Could the tide be changing?

Pollyanna

Platinum Member
A quote from a new article that made me feel like applauding:
A top record executive has launched a damning attack on music industry attitudes, claiming the insistence on over-sexualising female artists has led to "boring, crass and unoriginal" music.
Article.
 
I'm not a fan of Adele at all, but I can see that there is something refreshingly different about her music when compared to the likes of Rhianna. I think this article pretty much nails how I feel about much of this. I'm not sure yet that the worst of it is over - but I'm starting to see grass roots musicians changing the way they think of production values (which I think is the most important part of the way things have to change) because the smaller labels are starting to clock that commercial music aesthetic (and the 'commercial sound') are a complete dead-end. It's just taken ten years of throwing their heads against the brick wall in the dead-end alley to make them realise this.

Now, with a commercially-successful singer like Adele demonstrating that sometimes it can be more than simply (as the article puts it) 'faux-pornography', you'll likely see the suits in the bigger record companies dropping what they're currently doing and chasing after the 'new' money. That might finally open the door again to something different (like Adele has shown) and we might just see a few exciting artists breaking through the inevitable cash-ins.
 
A quote from a new article that made me feel like applauding:
A top record executive has launched a damning attack on music industry attitudes, claiming the insistence on over-sexualising female artists has led to "boring, crass and unoriginal" music.
Article.

Seriously though, what an idiot. I mean i agree entirely with what record executive man is saying but clearly Adele is not that much different in being another out of touch with reality rich celebrity type. For a start, the trains in this country are privately owned and run and paid for by ticket sales so that's bollocks for a start. Obviously someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. To copy her quote "Reading that makes me feel like i want to get a gun and go and shoot a random bunch of highly paid whining celebrities".
 
Agree Eddie, the tax whinge was lame but I'm okay with that as long as it's not in the songs :) Anyone paying 4 mill in tax is having a damn good life.

My sis-in-law told me to listen to this new singer, Adele, and I was thinking "bleah, more plastic" and she played this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYEDA3JcQqw

I was stoked to hear a real melody, a real voice and a real groove rather than the usual plastic sex-kitten electro toy music. The other songs by her I've heard haven't done it for me but when you're lost in a musical desert you're grateful for what you can get.

Quite bizarre, though, to hear of this act being called "radical". Guess it says it all about how boxed in the scene is. Duncan, based on past form you'd imagine the suits will be trying to squeeze fluffy girls for a while yet before they start jumping into anything more organic. I mean, FFS, they'd have to start recording real drummers with all those messy expensive microphones and stuff again!
 
A quote from a new article that made me feel like applauding:
A top record executive has launched a damning attack on music industry attitudes, claiming the insistence on over-sexualising female artists has led to "boring, crass and unoriginal" music.
Article.

This reminds me of the letter Jerry Maguire wrote to the Sports Industry citing a lack of ethics. Made for a great movie.

The whip cream and guns quote was great. I always have mixed feeling when artists talk politics but she seems pretty upfront. I always wonder if every thing isn't scripted. I wonder what Zappa would have to say about this topic. Seemed he pushed the envelop on purpose to removed all the sensitivity wiring.

Faux Porn.... LOL
 
The entertainment industry has always valued looks and image as much as talent. It's just how show business works. You may not be able to find all the best artists through mainstream outlets, but they can still be found if you're looking for them.

I guess I view this as the ever-present dichotomy between what sells to the masses and what people who are really serious about an art form want to buy. I don't see that gap narrowing any time soon.
 
They are selling to the 12 to 16 year old market. They are the ones that love the fluff and fireworks. It will change. 12- 16 year olds must spend mommies money which in this economy is shrinking.
 
Polly. My thinking here is not so much that this music is 'better', it's more an image thing. It's being sold on its musical merit rather than purely on image, which is refreshing.

I do wish that the music itself were more forward looking (as it's distinctly backward-looking) but at least people are using their ears and not their eyes for once.
 
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