Sign from the 2023 Writer's Guild Strike photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
Wow, man. I
don't even know where to start. But here goes - a lot of what
I've been saying for the past 20 years - since the "dead dicking" of
the human psyche from things like the Internet and other tech.
Asking
Taylor Swift to save the music industry would be like asking Dali back
in the day to save people's appreciation and the business of oil
painting.
It's over. The way it was is over.
Let me explain:
The
article seems to address the symptoms - not root cause - of the
degradation of the value of music. I can't say this enough. I've
been saying it since Stanley Clarke published the gist of this on his
website (when he had one) back in the early 2000's.
You have major "root-cause" issues here: One -
the fulfillment of self justification and self worth of the
participant. Most do not engage in things like art and music
without having a need to satisfy inner ego. Just the way it
is. See the discussion later in this paper with regard to the
Bertrand Russell Lecture 11 mention, as well as the story of why Pink
Floyd's "The Wall' was created.
Two
- the skewed value system of most humans, mainly due to social
pressures and constantly increasing social interaction that now occurs
in a myriad of ways in an almost immediate form.
Three
- the over stimulation that occurs due to the previously mentioned
increase in social interaction that can lend itself to satisfying the
inner ego mentioned in the first statement and does so in a more
immediate manner.
Nowadays with music, no one cares. Not unless they're force fed it.
And it doesn't satiate the need for humans of self justification. At least not anymore...
Maybe via videos of "dancing Goth bats" - see this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Nv5J4Di0kwhere
it gets the band out there and the band gets 2.2 million views on their
own page (see how many comments are about the bats meme).
On a silly note: That link to the goth bats video is dead. The fucking label pulled it down. The one thing that actually got the band noticed - they pull it down... What a bunch of dumbfucks... Ya know - Zappa was right in this vid - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZazEM8cgt0 - we were better off with the clueless "cigar chomping" record execs
I think the bats have more intelligence...
Or
maybe via sync through some other major media conglomerate (ask Kate
Bush). That's about it. And usually that occurs well
after any "release" - even in the traditional sense.
Look at what music evolved from - humans using rhythmic patterns to: - get the mating ritual going - appease the gods so that the crops would grow -
tell the clan across the valley you're coming for their crops since yours
didn't grow or some other hostile reason (maybe just ego?)
So one has to question where music stands.
Especially
in these times, where in the last few decades we went from being a
species that traveled no more than 25 MPH (our Flicker Fusion Threshold
is about 30 frames per second - why movies look continuous) to one that measures time in nanoseconds.
All
humans had - even just two decades ago - were books, magazines, movies,
three network channels and a few radio stations that were locked up by
major entertainment corporations; a curly corded phone they shared with
mom, and maybe 5 close friends.
Not much of a social system for validation of one's feelings. And those few other humans had their own issues to deal with.
Back then you needed music to justify how you felt - camaraderie if you will. You needed Elvis, you needed the Stones. You needed Robert Plant to tell you it was OK for stuff to run down your leg...
Now you have people that expect self justification to happen in nanoseconds via things like social media.
It's as though the planet grew a nervous system but it has epilepsy - random neuron firing.
And it happens at light speed. You can watch a dog defecate across the globe in near-real time.
Just a bunch of noise.
What
we now have a species that's bombarded daily, even hourly, with
sensory information; well beyond what they, or any other species, is
able to evolve into -- it's a whole new world.
It comes down to an overstimulated species that reacts with little sensitivity. What I call the "dead dick syndrome".
Really sad.
So
unlike back then, you now have a larger social circle - so you can
communicate and validate what you feel with your zillion TicToc,
Facecrak, or Snapcrack friends.
You
can actively (not passively like before) use a technologically-driven
entertainment media to instantly gratify and satiate any emotions,
feelings, and self-worth.
Esp. with things like participatory media such as video games. Now you're the star.
As to music - well, now anyone can be a star. The
access to tools for creating professional media content is within
the common person's reach. And the ability to widely distribute
it at zero cost is now available to the masses. But unlike in the
past, there's no filter to limit the amount of music presented to the
world. This resulted in the noise floor of what's available increasing exponentially.
The major labels figured this out after freaking about Napster. They
realized that they could regain their control over the market since
only they would have the financial mass to get over that noise floor -
a noise floor created by all this now-accessible music. And
they utilize the same methods they did way back when - using preteens
that mommy and daddy control access to what they see and hear..
Add to that their manipulation of the industry with things like the MMA...
Culminated with one guy - Peter Frampton. The reason the Music Modernization Act- also known as the Orin Hatch act (HR1551) exists.
