Friday, December 30, 2005

My Plea.

Time and time again it has been made apparent to me that the major label music industry is steadily ruining popular music. Maybe it's always been this way, but I never had the chance to see it first hand. In a time with political and corporate corruption at an all time high, it seems natural that one of the shadiest industries be tainted with it as well. Am I bitter? Of course I am. But my bitterness has sparked passion in my pursuits to bring this issue to the public. Will you care? Probably not, our president lied us into a war and nearly half of this country thinks its ok. But I digress. If you think Ashlee Simpson is a good songwriter, or that J-Lo can really sing good you are greatly mistaken. If you believed the "written by Avril Lavine" credit with full assertion you are not seeing the full picture. If you keep reading, it has a page of credits for writers, producers, musicians, vocalists in very fine print. Its like that on most pop records. They are just the pretty face that sells their product. Brittney Spears is basically the model for the Pepsi commercials... Oh wait, she IS, or was before she got handed the TV role she was born to play. Herself. Pop singers, are basically actors. Pretending to be something singing heartfelt songs written by a 45 year old man. You're being lied to. And whets worse, if you know it but still buy this shit and think its good. Your a fool.

Wake up people, everything you hear on the radio or see on MTV was manufactured from the ground up with the sole intention to be sold. To you. But not everything is completely manufactured. Most of the rock bands are real rock bands that probably wrote all their songs. But the unfortunate thing is, the reason they are on the radio isn't because they are good, or unique for that matter. Its because they fit some kind of trend that was probably stolen from kids trying to not follow a trend, then reproduced for mass-consumption. Its all a big marketing scam. Nothing is sacred to them. That's why when you cant keep up with the 18 yr old airbrushed pop star who had million dollar songwriters writing super formula hits, with 110% label backing, you get dropped and the money they spent on you gets to be a tax write off.

Some of the bands, more than you think, get studio musicians to lay down tracks and do backing vocals. They also utilize new technology that will basically make anyone sound good. A lot of bands even take this "studio magic" on tour with them. Remember Ashlee's SNL goof. Yea, she wasn't lipsyncing in the pure sense, well maybe, but her defense was back up tracks. Which probably included her autotuned voice, 3 other back up singers voices, percussion and additional guitar and keyboard tracks. This arrangement is almost standard for many live acts. I saw it first hand on a couple tours I was on. This doesn't necessarily mean the band cant pull it off live. I'm just saying don't always believe what you hear live.

Sometimes these are choices by the artists, but most of the time, and especially in cases like Ashlee and the like, they are forced too by the labels. If they've spent millions putting you up on a pedestal, they cant take a chance fucking it all up by showing the world you really suck. Stupid 14yr old girls and their parents don't want to find out that the star they saw on TV and just paid $150 a ticket to see in concert is really a 2 bit hack with nice boobs, or hard pecs.

So I'm here, hoping that you will think about what I've said next time you listen to the radio or watch MTV or say "wow this song is really good". There is a world of independent music out there that is just waiting to be discovered by you. Music that still has artistic integrity and meaning. Music that still retains the heart and soul of the person performing it. Dare I say REAL music. If we get enough people to stop feeding the beast and find new music that hasn't been homogenized for public consumption then maybe all of this real music will bubble to the surface and the general music buying public will get just a little bit smarter for it.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

payola

Back in the early 00's my former band Fingertight put out a CD on Columbia Records. With that release we got a shot to have a song or single on the radio.  We did a press tour where we went around to all the major radio markets giving our song and dance to the radio folk to introduce ourselves and try to make some friends at the stations who we'd hoped would play our song when it was released.  It seemed like we made an impression.  We received a generally good response. In certain markets we would kick ass at concerts sponsored by the radio stations. In some cases the DJs would actually wear our t-shirts to work. Needless to say we were pretty confident that we'd get added to their radio playlists, even possibly some airtime.

But that totally didn't happen. In the markets we did get an add, we got played at 3:00am twice a month.  After a few weeks we started to notice a trend. We'd get about one or two plays a week for each market. We realised it was because stations have a weekly hour long cage-match show where the DJs, got forbid, actually pick the music they play. They would pick several lesser known bands and they would go head-to-head tournament style with one song each. People would call in and vote for the one they liked and the winner would go on to the next week's cage match.  Consistently we'd get played and we'd usually win. Which was why on our Soundscan listings it showed those spins regularly.  Soon after it started to slow down and then went to nothing. We chalked it up to just not being good enough, took it with stride and eventually ended up where we are now. Dead. Being the sceptic, and conspiracy theorist that I am, I knew there was something more to it. We didn't suck that much did we? I mean we still have thousands of fans all over the country. As it turns out, we just didn't get the "push"as they say in the industry. What is the "push"? Well, its part of the major label shit machine I'm always bitching about. Thats what this post is mostly about. What a big part of the"push" really is and why the label says it costs so much to "promote" a new band. Once you're chosen for "the push" there's more to it than just making posters and getting your CD's in major retail chains.

I heard this blurb about our former parent label; SONY Music/BMG on the radio and  Googled "SONY BMG" "Payola" and "lawsuit" and found this article.

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Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein is calling for a FCC investigation of payola practices uncovered by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, based on the $10 million settlement with Sony BMG announced today. "It's a real tribute to Attorney General Eliot Spitzer that he has blown the lid off a potentially far-reaching payola scandal," said Adelstein."We've seen a lot of smoke around payola for a while, but now we know it's coming from a real fire. It's time to dump a bucket of cold water on it," Adelstein continued.
"It's unfair to listeners if they hear songs on the radio because someone was paid off, not because it's good music."
Adelstein wants an "immediate investigation" and has asked Spitzer to share all of the evidence that he has uncovered with the Commission. (07-25-05)

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