IS FINDING GREAT MUSIC GETTING HARDER?
It’s easy to remember a time when music was an important part of culture and self-discovery. A time when songs and albums brought the world together and bridged the gap between age, race, and class.
From the innovation of Rock to the minimalist of House, every era and genre of artistic output has made its impact on the world. Jazz was once considered dangerous and reckless as it threw away all the rules of classical music. Gangster Rap followed the same unruly pattern pushing limits of what was decent until it was accepted and celebrated by the mainstream.
But where is the new sound and what’s happened to the advent of exciting new music?
The Initial Descent
Those who grew up paying for albums remember their value, but since the age of streaming it’s been difficult to understand what music is actually worth. How can we understand the investment of time, energy, and money when it is consumed for free?
Music is a sacred creative expression of the artist, a channeled meditation of divinity.
As digital files crept onto the scene in the early 2000’s there was hyped excitement for where the technology could take us. As consumers we wanted to store as many songs as we could on our MP3 players and download whatever content we didn’t want to pay for. Technology evolves and it’s counterporudctive to resist it’s evolution. Our goal is to embrace it and use it to the benefit of everyone involved.
The industry initially struggled with digital music and publicly fumbled with security measures. First came burn-proof CD’s, then lawsuits against teenagers and warnings of imprisonment for ripping albums. Napster was blamed for dismantling the music industry twenty years ago and they still haven’t figured out a way to recover from the damage.
But that in itself is a part of the journey to finding the new solution. It’s part of the growth. It’s the music industry’s dark night of the soul that we are seeing right now. Recorded music income continues to plummet despite the fact that streaming service subscription is on the rise. If people are paying for music, why aren’t artists thriving? The days of music industry excess and million dollar spending are long over, yet we arguably have the most incredible technology we’ve ever seen at our fingertips. How do we harmonize streaming technology and financial abundance?
LESS MUSIC MORE SOCIALS
Further to the diminishing music sales has become the obsession with social media status. It’s troubling to watch industry executives and label people (both indie and major) turn an empire devoted to the artist development into a hollow and shameless algorithm. The focus has become less about the music and more about social media numbers, likes, and followers. This glorifies the need for validation on social platforms and reduces the actual music itself to nothing but a footnote in an artist’s career.
Popularity has now overtaken the substance of song, and songwriting has little to do with the composition of an instagram photo.
Artists are feeling pressured to “increase their social media presence” instead of increasing the artistic talents. The natural cool factor that legends like Lou Reed, Elvis, Mick Jagger, and Jimmy Page had was organic and attractive because we came to them. All they had to do was exist, make music, and be themselves to ooze out that attractive charisma.
Now picture Iggy Pop, Kurt Cobain, Tupac, or Jim Morrison in a YouTube video desperately begging “Make sure you hit that like button! Click subscribe!” You might as well become a marketing major instead of a rock star.
Attracting followers revolves around specific hashtag methods and optimal daily posting times. Does it make sense to think that artists who spend the majority of their days bleeding out their pain into timeless orchestration really care about the being validated by mouse clicks? The roar of the live crowd in an energetic room simply cannot be replaced by the hand clap emoji.
Marketing and publicity can certainly be left up to the professionals, but since the revenue dried up for musicians many have no choice but to wear all the business hats and promote their own careers. Artists are now more worried about upping their followers than finessing their music and lyrics? We see promising new acts whoring themselves out online telling people to click, click, click on their new single out of desperation. “Please get my song to 20,000 streams!”
Begging people to listen is missing the point of the of how organically compelling music can be on its own power. What rises to the top carries a vibration inside it that naturally resonates with a mass audience. It’s an energetic signature that penetrates audiences and propels starts to the top. Billie Eilish, Drake, and Adele have all carried with them this resonance. Countless unheard-of’s also carry it, but with so much content floating around and short-lied attention spans, it’s very difficult to make an impact.
FLASH IN THE PAN
The industry lost interest in artist development and growth a long time ago, and we’ve all suffered from it. As the labels lost more and more, they saw no point in risking their investment in anything but seemingly sure-shot formulaic content. Playing it safe is not something any music company should be interested in. We’re more likely to see “trendy” acts grace the charts because they’re being funding by people who think they know what will trend. Nowadays, if they’re marketed to get to the top, they get to the top. It’s a small and incestuous pool.
