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A funny thing happened a couple days ago on VH1’s World Series of Pop Culture, and every record label in the world should be scared to death because of it. In a match-up between Almost Perfect Strangers 2.0 and Remo-Leen-Teen-Teen, the last two contestants, Almost Perfect Strangers’ Lucien and Remo-Leen’s Warren, faced off to decide which team would advance to the semifinals. The category was “Party Like It’s 2006,” and host Pat Kiernan would read a couple lyrics to a pop song, and Lucien and Warren had to name the artist. The songs were by artists like Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Shakira and Paris Hilton, all pretty big names. They didn’t get a single one right. Think about that for a second. Those songs are only a year old, and these guys, both very knowledgeable trivia buffs, had already forgotten every single one of them. And to drive the point home further, neither one of them was even embarrassed about it. In fact, after the third or fourth missed answer, Lucien laid it out on the table. “I don’t mean to sound like an old fogey, but today’s songs are terrible!” The audience erupted with applause. This, to me, is the most awesome thing that possibly could have happened. Blame illegal downloading all you want, music industry goons, but the real reason you’re losing so much money has less to do with downloading – after all, sales were never higher than when Napster was at its peak – and more to do with the fact that you’re not releasing music worth owning. A few other questionable business decisions also contributed to the decay, such as: - Allowing your product to be used as a loss leader in order to lure people into stores that don’t specialize in, and therefore place no real emphasis on, music Record labels survived the tough times in the past by having strong back catalogs that could pull in some extra coin when the current crop doesn’t pan out. If the labels think they’re hurting now, what do they think things will be like five or ten years from now, when the back catalog is Paris Hilton, R. Kelly and Fall Out Boy? By missing every question in that category, Lucien and Warren inadvertently summed up everything that is wrong with music today: simply put, the music industry lost respect for its own product, and eventually, so did everyone else.
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Rant on, brotha. You’ll get no argument here.
Amen, brother!
Hallelujah!!!! You nailed it!!!! Today’s music really sucks! There’s a reason why bands like The Police or Genesis are making a comeback in 2007… THEY WERE GOOD BANDS, not like the CRAP we hear on radio stations today!!!!!! I mean, seriously, Paris Hilton… What the F&*( is wrong with people today?
And your point about Napster was very true. Napster actually made people find quality music and buy more. But who wants to buy a pile of crap for their music collection?
Actually, there’s plenty of good bands out there today. You just don’t hear them on the radio. For that, I suggest satellite radio.
And as much as I enjoyed the Police…and to a lesser extent, Genesis, I’m not interested in seeing these bands get back together so much. The Police’s performance at Live Earth was pretty damn bad from what I saw, and I’m sure that’s not representative of what’s usually going on (or maybe it is), but I’m not much into the overpriced nostalgia trip. I lived through it, those bands made good work, but times have changed and it’s time to move on. Not saying that the labels have the formula right at all anymore, but hearing “Every Breath You Take” get dragged out again isn’t helping the overall picture, either.
You both raise good points. The biz can’t and shouldn’t count on the Police or Genesis to save them, but more importantly, the biz should be appalled that the reunions of those bands is so important to music fans, because it suggests that many people have simply given up on contemporary pop music. And if that is true, then their days are truly numbered.
In my mind, the problem, once again, goes back to artist development. With a few exceptions, there are no bands big enough to play the big stadiums anymore (the outdoor amphitheater in my hometown is closing because they don’t get enough acts to fill the schedule). There used to be HUNDREDS of bands that could fill those venues. Now there are maybe a dozen. Doesn’t that say it all?
Amen Mr Medsker!!
Speaking as one who was there, what you didnt see on the show was how long that segment actually took. It was actually much more comical than portrayed on TV. VH-1 edited the hell out of it. Lucien and Warren kept asking Pat to repeat the lines for virtually every song. It was quite hysterical, but also painful over time.
Sad thing is, being the music buff of our team (Remo Leen Teen Teen), I wouldn’t have gotten any of those right either. Today’s pop is indeed crap and Lucien and Warren’s performance was a testament to the music industry as a whole. Being a musician as well, I am insulted when labels try to market the chihuahua totin’, rumpshaking, underage-girl-peeing’-on types just to make money. There are so many legitimate artists out there that don’t get the respect they deserve, but bimbos like Paris Hilton get record deals?
I hope that there were some A&R people watching the show. Shame on them….shame!
Interesting - One of the contestants from the show weighs in on this: http://www.worldofpop.tv/blog/?p=198
David,
Great rant! You nail exactly the chief reasons for the sorry state of the music scene these days.
You might be interested in this part elegy/part rant about the end of “the age of rock stars” over at Scholars and Rogues.