s not even lame arbiters, it’s just an analysis tool, tell it to read the MP3 and it’ll come back and tell you how well the matches the formula.
Just as no classical music composer is going to have the reputation that Beethoven and Bach, etc. had. It's about being the original. Sure there may be a lot of guitar players that are technically better than Jimi Hendrix was. But Jimi created out of nothing, that's why he will be revered years from now.
I was never big a Hendrix fan...Now Joe Walsh? Thats a master guitar player.
You can bet Hendrix was a huge influence on Joe.
Exactly and history provides thousands of varying examples. Like you can't have a Woodstock II, or another Beatles, or another RUSH Limbaugh.
Funk pop a roll the only goal
The music business is a hammer to keep
You pegs in your holes
But please don’t listen to me
I’ve already been poisoned by this industry!
-Andy Partridge (XTC) 1983
😄👍
That is sadly true. The time is coming, and probably soon, when hearing Elvis, or the Temptations, or the Carpenters playing will be like it was in the 60's and 70's for us to hear Al Jolson or Kate Smith. The Beatles got new life recently because of Peter Jackson's documentary, but that's an exception.
That is sadly true. The time is coming, and probably soon, when hearing Elvis, or the Temptations, or the Carpenters playing will be like it was in the 60's and 70's for us to hear Al Jolson or Kate Smith. The Beatles got new life recently because of Peter Jackson's documentary, but that's an exception.
Not sure about that. I have been randomly sampling.
The rock and roll from the 60s to 70s, the Brit’s, etc, was very influenced by the blues from that time
The Beetles did a song that included the words “Will you still need me, will you still love me when I’m 64?”. That one sounds a great deal like some of the 20s and 30s tunes.
“We boomers hit the lottery on music no doubt of that...
I am very grateful”
And a lot of that we owe to our Brit cousins who loved American music and sent their take on it back over here. That ignited a fire that raged for years.
I asked a 20 yr old barista pal what music she listens to... it was some of the blandest most insipid crap imaginable. I gave her links to good stuff from our youth and the reaction is ‘where has this been my whole life’...
try these at #140
They used tgat sort of electric ukelele later. Ya.
Huge subject
These Guys didn’t just come up with these tunes. They were influenced by pure classic compositions tgat we’re in turn classic. The patterns are appealing to us
Much can be said about Tge opposite in Catholic Churches. There’s a prohibition of classic hymns there replacements are tunes with disturbing time signatures. They drive people away.
I used to go, when they still had it, to an evening mass with well done Gregorian chant a capella music. Latin mass. Usually packed no sign of piece btw. That was where the single men went. (Single or married with progressive wives)
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