That leaves audiences with little substance to sink their teeth onto. Has any album or song dramatically changed your life in recent history? Art is and always will be a sacred expression from a higher source of inspiration. It shouldn’t be watered down, tamed, and filtered to fulfill shareholders’ standards.
Think of every actual moment that shaped our lives in every generation when a new sound broke through and hit us between the eyes. Rock n Roll, Punk, Goth, New Wave, College, Shoegaze, Rap, Hip-Hop, Grunge, Indie Rock, EDM, Emo, Industrial, Techno. Remember when new bands were reflecting the changing times and the real mood of its corresponding youth?
Now it’s more likely you’ll fall asleep to a “chilled vibes” playlist than become inspired to change the world.
WILL NEW ARTISTS SURVIVE?
90% of the world’s artists are independent, self-releasing or working with small labels. This is a very empowering time to do it all yourself, but does it actually sustain a career? Much like the economy the industry has now eradicated the middle ground. The mid-level acts are now the smaller acts, and the bigger acts are the VIP member of the status club. The financial gap between Taylor Swift and Interpol is more than a just few bucks.
We are striping the world away from real talent and we losing what’s likely already an entire era of musical artistry. Streaming royalties are fractions of pennies and barely enough to survive on while Spotify itself is worth Billions.
This is the reason why so many industry types have lost their jobs, downsized, and changed careers entirely. Since the system broke no one fixed it by getting back to musical integrity. Desperation, scarcity, and fear killed the industry. The anxiety of lack killed the industry.
The top-selling arena tours are either legacy acts (U2, Metallica, The Eagles, Elton John) or new acts that play by the rules and are formulated strategically under the machine’s marketing spell (Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, Ariana Grande, BTS). Take note that the older artists are the more unique and boundary-pushing of the bunch.
They are still able to fill stadiums because they’ve made an impact on the world through expanding their sound and being true to their grit. By stark contrast, the youth now filling the arena seats are about as rebellious as a scented candle.
WHERE ARE THE ROCK STARS?
Long term fortunes are made when we doing good for the world, not trying to get rich quick. Short term money may come but its negative effects will outweigh the positive. This is what we are all seeing. You don’t have to be in the music industry to realize what is happening. We can all feel the lack of connectivity to something grand.
New releases are sounding more contrived and tepid, lacking melody, authenticity, and spark. Playlists are overflowing with monotony. Check out any curated Spofity playlist with “chill” in the title and be treated to the same female cooing that Lana Del Rey played out half a decade ago. There are hundreds of them, each with no lasting personality.
Where are the rock stars? The new Prince, Freddie Mercury, David Bowie? These institutions will not happen again until the industry finds a way to focus on allowing artists to build their careers on a long-term basis. They have bought into the mass global consciousness of social media validation, which is terribly unhealthy, and have perpetuated it into an essential element of music.
Music is words and melody. Its production, instrumentation, arrangement. Its harmony, and counter-melody, progression, rhythmn, and soul. It is heart. It is love. It is an expression of our highest frequency. It is a gift that artists channel for the world to hear.
One of the hardest pills to swallow was when former Dr. Phil star Bhad Bhabie signed for 1M. She created a career out of disrespecting her mother and was given an opportunity form Atlantic Records as a reward. Her talent isn’t up for debate as art is subjective, but what’s important here is how many artists who could be the next musical saviour didn’t get the shot she did.
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
It’s important we all share our gifts with the world, but it can be difficult to reach an audience when those who control the doors aren’t interested in longevity or artistry. We’ve come to a point where we are in dire need of a huge shift, a massive change to usher in a new era of music.
The story will change when everyone starts paying attention to how important music is to us. We need it in our lives. It shapes our sense of self and helps us figure out who we are. It highlights the best of times and the hard times. It makes memories more meaningful and our relationship special. We dance and sing and pre-game. We crank up our favourite tracks leaving work at the end of a long week. It hits us at the right moments in movies and videos, and it soothes us better than any medication or drug could do.
The frequencies of music are connected to the Source of all things. It’s energy that literally changes our DNA and affects our brain. Its time to pay more attention to its benefit to our lives before we lose any more artists to the storm. It’s time to support musicians in any way we can. To support everyone who has a creative gift to share with the world.
That is the hope we are all feeling in our hearts at this moment. This new decade will provide us with a fresh musical era to build if we stay true to what matters. At this point we can only have optimistic view for the future and set our sights on hope for the return of inspiring and authentic music again.