Undoubtedly over the last 10 years we have made a severe leap in technology. Now more than ever can we share ideas, thoughts, and anything else that canvasses the art of civilization. As a blooming member of the Facebook generation and at the beginning of an era that forgoes home phones for cell phones, it is clear to see that the sails that once fostered the voices of our time have been taken down and replaced with motors. Nothing is more apparent in the matter then the current state of the music industry.
The linear progression of how music has been distributed can seem easy to distinguish. When radio towers first popped up, music as an industry really took off. Record sales and corporations devoted to providing records rose from the ground and over-shadowed nearly everything you listened to. Records were made, distribution was tracked, money was made, and the American public tapped their toes along to the tune. As the emergence of the world wide web came into play, the music industry suddenly got a new face lift.
Napster suddenly took advantage of the seemingly fire-like quality that the internet seems to inhabit, the ability it has to spread information quickly with a few thousands strokes of kindling generated from user interest, to suddenly upturn how we thought about music. Suddenly the listeners were in charge again, they didn't have to read the reviews or shop at the department stores for music, they could click and enjoy uninterrupted, unfiltered music with the click of a mouse. And although Record Industries and a handful of music makers (see Metallica vs. Napster 2001) hated the transition, it was a glorious step for the listener.
Somewhere along the way, or perhaps inherently intertwined from the beginning, a severe problem came along with the collision between art and profit-making. After board-meetings, audience testing, and mass production, certain musical performers started writing music for the charts, and when you begin to write for the #1 spot, you write for no one. An ability to please is different than an ability to communicate, to share ideas, and to paint a canvass that reflects personal meaning or self-sacrifice. It's not just the music industry either, you can see the paint-by-numbers effect in every sequel of a once original movie, in the seventh season of any long-running sitcom, or brain-washed authors writing mysteries without any true mystery behind them.
But back to music. In my opinion and with clear exceptions, the greatest albums produced by most any current band seem to be the ones most early in their career. The reason behind this I suppose is because at the time of recording, these blossoming instrumentalist were artist. They were wide-eyed and dreaming of the stars, they invested personal feeling and consciousness to every note, every lyric, and every single bit of ambition. They dreamed of the money and the fame, but hadn't gotten their first real taste of the forbidden fruit. And then they take off, propel among the stars, and begin writing for everyone (and no one in particular).
With the ability to now download, rip, zip and unzip music, the novelty of creating music is forced to return to the idealized innocence those young-songwriters once had. Suddenly they can begin to write music not for everyone, and especially not for the record companies dastardly intentions, but instead write songs for you and me, the fans, and more importantly while untainted by corporate greed, can write songs for themselves. This will surely crop out many song-writers who prefer to pay the checks and the ones who truly fantasize not about expressing themselves but instead about owning a hot-tub for every floor of their multi-story mansion, and what it will leave us, the listeners, will be truly in our greatest interest, it will leave us with artists.
-B.L.
Perhaps I have fantasized the man too much, but ideally what I want is music artists to embody the soul and power of Bill Withers. Through the rumored discrepancies he has had with his two record companies, the attention he received through popular culture, and most importantly the music he makes, I have concluded in my mind that Bill Withers is the man and he would surely be at the fore-front of the fight against record companies. So please enjoy...
"I write and sing about whatever I am able to understand or feel. I feel that it is healthier to look out at the world through a window than through a mirror. Otherwise all you'll see is yourself and whatever is behind you."
-B.W.
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