give_us_a_wave
Well-Known Member
There'll always be music. But it's dead as the cultural force it used to be. That was assured by the perfect storm of the emergence of all those godawful "talent" shows at the turn of the century followed by the advent of streaming that killed the need to actually buy music.
The popular music that we all know, basically rock & roll & it's various offshoots, was a 20th century art form. We're well into the next century & it's on it's way to becoming a niche interest in the same way that folk or classical music is.
All of the great pop music revolutions, it's important to remember, from jazz & blues through 50s rock & roll & soul to the experimentation of the 60s that lead to psychedelia, hard rock & metal, through to glam, disco, punk, hiphop, acid house/rave & grunge came from OUTSIDE the industry. At street level, created by non conformists & mavericks. They were then picked up by the industry when they smelled money. Left to itself the industry produces **** all of any real interest. Just bland aural wallpaper. Which to be frank is pretty much enough for most people & always has been.
If it was left to the industry we'd have been listening to derivatives of Max Bygraves for 70 years.
Decca records famously turned down signing the Beatles because " guitar groups are over " Which pretty much sums it up.
Sadly those mavericks no longer have a platform. It's often forgotten that as well as being a creative endeavour & an artistic outlet, music was also a way of earning a living. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard old rockers say in interviews that while learning their trade in club dance bands in the late 50s & early 60s they were suddenly earning more money than their parents at 15 or 16.
How much easier is it to spend time rehearsing, writing,composing & refining your art if you're getting paid to do it full time rather than having to squeeze it in 2 nights a week while working in some factory, warehouse or office ? But the only live music that pays now is at the top end for superstars that can sell out stadia as thanks to the death of recorded music buying thats now the only way anyone makes money outside of film & video game soundtracks & ****ing iphone ads. meanwhile 1500 smaller venues have closed in the UK in the last 20 years. That covers everything from the back rooms of pubs to places the size of the Poly arena. The old gig circuit of places like the Charlotte & other town's versions of it is long gone. As is the university/college circuit that ran parallel with it.
The only chance you ahve now is to go to a BPI music college at school age. If you do that you get taught to be commercially viable (i.e. to work to a bland formula & take no risks) Do that & you can be Adele. Otherwise you're ****ed.
So, take your chance, upload your track to youtube or tiktok & cross your fingers that you can stand out amongst the thousands of others & the backdrop of competition from cat videos, recordings of some **** playing a video game & political dogshit. Good luck with that.
EDIT - The exception to this is when they rebrand hiphop every few years, call it a different name even though it sounds exactly the same as before ( UK Garage, Grime, Drill...whats next ? How about Trifle ? Stencil ? Twiglet ? Why not ? All perfectly servicable words. Go on, go for it ) & big up some chavvy twat to sell some trainers.
The popular music that we all know, basically rock & roll & it's various offshoots, was a 20th century art form. We're well into the next century & it's on it's way to becoming a niche interest in the same way that folk or classical music is.
All of the great pop music revolutions, it's important to remember, from jazz & blues through 50s rock & roll & soul to the experimentation of the 60s that lead to psychedelia, hard rock & metal, through to glam, disco, punk, hiphop, acid house/rave & grunge came from OUTSIDE the industry. At street level, created by non conformists & mavericks. They were then picked up by the industry when they smelled money. Left to itself the industry produces **** all of any real interest. Just bland aural wallpaper. Which to be frank is pretty much enough for most people & always has been.
If it was left to the industry we'd have been listening to derivatives of Max Bygraves for 70 years.
Decca records famously turned down signing the Beatles because " guitar groups are over " Which pretty much sums it up.
Sadly those mavericks no longer have a platform. It's often forgotten that as well as being a creative endeavour & an artistic outlet, music was also a way of earning a living. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard old rockers say in interviews that while learning their trade in club dance bands in the late 50s & early 60s they were suddenly earning more money than their parents at 15 or 16.
How much easier is it to spend time rehearsing, writing,composing & refining your art if you're getting paid to do it full time rather than having to squeeze it in 2 nights a week while working in some factory, warehouse or office ? But the only live music that pays now is at the top end for superstars that can sell out stadia as thanks to the death of recorded music buying thats now the only way anyone makes money outside of film & video game soundtracks & ****ing iphone ads. meanwhile 1500 smaller venues have closed in the UK in the last 20 years. That covers everything from the back rooms of pubs to places the size of the Poly arena. The old gig circuit of places like the Charlotte & other town's versions of it is long gone. As is the university/college circuit that ran parallel with it.
The only chance you ahve now is to go to a BPI music college at school age. If you do that you get taught to be commercially viable (i.e. to work to a bland formula & take no risks) Do that & you can be Adele. Otherwise you're ****ed.
So, take your chance, upload your track to youtube or tiktok & cross your fingers that you can stand out amongst the thousands of others & the backdrop of competition from cat videos, recordings of some **** playing a video game & political dogshit. Good luck with that.
EDIT - The exception to this is when they rebrand hiphop every few years, call it a different name even though it sounds exactly the same as before ( UK Garage, Grime, Drill...whats next ? How about Trifle ? Stencil ? Twiglet ? Why not ? All perfectly servicable words. Go on, go for it ) & big up some chavvy twat to sell some trainers.
