I was looking at a top 10 list of music. As has been the case for about 20 years I don’t find any of it vaguely interesting. I’m not faulting the people who actually like that music. Yay, you. But there is a virtually ignored market of millions of people who are not being reached by the record companies. So they, as middlemen, have become obsolete. Good riddance.
Most of those millions of people who bought hard rock and heavy metal albums in the late 70s and 80s and filled the stadiums for concerts are still here and we’ve reproduced a new generation that likes much of the same type of music. Think "exponential."
A little elementary research revealed that an estimated combined 1.66 trillion albums were sold by some of my favorite bands which are all rock, hard rock and heavy metal. I do not, nor will I ever, own a Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Madonna, Garth Brooks, Barbara Streisand, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carrey, pick your pop princess, wake-me-up-when-it’s-over-even-this-list-is-boring ….CD. Yes, I know they have talent as do thousands or possibly millions of undiscovered people. They can do chromatic vocal runs… zzzz. No, I do not find them entertaining. Ever.
What I see is predictable, artificially-(i.e. Disney) created pop stars. Figured out a formula, have you? Got a cycle planned? A little T&A, a little sickly sweet, and then when they want to announce themselves grown up they put on a televised bump and grind (dance pole optional). Wow, didn’t see that coming… yet…again. Lame with a capitol suck. It’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet of Little Debbie snack cakes.
Where is the adrenaline? Where is the testosterone? Oh yea, they’re touring the smaller venues because the recording industry is run by neutered morons.
Do the record company suits not like our money or maybe they can’t quite figure out the new paradigm? They talk about needing big star money to find new talent when they’re ignoring what is right under their noses. Do they think that 40- and 50- or even 60-somethings are not appealing as rock stars to people who love hard rock music? Joe Perry, Slash, Duff, Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx, Phil Lewis et al are infinitely cooler and rock harder than most others regardless of age. Keith Richards, even at 66, is the epitome of cool. As a business how do you turn your back on people who’ve bought 1.66 trillion albums and are wanting more?
The demise started with Nirvana. I actually liked Nirvana but I still can’t figure out what it was about them that prompted an industry-wide head-up-ass response by the recording industry. When I bought “Nevermind” I didn’t stop liking Motley Crue or L.A. Guns or Guns ‘N Roses or Def Leppard or Skid Row or Cinderella or Ozzy or Metallica. (Would they freak at being clustered in the same sentence?)
Once Nirvana hit we were inundated by posers copying the Nirvana bi-polar formula (starting out soft and them slamming you with the heavy follow up). You know what? That worked for, oh, maybe a decade … let’s move on, shall we? And what’s with the whining – OMG. STFU already!
You know what I’ve been listening to lately? “Waking the Dead” by L.A. Guns released in 2002. It kicks ass. I’m also very impatiently waiting for a new Velvet Revolver or Buckcherry CD. If I could find more music like this I’d buy it and I’d keep buying it and then I’d buy it some more. Is there an MBA out there in some record company who remembers the basics? Do the math.
I guess what is going to happen is the hard rock musicians and fans will just have to go around record companies treat them like the obsolete pieces of shit they once treated us. Thanks to the Internet we can just buzz market and buy online.
Izzy, I’m on my way with my debit card.
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THANK YOU! Oh, cute way to end it, by the way.
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