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Posted on 05/26/2004 8:28:06 AM PDT by FilmCutter
THE WAY THE MUSIC DIED PBS Airdate: Thursday, May 27, at 9 P.M., 60 minutes
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.”
In “The Way the Music Died,” airing Thursday, May 27, at 9 P.M. on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINE® follows the trajectory of the recording industry from its post-Woodstock heyday in the 1970s and 1980s to what one observer describes as a “hysteria” of mass layoffs and bankruptcy in 2004.
“This is the story of how the pressures to perform financially have affected the ability of many pop musicians to make the art they want,” says FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk. “The starkness of the difference between the environment that exists in the midst of this ‘perfect storm’ and the way the business once operated is nothing short of astonishing.”
The documentary tells its story through the aspirations and experiences of four artists: veteran musician David Crosby, who has seen it all in a career spanning 35 years; songwriter/producer Mark Hudson, a former member of The Hudson Brothers band; Hudson’s daughter, Sarah, who is about to release her first single and album; and a new rock band, Velvet Revolver, composed of former members of the rock groups Guns n’ Roses and Stone Temple Pilots, whose first album will be released in June. But how will these artists fare at a time when the record industry is clearly hurting?
“It’s a big moment,” says Melinda Newman, West Coast bureau chief for Billboard magazine. “There are about 30,000 albums released a year, maybe a hundred are hits. Sales have fallen from $40 billion to $28 billion in just three years.”
FRONTLINE follows the trends in the record business that led to unprecedented growth of more than 20 percent per year in the 25 years following the industry watershed at Woodstock. Crosby, for example, recalls how his new band’s album made millions after Crosby, Stills, and Nash performed at the legendary rock concert.
“It was the moment when all that generation of hippies looked at each other and said, ‘Wait a minute! We’re not a fringe element. There’s millions of us! We’re what’s happening here,’” Crosby tells FRONTLINE.
FRONTLINE follows the career of rocker Mark Hudson, whose group The Hudson Brothers began as a 1970s rock band. “It was post-Woodstock, pre-disco, pre-MTV. So it was a point when music still had truckloads of integrity,” Hudson tells FRONTLINE. “Somebody was getting ready to exploit rock and roll.”
Hudson tells his story of how the business changed him and how The Hudson Brothers ended up becoming TV stars as the summer replacement for the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. In the early 1980s, MTV fueled a further explosion of interest and seemed to broaden the appeal of rock music.
But surprisingly, there are those who now argue MTV was a negative force. “What it did really is make the business a one trick pony—and everything became about the three minutes, the single, the hit single,” entertainment attorney Michael Guido tells FRONTLINE. “I think the album died with MTV. The culture in the record companies in the last twenty years has been to reward artists for three minutes of music, not for forty minutes of music.”
Some critics fear that the industry’s need for quick hits has made it difficult for more adventurous artists to offer the unique sounds and challenging themes that have long been the hallmark of the best album artists.
FRONTLINE also examines the effect of consolidation of ownership on the music industry. “What you had were these people who had been tremendous entrepreneurs…bought up by a multi-conglomerate,” Billboard’s Newman says. “And it just changes the complexion. The whole way you’re having to make decisions is based on different models.”
Michael “Blue” Williams, manager of the Grammy Award-winning OutKast, agrees. “We’re run by corporations now,” he says. “We have accountants running two of four majors now, and they don’t get it. It’s a numbers game. And music has always been a feelings game.”
The consolidation of the radio industry also negatively impacted the recording industry, observers say. “Thousands of radio stations changed hands, and companies that wanted to really get on radio were able to pull up some enormous multibillion dollar mergers,” Los Angeles Times reporter Jeff Leeds tells FRONTLINE. “Suddenly a company that once owned three dozen stations could suddenly own a thousand.”
With programming decisions centralized at the corporate level, most stations follow a mandated play list. In some cases, it’s just fourteen songs per week—leaving little airtime for the introduction of new artists.
FRONTLINE profiles Mark Hudson’s daughter singer/songwriter Sarah Hudson as she prepares to release her first album at a time when the music industry is struggling. “For any new artist, the odds are almost insurmountable. I think if they knew the odds, they would never get in the first place. You know, the vast, vast majority of records go absolutely no where,” Newman says.
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.
“The Way the Music Died” is a FRONTLINE co-production with the Kirk Documentary Group. The producer, writer, and director is Michael Kirk.
FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers. Additional support is provided by U.S. News & World Report. FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. The executive producer for FRONTLINE is David Fanning.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench,a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free,and good men die like dogs.
There's also a negative side."
Attributed to Hunter S. Thompson
I hope you all watch and enjoy, FilmCutter
I'd say "Artistic Drought" is the leading cause. Fewer and fewer "artists" out there worth listening to, 'specially when they go hip-hop.
Not one word of the RIAA lawsuit debacle.
From my limited knowledge of late 20th century American market pop music.
"Hey Jude" broke the 3 minute rule for hit singles and after that concept albums ascended with the zenith being "Dark Side of the Moon" in 73.
Then MTV appears and brings back the 3 minute rule.
MTV has now degenerated into mindless programming dreck, everything form "Jackass" to the "Real World", IMO.
Exactly. There is NO original music anymore (at least it tends to be fairly rare). All the Britney clones, and hip-hop clones... And it's all bubble-gum pop, created by a bunch of paid "songwriters" in the big studios to write for the "idols". Are we ever gonna see stars that write their own music anymore? Music that has meaning and just isn't about angst and sex and Me-Me-Me?
Also, I've bought more used CDs. The web is amazing for that. Something which I want which used to be collecting dust in a used record store in Texas can now be put on the web for anyone to buy anywhere. Unless I am desparate to get a new album, I'll check the prices on used ones first. I haven't gotten a bad one yet.
Artistic drought, my @ss. There are thousands of incredible bands out there that the major labels refuse to sign. The RIAA is an impediment to good music and have only themselves to blame. Whiners!
With some exceptions, the quality of popular music has been in a steady free-fall since the 1970s ended. I am amazed at how much crap I hear on the radio these days; I am even more amazed at how many different radio stations in the same market all seem to be playing the same crap.
The only decent rock station in southwest Ohio.
"Hey Jude" broke the 3 minute rule..."
I think I'd credit Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" (1965) with breaking this rule. It ran out to around 6 1/2 minutes, as I recall.
Amen. It's been downhill since the Kingston Trio.
Sooner or later a new generation will arise and discover that there is a whole musical world beyond the electric guitar.
I'm dating my age but I remember when you could buy used LP's at any street near a college.
This is just my opinion, but a band that would put out a CD in a LP sized cardboard cover(wrap the CD in plastic and a paper sleeve) with some good artwork and liner notes, could get themselves noticed.
Oh yeah the music has to be good also.
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The RIAA is attempting to destroy music, but they will end up only destroying themselves.
Did that go to #1 as a single?
IIRC, "Hey Jude" was the first song more than 3 or 4 minutes to go #1.
Not to quibble, I beleive that "Hey Jude" was the first song exclusively released as a single that was more than 4 minutes long to go to #1.
On the old show "Politically Incorrect" that one of the major rappers ( I think it was Ice Cube ) said about today's music, "In ten years I don't think my wife and I will hear these tunes and turn to each other and say, hey. They're playing our song." This is from a man whose career is making money from modern rap.
Bob is right, RIAA lawsuit is one of the leading causes of music industries death. The fight for intellectual properties and the eventual sharing of music files should have been at least acknowledged in the article.
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