Corporations and Creativity

In the past 40 years, the music industry has gone from hundreds if not thousands of regional recording companies searching for local talent played on local radio stations, whereas now there are six main labels that control all national distribution to major record store chains. The major distributors consist of Capitol-EMI, CBS, RCA, Polygram, MCA, and Warner. These record companies have become more concerned with making money than actually making good music. They achieve this by catering to the lowest common denominator. That's why the public continues to steal music from them by downloading songs illegally because who wants to pay for an entire album when there are only 1 or 2 good songs on that album. That's why ipods are so popular because people want to listen to their own music rather than the radio which plays all the same songs that passes off as music these days.

These music chains have such a hold on mainstream music and radio that it is becoming harder for talent to shine. The quality isn't really declining. The problem is that you won't hear many new artists, or older ones for that matter if they don't fit a certain genre that is radio friendly. When you talk about music in the 60s, it was very free form radio. Any half way decent station would be willing to take a chance and play anything that sounded good. Didn't matter who the artist was or what type of music it was. This is how some of the best musicians of the time got to be known. 

It all comes down to money. If a radio station is willing to pass the big bucks for good talent, it's out there waiting to be heard. Sadly money rules the airwaves. It is all about making that almighty dollar, not that it wasn't always like that to some degree, but not at the cost of creativity and producing real quality music. Whatever happened to the good old Rock n' Roll? In the sixities and seventies musicians used to form bands, write songs, tour there butts off, gather a following, and eventually garner the interest of a record company that would help them distribute their sounds.

I think its time that music returned to some of its earlier roots. A time when most of the record companies were ran by people who liked music just as much as the money they could make and this allowed musical creativitiy to flourish. Instead of nowadays, were record compainies are all consumed with big profits.