The Scene Has Changed

Viewing and musing over Billboard charts, it struck me how many artist in the current Top 40 (Pop, Rock, and R&B) are actually terrible. This is not to say that their efforts or talent are any more or less than my own...but the the absolute truth is that music that now inhabits the digital frontier of the 21st century is mostly disposable. The current round of pre-fab ultra-lite pre-assigned chord pre-programmed percussive noise that has lodged itself in the mainstream is just...well...shitty.

The current stasis of the recording biggies (Warner, EMI, Virgin) are just now starting to come to the realisation that their existence and methodology have began to lose any valid sense of relevance..not only because the mediums in which the general public purchases their music has stemmed away from the traditional CD (downloaded whole-album mp3s actually surpassed plastic sales for the first time in 2006), but the fact that many idependent artists have began to control and effect their own destinies by virtue of creating their own distribution and advertising for very little to no cost. No longer is it adventagous to secure a recording contract with a monolithic label...nor is it really that needful. As an independent, I can say with great confidence that I would quickly turn down a recording offer from ANY label...because I have learned that I can 'make' it alone. And my revenue stream would allow far MORE return, more rapidly. I would not have to incur the blasphemous payback ratios vs. recording investment even mainstream performers tolerate to this day. Nor do I have to wrestle with being stiffed on royalties.

the real crux of my quandary (and this blog), is this...why is the general public still putting money down on garbage music, and is there ANYONE out there in any great number, still willing to put their money where their mouth is as far as investing in indie talent? And if there is anyone in the biosphere still willing to 'show up', and take a risk in purchasing new music from an artist/band they have heard little of, even if they discovered they liked it, be it me or anyone else? Or do you still require to have it presented to you in a commercially familiar fashion? In other words .. do you still give a shit about good music?