Has The Music Industry Let Us Down?

MySpace is pretty much dead. As you mentioned, though, there are alternatives out there such as SoundCloud and BandCamp. And, of course, there's a chance to make a name for yourself on Spotify and the more generic social media sites such as Tiktok, Youtube, and Instagram.

First, congrats on Top Storying yourself! 👏 Second, I did write a little about this as a GenXer, but I am not sure if I believe my own optimism now. I look for music in secondhand stores, shops, libraries and the like...but very rarely online. I think the record industry is a business like any other. They have simply changed their priorities and gone for the money. The best we can do is vote with our money and time for the music we love.

Back to say congratulations on top story!!!!!!!

Oh the classics. I love the music of the 50-60's, but I think all baby boomers did. Some of the music transcends through the generations. Great article - Well done.

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Compelling arguments here. As a fellow hoser, I think we will always have to deal with our noisy neighbour and their shifts in perspective. And I don’t worry that much about who will listen to what. I'm GenX, and I have what I love saved in different formats. But I know that every generation does this. I do agree with you over support for the arts, though. This makes me nervous. I play guitar, and I'm hearing less and less of this instrument on the radio or online. Will everything be copied or taken from a machine? Who knows...?

Interesting- I actually think the reason people are into old music is because the newset albums and general music vibes lack any meaning or depth. The modern music is so empty and does not get to the soul. Humanity craves a bit of purpose, of meaning and music is so powerful, it can bring out just that with the right notes and melodies. But that's just an opinion...

What worries me is that, on the one hand, there's a local music scene here that is far livelier than anything I knew when I was a teenager (although we'd barely discovered electricity back then, so ...). But persuading people to listen to anything that doesn't regurgitate the old favourites is almost impossible. And without that relationship between artist and audience, the whole thing ossifies. Don't know what the answer is, but I'd start by banning anyone from wearing a t-shirt from a band that split up before they were born. And, by implication, ban the sale of merch pertaining to bands that are no longer active (looking at you, Ramones, Joy Division, The Smiths, etc). Get your own heroes and stop pinching mine!

One of the things about older music lasting into the future is, it's no longer "old." If you watch movies or cartoons or tv shows or consume any kind of media from previous eras, the younger generation typically thought the music of the older generation was boring or stuffy, and the older generation thought new music was loud and obnoxious. That included stuff like jazz, and was even more so with the advent of rock and roll. I just this week was flipping channels and saw a bit of an "Andy Griffith Show" episode where Opie joined a band and was playing acoustic guitar with the other kids in his garage. It was just standard early 60s rock, a bit surf rockish. Aunt Bea thought it was too loud, but Andy was okay with it. And of course they mentioned The Beatles, with their "long hair", which was nothing compared to what there would be in less than a decade in terms of volume, long hair, and general excess. Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath would likely give Aunt Bea a coronary. In my own experience, I would flip through the record collections of my parents and grandparents and just be appalled that there was no good music in there. The coolest thing my parents had was the soundtrack to "The Graduate" by Simon and Garfunkle. Grandma was all about the crooners, anyone Italian, like Sinatra and Dean Martin. Grandpa liked them, but he also dug Ray Charles and some of the jazz greats. At the time it was the 70s and 80s and I was finding out what I liked. On weekends my dad would put on Oldies music wile I helped him in the garage or yard, and at the time that was 50s and 60s stuff. Elvis and Motown and Buddy Holly. Some of that was lame, some was pretty good. Later, when I stopped liking the new music that was coming on the stations I was listening to I had to change stations. I had already been switching now and then, but by 1990 there was almost never anything on the new station that I liked anymore. 80s New Wave was giving way to Hip Hop, which I didn't like, and guys who had plenty of hits in the 80s, like Sting, Don Henley, Phil Collins, and (Canadian) Bryan Adams, were going soft and writing ballads and songs about the homeless or the environment, not catchy rock songs anymore. That's when I found a new thing: Classic rock. Not Oldies. Oldies were still 50s and 60s. Classic Rock was 60s and 70s, and tended to be harder, without being metal. And that's the point. It wasn't my generation. It was still people 10 years older than me or older, but I was liking their stuff. And that's when older music stopped being old and boring, because it was shared with younger people, it was still cool. And you could go to a Stones concert, as I did in 1989, and be there at age 17 or 18, alongside people who were in their 40s, who were Stones fans from the beginning. And that still happens. People going to Paul McCartney or Eric Clapton or Stevie Nicks or (Canadian) Neil Young concerts with their parents and their young kids. The artists are retiring or dying, but their music lives on. And where will people hear that music? Still on the radio, played alongside Green Day from the 90s and newer artists. Or they listen to their parents' records, tapes, and CDs. Or they stream it. The music isn't going away. You can still listen to new stuff, but at least some young people are finding out about cool old stuff, too. I looked again at my dad's old records and swiped a few, with his blessing, namely 2 Ray Charles records, and Miles Davis' masterpiece "Kind of Blue" I play them on my new record player, the first I've owned in probably 40 years. They sell them every year around this time in places like Target. The music world has changed.

Excellent

I gave you a ten on insights. My music is distributed by #distrokid. I am 75 and a geek. I worked in the music and film & TV industry for years. I have health issues. Now go for the gusto over there in Canada. Check out my stories.