Thursday, May 31, 2007

What's that noise?

The world is connected. You can't walk down a street without seeing someone with earphones on. Even the type of earphones people wear are different, the in-ear's, the earbuds, the headphones, neckband earphones, clip earphones. Such a variety in technology to go hand in hand with the variety in music. Unfortunately the most successful people of this era aren't always the most worthy of the fame and fortune. The music industry has gone into the hands of corporations and it's hard to make it big unless your willing to be owned. I'm not afraid to say it, the Top 40 today is a shameful disgrace to music in its entirety. Some will argue well it's just about what you like and maybe it doesn't fit your taste. Well I'm sorry but you can't taste the tasteless.

You have people walking around like Mims saying things like "I could make a mil, saying nothing on the track" and what's worse is he's absolutely right. What happened to the integrity of the artists? Is it really them trying to thoughtfully make music or is it them trying to earn a quick buck just because they can? It's so easy to manipulate the popular crowd because they will buy into anything that seems 'hot' at the moment. Unfortunately these people have no ear for real music, and its this sheep mentality that is causing us to lose our touch with music. There's a film that recently hit festivals titled Before the Music Dies and it's a documentary confronting the ill effects of the garbage hitting radio stations everywhere. It tackles the issue of corporations using stereotypical pop idols to help them gain a huge load of money and it shows interviews with artists in the industry who have seen this first hand.

But the situation is improving, people are waking up a little from their unconscious state of thinking and are beginning to have an ear for what they're listening to. You have real talent like John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae reaching for the top of charts and receiving awards for their work. More and more music is heading in the right direction and people are beginning to take notice that the whole 'pop' image is so 90's. Corporations are still finding ways to exploit people with a couple bands and artists out there who will go unnamed (50 Cent). These corporations are smart, they realized the world was turning on them so they flipped the acts around finding people who are 'rebellious' and 'against the man' to make them seem appealing to others even though these people are making millions and laughing it up with 'the man'.

Save the music.
Learn before you listen.
Maybe unsubscribe from MTV?
Joking of course...