As I’m 37 I guess that makes me officially too old to properly judge popular music.  However I’ve been noticing something with my teen age and twenty something students and family members.   More and more they are listening to older music that is considered classic rock, even to me, and turning up their nose to a lot of the commercial dreck that the, “music industry,” spews out.

Anyone that’s over 25 or is really into music and listens to more than what the radio and MTV will let you hear, will tell you that most commercial music is absolute crap.

It’s a shame that to hear really good music I and most people have to dig for it either by listening to old bands that were not a victim of over commercialization, or finding new ones that are great but don’t fit the music industries tiny window of what they think is marketable.

By and large the music industry has ruined popular music.  A few major acts do something new and exciting that by some miracle gets promoted and gets popular, then the industry spends the next five years looking for bands just like that band or act.   And this way of finding bands/acts is really what is ruining commercial music.

Add to that the fact that once large labels figured out fashion  and hype about the performer sells music, more than good music sells music, and we a volatile combination where popular music is dominated by sound-alike poseurs who always act and sound a certain way that is expected in their genre of music.

As much as artists and listeners like to blame the big bad music labels a large part of the blame is music fans as well.  Here are few things fans do to gradually ruin commercial music.

1. Support bands that are only good on recordings but awful live.  That is, they can’t really play, it’s all studio magic.  How many times have you saw a band live only to find that the singer sounds like hell and half of what is on the recording is missing because of dub ins?   DON’T BUY MUSIC OR MERCH FROM BANDS THAT SUCK LIVE.  They are posers

2. Support artists who are at best karaoke queens and at worst dancers who lip sync. Seriously why is britney spears a star?   Does anyone think she has any talent?  Quit buying music from crap artists unless you want more crap music thrown at you.

3. Elitist attitudes.  This is very prevalent in rock/metal.  Just because you like one type of music doesn’t mean you can’t like another type.   And just because you favorite band makes it big doesn’t mean they, “sold out,” and you should never listen again.  You should be happy your favorite band hit it big because you’ll see some more albums out of them.

4. Free Music downloads.  It’s too late to reverse this trend now.   However, this is the #1 reason why most of the acts and bands you see now are mediocre at best.   No one with half a brain will put their whole life into music if they can’t make a living from the music they create.  The only way bands, who aren’t already huge, make money now is by selling merchandise like T shirts.  No one buys music, because they think that they are entitled to it for free.  So, what if an artist spent two years perfecting the songs on an album, how dare he want to make money from an album sale……………………..

Non musicians have this funny idea that any band that is on the radio or on a tour or….gasp on MTV, is instantly a multimillionaire rock star.   The sad truth is the majority of bands, even the ones you hear on the radio, make hardly any money.   Record labels take the majority of a bands money in CD sales.   Any upfront money when they get signed gets recouped.  Money upfront when a band get’s signed is more like a loan they are paying back through CD sales.

So, basically if you like a band, buy their damn album, the shirt, and whatever they sell.  Don’t be a doosh, and get the album for free unless the band is offering it for free.   Then, just maybe, your favorite band will stick around a while and make you more music because they can afford too.  This is why bands get dropped from labels and not heard from again, because they didn’t sell enough CD’s, they got dropped.   Probably because a bunch of little dooshes got the album for free on the Internet instead of paying out the measly $8-$13 bucks for the CD.   This leads too……

5. Not voting with your money.   If you really like certain bands, but don’t have any of their physical CD’s you are ruining the music scene.       If everyone that per-ported to love music and this or that band would just go out and ACTUALLY BUY CD’s of their favorite bands,  the music industry would notice.  Vote with your money.   What you buy will tell the music industry what kind of music you want more of.   You can easily weed out crap music by simply refusing to ever buy it or watch any performances of it and spending money on the good bands. 

This doesn’t just apply to big bands either.  If you go out to your local music scene and like think a local band is good, buy their stuff.  Don’t get it for free unless they are giving it away.

Of course there’s the, “music should be free,” argument.  Hey, doosh, can you live off of $0.00?    Music and entertainment is an art and service and even though it’s fun to play music it is very much hard work to put together an album and perform, the artist should get compensated.

Think music should be free?   Keep thinking that way and wondering why most music is mediocre dreck…….. you get what you pay for.    When you devalue music the talented people who create music are more inclined to go into another profession that will allow them to make a living.