Writing about music here is something I don’t do, primarily because there are writers out there who are far better suited for it than I am. However, I feel the need to write about a recent discussion that I had with someone about music.

I am a huge music lover who has increasingly grown dissatisfied with the mainstream music being pumped out by the major music labels. Nearly everything is so producer-driven that many artists sound the same, from rock to pop to R&B artists. Mainstream music labels are also so focused on looks and imagery over the quality of the music, and the past few years has really turned me off of a lot of the new music out there. For a number of years, I turned to “old school” music of the 70s, 80s, and early 90s to satisfy my needs, which is the bulk of my music collection. Within the last year, I slowly began to shift my music listening habits through Pandora and Last.fm. I started opening my ears to independent artists and artists signed to mainstream labels who were doing something different. I knew that my musical tastes had changed, but I didn’t realize how much until I got into a somewhat heated discussion over mainstream music vs. independent music.

A friend, whom I will call “Jason,” is a typical mainstream music zombie. He is so plugged into what the radio stations and music channels plays, and he doesn’t pay attention to the music revolution online. On the other side, you have me, who is very open minded about music and learns about new music strictly online for the most part. I was raving about the new Wendy and Lisa album (White Flags of Winter Chimneys), and Jason’s immediate response was, “I haven’t heard it on the radio or seen a video on TV, so my immediate guess is, it’s not good.” When I heard this, I was a bit taken aback. It wasn’t so much because he dissed Wendy and Lisa’s new album without hearing it. I was surprised about his way of thinking – that if it’s not on the radio or TV, then the music isn’t good enough. I suppose I’ve been hanging out with too many forward-thinking music lovers online lately, so I’d forgotten that there are a lot of mainstream zombies out there – people like Jason. I, of course, immediately went on the attack by pointing out the following:

• Since when does MTV play videos (minus the other MTV channels, of course)? Because MTV doesn’t play videos anymore, a lot of artists (mainstream and independent) release their videos on YouTube or MySpace. That’s where you watch videos these days (if you still care).
• The labels control the playlists on all major radio stations in all markets. DJs don’t decide what they can and can’t play; labels do. So if you’re an independent artist or a mainstream artist doing something outside the mainstream consciousness of crap, you’re screwed when it comes to radio play.
• “Independent” doesn’t mean the music is crap or the artist isn’t good enough to get a deal with a major label. The music industry is so screwed up right now, a lot of name artists (Madonna, Prince, Nine Inch Nails, etc.) have left their labels so they can be in control of their music and potentially make more money.
• Just because you haven’t heard of an artist on the radio or seen their video on TV, it doesn’t mean that the music they make isn’t good. In fact, it’s probably better quality music than the mainstream garbage being promoted by the labels.

Despite the points I made, Jason refused to even accept the possibility that an independent artist’s music could be just as good if not better than music coming from mainstream artists signed to labels. I realized he was on a one track mindset when it comes to music, and no matter what I said, he wasn’t going to change tracks or even open his mind up.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, but it is nice when the other person can at least see your point of view. Jason is so blinded, so mind-controlled by the mainstream music conscious that he can’t see anything else. He’s the perfect customer for the music industry out there looking to dupe people into buying substandard music. He’s the kind of zombie the music industry wants – someone who only eats one kind of cereal, every day for the rest of their life. I, on the other hand, like to eat more than one brand of cereal.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 8:01 pm and is filed under Life, Play. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.