Do you think the music industry is going downhill?

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Permalink Reply by ksawyer on January 5, 2009 at 9:00am

I absolutely disagree. This decade was far more exciting as a music fan -- and of every genre -- than just about any other. Whereas other decades highlighted new subgenres or movements, this decade destroyed the idea that any one person can be shunted into a single category. It also dismantled the generic mainstream distribution system, which opened up the floodgates for smaller bands to make a living. There are fewer behemoth bands out there, but this is ultimately for the better. I would much rather have multiple releases by Modest Mouse, the Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Stars, Wolf Parade, TV On The Radio, Sigur Ros, The Roots, The White Stripes, and throngs of others over some singular movement like The Clash or Nirvana or Elvis.

What's happened is that the exciting stuff has become slightly more difficult to find. With mainstream radio and storefronts still believing that Nickelback is the band of the millenium, it's been left to blogs, satellite and internet radio to push the good stuff. Epic Fu itself has been a great resource for new and exciting music, and there are thousands of prolific and influential music blogs (there's my own www.radioexile.com, of course).

The people who used to hold our hand (yes, these are the same people who brought us the new genres in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s) isn't doing the job properly anymore, and this has caused a schism. What the first decade of the 2000s will ultimately be remembered for the splitting of music listeners between those who still hold that hand and those who don't.

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Permalink Reply by Dale on January 7, 2009 at 2:10am

I think you left out the pretty major influence House Music has had on both culture and music. Hell it has acid house and rave culture that pretty much ended Thatcherism. Add in the fact that pretty much every single Madonna has released since 1990 has been a house record and I think it's influence has been more than semented.

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