Is Mediocre the New Excellent?
I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who owns a music production company in the DC area. This is the fellow for whom I do a lot of engineering work, and helped design is production facility. We spent a lot of time, not to mention money, putting together a small facility with the capability to turn out world-class recordings.
Anyway, he’s become a bit discouraged at the current state of the industry. Mediocrity has become the rule in the music business. Witness the likes of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson and God-knows-who these othe people are, spouting useless lyrics to drum machine beats. Where’s the skill? Where’s the talent? Where’s the artistry? Has it been replaced with silicon implants just waiting for the next “wardrobe malfuntion?” Is that why the American public supports this crap — just for a chance to see Britney’s plastic tits?
Of course, my seven readers already know this is a problem. I’m preaching to my own personal choir.
This mediocrity has, naturally, trickled down through the rest of the corporate recording industry. If people willingly fork over $20 a CD for this crap, the what’s the point of spending a lot more money to make an excellent recording of real musicians playing top-notch music? In other words, if you pay for crap, then that’s all they’ll give you.
It’s no wonder people would rather download MP3’s. Maybe people really do feel cheated by the major labels which have a strangle-hold on the industry. (And face it, the major labels really control the industry. In the current climate, indie labels don’t stand much of a chance, so they either close down, or sell out to the majors.)
A real problem is that what used to be the realm of excellence — the indies — are also begining to mediocratize (is that a word? it is now!). Dribbly lyrics reign over formula-ridden 3-chord dronings.
Music industry, get a clue. Turn out something worth buying. Turn out something truly excellent. Turn out something worth listening to.
Post Revisions:
There are no revisions for this post.
May I suggest firing up iTunes and grabbing the two albums that have been real earworms for the last week: Morningwood’s self-titled major label debut (poppy, punky, girlrock goodness), and Mew’s “And the Glass Handed Kites” (If YES were formed now instead of the late 60’s).
I would also suggest trolling Pandora and see what it throws at you, then raiding ITMS for completely new bands - stuff you’ve never heard up and don’t have in your collection already. ‘S how I found The Dresden Dolls and a few others.
Thanks for helping to prove my point — it’s a dig into obscurity to find the decent stuff. Meanwhile, we’re assaulted with audiocrap in the mainstream.
Yeah, but “mainstream” has always carried the taint of being homogenized for the mass market. I mean - look at Elvis Presley. As c0ntroversial as he may have seemed upon entering the scene, he was doing a countrified, whiter, safer version of more visceral “race music.”
Even if you look back to previous decades, the memorable stuff was out on the fringe, either one-hit-wonders, or obscure at the time even if they later moved on to be creaking dinosaurs of the establishment. And merchandised pop princesses and prettyboys are no new thing.
So, I make a point of looking for stuff that’s actually good, and there’s plenty of it. The stuff that’s merchandised as the next big Cash Cow for the label… there’s plenty of sheeple out there to consume it.
Sorry - rambling again.
As I said, it’s a dig into obscurity to find the good stuff. That said, I agree that Mew is generally pretty good. On par with Yes? I’m not quite sure about that, but they are good.
For those in the are and interested, they’re playing at Fletcher’s in Baltimore tonight. Here are a couple of links to the band:
Official Site
on MySpace
Oh, I’m not arguing with you that there’s a lot of mass-market crap out there that’s not worth the polycarbonate it’s pressed into. But all is not despair - there is goodness and light in this world if you look for it.
And no, not on par with Yes at the height of their creativity, but willing to take the same risks with complex arrangements, instrumentation, and themes. If I had the time to get there, I’d go see ‘em at Fletcher’s tonight - it’d be $12 well-spent, but I’ve got other stuff I’m behind on. feh.
I understand about being behind — I’d like to go, too. And, I’m not arguing that there’s nothing out there worth listening to. However, there’s getting to be less and less really good stuff, and what is good is being pushed to the far-fringes and getting harder and harder to find.