About the global music industry. I say it's a disaster; lacking people in it with any hunger for success; nobody can break hits anymore. The only hits are either unavoidable (Gangnam Style, Get Lucky) or thanks to the very few decent executives like Simon Cowell (One Direction) and Richard Russell (Adele).

Who knows what great music is dying, un-noticed, because of useless A&R, promotion, radio, TV... and MDs who simply don't care?

Joe says it's in great shape, better than it's ever been.

Who's right - or is it somewhere in between?

JK2006 wrote:
About the global music industry. I say it's a disaster; lacking people in it with any hunger for success; nobody can break hits anymore. The only hits are either unavoidable (Gangnam Style, Get Lucky) or thanks to the very few decent executives like Simon Cowell (One Direction) and Richard Russell (Adele).

Who knows what great music is dying, un-noticed, because of useless A&R, promotion, radio, TV... and MDs who simply don't care?

Joe says it's in great shape, better than it's ever been.

Who's right - or is it somewhere in between?

Joe is closer to being right. There is still great music being made. The "nut to crack" is monitising it better.

dixie wrote:
Joe is closer to being right. There is still great music being made. The "nut to crack" is monitising it better.
I think there is still great music being made too but the focus by the media seems to be on names and style rather than substance, therefore what is presented to the wider audience alienates all but the younger generation. Hence, "today's music is crap".

Hyping has taken it's toll as has the lack of TV support (which may also have been affected by hyping).

It’s easy to look back at the music industry with rose tinted glasses. I’ve been directly involved since the late seventies, (when I was in my early 20s). But until recently, I’d always remembered Top Of The Pops being the most wonderful show on television. But I now religiously watch the BBC4 repeats from 35 years ago, and you actually see there was as much rubbish as good music around then as there is now. Also did artists, other that the top few, make any more money then as they do now. I recently read an interview with Andy Fairweather-Low. He claims never to have made a penny from his Amen Corner career.

The global music / record industry is a desaster ... and is doing quite good (financially).

In this article The Quality of Music and The Conformity of Youth | Dwindling Album Sales Explained Wallace Wylie makes some good points:

"The real problem that the industry is dealing with these days is the lack of cultural importance given to popular music and the fact that popular music no longer has the same unifying power as it used to. With less bands to choose from, and with major labels dictating every aspect of the business, music fans in the 70s generally accepted what was handed to them without question, even if it was something as awful as The Eagles. Nowadays there are thousands of small labels capable of releasing great albums. You can spend hours and hours tracking down recommendations, streams, and free downloads. You can listen to as much music as you want, for as long as you want, with no compulsion to own, and that is a problem for die-hard consumers who are used to limited options and immediate cultural feedback in regards to their choices."

I don't think it's rose tinted glasses Dixie - yes, our memories are fond of those old shows and yes, most of the music in them was crap, but there was far more mass appeal music around and that mass appeal sound went very deep to millions of people, influencing our lives.

These days - and I think this answers my question - it is far easier to make specialist music with far more limited appeal. So those are the hits that get broken, with a huge appeal to many fewer listeners. The only universal hits are those like Gangnam Style and Get Lucky that can't be stopped.

The current music industry, through a combination of lack of hunger, laziness and inability, has far less important an impact on far fewer lives.

Who the hell is Little Joe? A Red Indian?? A Motown novelty act??? If you're moaning this forum isn't busy enough it's hardly the time to get all cliquish.

Little Joe was my Tipsheet Editor for a while and remains a close friend as well as a very successful publisher, manager and A&R person (Rizzle Kicks, Nizlopi). His nickname comes from Bonanza but nobody on here is old enough to remember that!

Was there a Big Joe?

No, but there was a HOSS

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonanza