The Music Industry

In class this week we talked a lot about the music industry and how the concentration of power within the industry has led to a lack of diversity in mainstream music. Although, advances such as the Internet have made it easier for independent bands to get their music out there and heard, it is still very difficult for these bands to ‘make it big’. Major record labels tend to employ businessmen as opposed to people who actually know something about the creative aspect of music. Their job is to sell. And as Croteau & Hoynes state nothing sells like success. This is why when you turn on the radio most songs sound the same. They play it safe by trying to sell what they know has sold in the past. In a lot of way I think it is very obvious that there is so much more meaning and truth in music made my more independent artists. Just by listening to the lyrics you can see how some music is literally poetry put to music, whereas more mainstream songs tend to have repetitive cliché lyrics that are easily stuck in your head despite how annoying they are. There is also a certain difference in sound. Mainstream songs tend to have a very commercialized sound, meaning very computerized or almost too perfect. Whereas, there is what has become this whole genre of music which is called lo-fi. Songs are often recorded in this way because a band can’t afford any better recording equipment, but it gives the music this very real and raw sound. In a way when you know a band is not making very much money, because they aren’t signed to a major record label that promotes them so much that there is no room for any new artists, and yet they still continue to put their music out there any way they can, then you know that for them it is really about the music and sharing it with others and not about just getting rich and famous. And in some ways you kind of find yourself glad that they don’t get signed by a major record label because then they would lose a lot of their creative freedom and be forced to fit into a certain mold and lose aspects of their original sound that their original loyal fans loved so much. Although I am not hear to say weather certain bands sound better or worse once they finally get signed to a major record label, I think there is little doubt that they often times do sound different. An example would be the band Modest Mouse that was originally signed to an independent label. Starting with their album The Moon & Antarctica they signed on with Sony’s Epic Records. Then with the album Good News For People Who Love Bad News they hit mainstream success with their hit singles “Float On” and “The Ocean Breathes Salty”. Although, I think there are still some catchy songs that I enjoy on their album Good News For People Who Love Bad News, you can tell there is a more poppy, polished, and commercialized sound to their newer albums.

You can take a listen and judge for yourselves. This is from Modest Mouse's album Building Nothing Out Of Something.

And this link will show you the popular single "The Ocean Breathes Salty" from their album Good News For People Who Love Bad News.