And screwed every independent artist out there.
It
reinstated the way it was before the Internet. The MLC is an
ineffective method that now uses a "blanket license" for mechanicals. -
similar to what the PRO's (Performing Rights Organizations like ASCAP,
BMI, SESAC, and others) did for way back in the day for performing
rights.
Only the top people get paid. F'ing
lovely. the Internet came along and for a very short while
leveled the playing field. No longer restricted to mass
exploitation by major labels locking up the rack jobbers, one-stops,
and radio promo, the indies actually had a chance.
But due to
things like cheap DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) and zero capital
investment in distribution, the "noise level" increased - with over
140,000 releases a year. So the consumer - already stretched as
to their "entertainment dollar" with competing things like video games
and social media - was
now ripe for a system similar to what was back in the day - companies
with "financial mass" could pop above the noise floor.
But
there was still this burden that the streaming services had.
One that was caused by the requirement that streams - like digital
downloads - be treated as a "mechanical royalty" where every stream had
to be accounted for.
Mechanical royalties came about during
the era of player pianos. The rolls they used mechanically
reproduced music. Music publishers differentiated these sales as
"Mechanical Royalties" to distinguish that income from that of sheet
music for public performance (the gist of the "performance royalty"
that also gages things like radio/air play, juke boxes, etc... ).
Unlike
the "blanket license" system that radio other suppliers of music
enjoyed via the PRO's... one where they didn't have to account for each
and every play.
So then good
ol' Peter tells Sen. Orin Hatch (himself a Christian recording artist)
that he only got $1500 for "Baby I Love Your way" from the streaming
services.
Reason?
Youtube,
Spotify, and other streaming services said that since the have to
account for each and every stream, the accounting overhead made it so
difficult and such a financial burden that they could not afford to pay
what was deserved. EVEN THOUGH in this day and age, accounting for plays is all computerized.
So
that - along with strong lobbying by the major entertainment companies
and the associated organizations - enacted the Orin Hatch Act - called
the Music Modernization Act (MMA). HR 1551.
It established a "blanket license" - just like radio had with PRO's - and now only have to pay a one time annual fee.
The problem? Just as with PRO's - only the top rated performers get paid.
What a bunch of shit.
This basically restored the grip that the labels previously had back in the days of albums, tape, CD's...
And don't take my word for it - hear Quincy Jones' ( Michael Jackson's producer) lawyer talk about it in Billboard Magazine:
How the Music Modernization Act Takes Royalties From DIY Songwriters and Gives Them to the Major Publishers
“The
devaluation of music and what it's now deemed to be worth is laughable
to me. My single costs 99 cents. That's what a single cost in 1960. On
my phone, I can get an app for 99 cents that makes fart noises - the
same price as the thing I create and speak to the world with. Some
would say the fart app is more important. It's an awkward time.
Creative brains are being sorely mistreated.”
Music has lost it's value as a standalone phenomena.
Unless you are talking about live shows - which, I hate to put it to you, is nothing more than "background music for the human mating ritual". I've played over 1,000 shows here in D.C. with a guy (he played over 6,000) and can attest to this.
It's
a basic human behavior.
Ever had someone ask for "Brown Eyed Girl" at a
gig? Well, since they got the perceived alpha in the room (your band)
to do what they said, they are now considered prime for reproduction -
an alpha if you will.
F'ing sad... But hey, as stated earlier, music started like this...
Even Pink Floyd realized this... Why
the Pink Floyd album exists - they got tired of people going to shows
for the wrong reasons - "... the party that goes with it"
See this - From the documentary "Behind the Wall" :
David Gilmour - "
... I guess what has to be said is that quite a lot of the people ...
come for not necessarily for the music.... elements of the show and the
party that goes with it"
Roger Waters -"...
more and more and more that's what it's about ... place half filled
with assholes all shouting and screaming... I just arrived at a point I
just can't do this anymore
After that you'll see Nick Mason (drummer) state " ... Roger
just felt really strongly about we'd just completely lost contact with
them ... what we were doing, and what they thought we were doing, and
what they thought they were coming to see was so different ... we were
on completely different wavelengths..."
Further on: Roger Waters - "... famous story of spitting on somebody in Olympic Stadium scrambling
up the front of the stage .... cracked at one point....spat in his face
afterwards I was really depressed What have I been reduced to?" "That
night, or the next night, or the next day ...idea of building a WALL
across the front of the stage.... to express that sense of alienation
and separation..."
