[atlantaprog] Re: Fwd: Tape Op issue 65

Booyah, granny!  I pretty much agree with this rant 100%.  Yet my ultimate 
reaction to this is, "Yeah?  So what?"  
 
You see, I view the homogenization of modern pop/rock/r&b/hip-hop music as a 
SYMPTOM, not a cause.   Things got to be this way because the record industry 
got bought up by large corporations. Then the broadcasting industry got 
deregulated, went corporate, and consolidated.  With large corporations the 
driving force is profit/shareholder value.  So the product -- the music part of 
it -- necessarily gets commoditized.  That's how companies do business -- they 
try to manufacture their products with as little overhead as possible.   Let's 
be honest, though: there's always been a certain measure of that in pop/rock.  
It's "the star-maker machinery behind the popular song".  But the advent of 
modern digital and specifically computer-based recording only makes Joni's 
metaphor more pointed.  Increasingly, producers can establish any musical mold 
they want and stick the hottest bimbos (male or female) available into it.  
Which is much cheaper than actually investing in a long-term career for a 
talented, temperamental, EXPENSIVE legitimate artist.  
On top of this, and related directly to the author's position, there is a trend 
on the technical side of the music industry to bandwagon to the newest gear.  
There is always new gear to A-B, minutiae of specs to analyze, talk about who's 
using what piece, where, on what record.  I think it's hard to really quantify 
or qualify the gains we've seen in the last 20-30 years in terms of advances in 
audio gear.  Ultimately, while many audio production tasks have gotten easier 
and/or cheaper, we've paid for it in sound quality.  Couple this gear slutting 
with extreme pressure from the people paying their bills and you can see why 
audio pros end up knuckling under, producing crap just like the author admits 
to.
 
I think those two trends have combined into a mainstream river of crapola.  You 
have least common denominator artists being produced and recorded, effectively, 
by a whole profession largely filled with lemmings.  Not a good recipe for 
quality art, IMO.
 
I am not curmudgeonly about new music -- there is plenty of good new music out 
there, and more comes out daily.  But I strongly believe that, while even 15 
years ago there was still regular intersection possible between "good" music 
and "massively popular" music, these days those intersections are few and far 
between.  Mainstream popular music is almost universally dismal in terms of 
writing, performance, production, marketing, etc.    You have to go 
significantly far off the reservation sometimes to find new music that's worth 
a crap.
 
  > ----------------------------------------------------------------------> > 
From: Allen Welty-Green <agmedia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> Subject: [atlantaprog] Fwd: 
Tape Op issue 65> Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 10:35:23 -0400> > For your reading and 
discussion pleasure:> > http://www.tapeop.com/tapeoptemp/TapeOp65Page90.pdf> > 
> ------------------------------> > End of atlantaprog Digest V5 #64> 
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