The Music Industry, And How It Has Changed.

Since the dawn of time, Mr and Mrs Homo sapient have loved to have a sit down and a bit of a listen to some good old music, and because of this, music has and will be one of, if not THE most influential, beneficial and influential ways of communicating messages, entertaining us, and changing the way we think in general. Despite the Rock and roll, rebellious, reckless personas that have been created for many rock stars, as many people acknowledge, being a celebrated musician required a plethora of talents; most musicians studied literature and theatre to become complex and thought provoking lyricists, and not to mention the fact that being a prodigious musician was a must…with the exception of Ringo Starr. The fact of the matter is that being a musician used to be something you had to put you blood, sweat and tears into, and the intense passion that the majority of the great musicians had for their art meant that it was a pleasure to do so! From Bob Marley to Bob Dylan, from Paul McCartney to Paul Weller, from John Lennon to Elton John, every musician was a talented musician (objectively speaking) and thank god some of them are still alive today! Each one left behind a legacy worth treasuring forever; music that connect with both the listener and the musician… music worth listening to.

Music has changed the way some of us think and live, but has the golden age of music vanished? If you ask me, our best years are behind us, and we’re now left with commercial catastrophes like Miley Cyrus and One Direction, which we’d all be better off without.

I could limit myself to explaining just how ‘beautifully composed’ modern commercialised music is, and the fact that it plagues the ears of whoever is in its presence. However, it wasn’t just listening to the music which made the whole experience a memorable one, it was also buying it. Picture this; it’s the 6th of August, 1965, and you wake up, completely ecstatic over the fact that the Beatles have finally released their new album, ‘Help!’. You can’t wait. As soon as you’re out of school, you race to your local record shop and use your pocket money to buy a copy. As you walk home, with the 12" disc of pure happiness in your hand, you feel complete. As soon as you get home, you spend hours listening to it on your record player, memorising the lyrics, and enjoying it more and more every time. Now, on the other hand, the only thing that stands between you and Flo Rida’s new single is your iTunes password. I think we can all agree that’s it best days are past us, although on the bright side, this day and age has made music so accessible that we can open our musical pallet to whatever we want to in a number of seconds. Out with the old and in with the new I guess… Although, the fact that 95% of the music downloaded from the Internet is illegal is maddening, no wonder the music industry loses $12.5 billion every year! Do people have no respect for their beloved artists anymore? In an interview, Jake Bugg shared this view;

When you had to go out to a shop and buy a record, you had to invest some money, time and effort in music and it made you really interested in listening to it, and working out what you did and didn’t like. It was really good for music, it created fans that actually lived the music and didn’t just have it as a free commodity.

Obviously, when looking at modern day artists, not all hope is lost, and when I address them as ‘today’s artists’, I mean artists who became big through flawed TV shows that meant they didn’t have to lift a finger in order to make millions and become susperstars. When they’re stripped down to the bare bones, shows like ‘X-Factor’ and ‘America’s got talent’ are nothing more than some perverted ‘Get rich quick’ scheme that caters for models who fit a certain criteria; Cookie cutter ‘talents’ that would not be anywhere without the reliability of the 12 year old consumer.

However, there are always going to artists who make good music and care about the content the create. The problem lies with the fact that there are fewer than there used to be, and the ratio of passionate musicians to commercial musicians is scarily uneven. Despite all this, It’s quite comforting to think that there was a time in which musicians would write music to make people think, not pay, yet unsettling to think that those days are seemingly gone. The fact that Ke$ha has sold more records than Pink floyd Is scary, and it may be because music has become such a commodity, but let’s face it, who listens to Ke$ha anyway? Her proud grandmother?! Music was once about talent, and now it’s become nothing more than a commercial marketplace with the sole purpose of making a profit. Make it stop! To quote Pink Floyd;

Money. It’s a crime.

At the end of the day, shooting to stardom requires only a few things nowadays; you either need to be rich in order to buy your way into the industry, or you need to have a ‘cool’ and ‘catchy’ song created soullessly that ticks all of the boxes in terms of profitability. What I find infuriating is the fact that if you actually have talent, but are low on funds, you will actually find it harder to become a successful musician than if you are loaded, can play about 3 chords on a guitar and need more auto tune than a badger. There are too many talentless musicians getting what they don’t deserve, whilst people that are genuinely passionate attempt to become as credited as them. I remember talking to my friend once, an avid ‘directioner’, about their new album, and how a lot of directioner a were really pleased with the fact that that Harry had written a song that was on the album, and that his writers ‘didn’t help him at all’.

I’m sorry, what?!

I couldn’t believe it, she was genuinely proud of poor wittle Hawwy who didn’t need any help from his writers to write a song. Correct me if I’m wrong, but surely his JOB should be to write his own music? It’s like giving a dog an Oscar for barking. IT’S EXPECTED OF HIM. See, it’s things like this that just make me question the future of music. It’s also the small things, like the fact that the Sex Pistols and Led Zeppelin didn’t win any awards for their historic music, whilst many undeserving artists walk away with far too many that make me want to scream (which would probably be enough to get me a number one single).

What many people don’t understand is that to make a song timeless, the physical profit that you will make from it doesn’t even come until the equation. It’s about evoking emotion, being passionate about what you write, crafting every harmony, every melody, every note, as if it was your last. Songs like Bohemian Rhapsody, Stairway to heaven, The dark side of the moon, they’re the kinds of songs that will live on forever.