David Gilmour -"Obviously when someone says ... in the first half of the show we're gonna build this f'ing great wall across the front of the stage
and we're gonna be behind it playing and the audience will be in front
of it looking at it you sort of go ' Hang on a minute...' "
Nick Mason
- "... I think his initial ideas as far as I remember, that the entire
show would be played from behind a wall and the audience at no time
would see us..."
But it's always been like that... watch an old film of Stravinsky conducting "The Firebird":
During
the ovation - when they shoot from the orchestra's point-of-view -
you'll see quite a few members of the audience with a "... why am I
standing? Should I be clapping? Doesn't my gown look beautiful?" kinda
look.
But if you look at Bertrand Russell's Lecture 11:
“Vanity
is a motive of immense potency. Anyone who has much to do with children
knows how they are constantly performing some antic, “Look at me“,
“Look at me“ is one of the most fundamental desires of the human heart.
It can take innumerable forms, from buffoonery to the pursuit of
posthumous fame. There
was a Renaissance Italian princeling who was asked by the priest on his
deathbed if he had anything to repent of. “Yes“, he said, “there is one
thing. On one occasion I had a visit from the Emperor and the Pope
simultaneously. I took them to the top of my tower to see the view, and
I neglected the opportunity to throw them both down, which would have
given me immortal fame“. History does not relate whether the priest
gave him absolution. One
of the troubles about vanity is that it grows with what it feeds on.
The more you are talked about, the more you will wish to be talked
about. It
is scarcely possible to exaggerate the influence of vanity throughout
the range of human life, from the child of three to the potentate at
whose frown the world trembles. Mankind have even committed the impiety
of attributing similar desires to the Deity, whom they imagine avid for
continual praise.“ — Bertrand Russell, Nobel Prize Lecture 11 December 1950
But
hey, remember George Costanza ? Before Seinfeld - when in
college - he wanted to be a Shakespearean actor. Very serious
kind of acting that takes a lot of effort and really doesn't give
someone that "superstardom" kinda rep. Seems like he wasn't so
keen on "I wanna be a star" kinda thing.
Well - check this out:
"I
once went to speak at a school, and there was a 16-year-old girl... And
the girl says to me, 'You know what? I don't care what I do, I just
want to be famous.' And I thought, you know, I should really just shoot
her in the head because it would serve two things: It would make her
famous as the girl that Jason Alexander shot in the head, and it would,
you know, spare the world of the banality of the rest of her
life." Jason Alexander
Interesting way of looking at it I guess...
So
the skew of the value system of typical humans is to appease these
inner feelings of self-worth and justification. And there are now
things that can attain that with more immediacy and depth.
Tech
supplies another form of entertainment that, again, is much more
satisfying, immediate, and participatory - video gaming. Esp. online
with other humans. That's a very dynamic connection - similar to
sporting events - that just blows any passive and/or stagnant form of entertainment
out of the water.
The competitive field for the consumer's "entertainment dollar" has never been larger. It
seems the music biz is going the way of visual arts - a commodity
market. The visual artists of the past - guys like Leonardo Di Vinci;
even as recent as Dali - are now the unknown 3D animators - - that's
the visual artists of today.
So
just like the visual arts - which went from oil painting and
sculpturing to 3D animators plying a trade , music will become a
commodity too.
Maybe if
you're Taylor Swift or Ed Sheerhan that one, has the financial backing
for mass exploitation; or two, can levy the preteen crowd that is
impressionable, at an age where the parents limit their interaction
with tech and media (as it's always been), and are "beautiful"
... well, in case of Ed, look like some kinda cuddly Tolkien character.
Now
don't get me wrong. Art has significant social value. Maybe
it will return to more of an art form and have purpose beyond
materialistic value.
And people will do it for the right reasons.
Like in Taoism. The Story of the Woodcarver. Why to REALLY do things...
"Mitchell: There's a wonderful story about that in The Second Book of the Tao. It goes like this:
Ch'ing
the master woodworker carved a bell stand so intricately graceful that
all who saw it were astonished. They thought that a god must have made
it. The Marquis of Lu asked, "How did your art achieve something of such unearthly beauty?"
"My
Lord," Ch'ing said, "I'm just a simple woodworker — I don’t know
anything about art. But here’s what I can tell you. Whenever I begin to
carve a bell stand, I concentrate my mind.
After
three days of meditating, I no longer have any thoughts of praise or
blame. After five days, I no longer have any thoughts of success or
failure. After seven days, I'm not identified with a body.
All
my power is focused on my task; there are no distractions. At that
point, I enter the mountain forest. I examine the trees until exactly
the right one appears.
If I can see a bell stand inside it, the real work is done, and all I
have to do is get started. Thus I harmonize inner and outer. That's why
people think that my work must be superhuman."
