Lining up for the Big Cookie Cutter
This article spawned this discussion elsewhere, in which I (more or less) wrote:
The distressingly boring, stamped out, streamed out, spewed out product of today's music business is the culmination of trends that have been in the works since I was a kid...
Demographic analysis and targeting of radio audiences really started kicking in in the mid-60s, with the formulation of Boss 30 Radio (from the old RKO General radio network). Before that, choices about programming were largely informal and based on hunches, word of mouth, charts from other stations and cities, and, oddly enough, the tastes of the DJs.
In the 70s, the labels got involved in targeting the format requirements of Boss Radio, similar formats, and the album oriented rock format that evolved (many would say devolved) from the late 60s underground radio scene. In the early 60s and again at the end of the decade, there were explosions of interest in making music instead of just consuming it (first, the folk revival and then the hippie/alternative culture movement). Many learned a few chords and lost interest, but more than a few maintained music as a hobby, often supporting that often expensive hobby with day jobs.
As amateur musicians matured and their earning potential increased, they spent more money on gear and music production expenses, mostly subsidized by those precious day jobs. Periodicals -- supported mostly by adverts for "pro" gear used overwhelmingly by non-pros or moonlighters -- sprang up and were often packed with glossy ads for gear and services. There had to be something between the sexy pictures of guitars, amps and keyboards and all those ads... Articles on 'honing one's professionalism' an shaping one's career came to the fore. Some of the people writing those pieces were actually journalists (could happen) and actually managed to start digging up pertinent educational info.
Meanwhile, by the late 70s, a tiny handful of community colleges had begun to experiment with offering courses of instruction in video and audio work and expanding commercial music programs (themselves quite new at the time) to cover the technical sides of music production, as well as career aspects. (I'm a product of that era and two of those programs, both at then-nearly-free community colleges. I'd do anything for 'free' studio time.) Often, even in those early days, the emphasis was on best practices and how to deliver the kind of product that labels and radio (and the then growing field of music video) wanted to see.
As a consequence, bands got very good at following all these highly specific recipes for "success." But, of course, not everyone can be successful... and the convergence of all those trends had created veritable armies of well trained wannabes, their heads all filled up with nearly identical cookie cutter personal styles and musical approaches...
The damnedest thing from my point of view?
The musicians mostly seemed fine being just like all the other wannabes. It never seemed to occur to them that in a crowded marketplace, you really, really don't stand out by being just like all the other market dross waiting forlornly for Joe and Mary Consumer to walk by, clucking their tongues in disdain. "Look at that hair. What is it with these musicians that they all have to dress the same and have the same haircuts. How lame."
The distressingly boring, stamped out, streamed out, spewed out product of today's music business is the culmination of trends that have been in the works since I was a kid...
Demographic analysis and targeting of radio audiences really started kicking in in the mid-60s, with the formulation of Boss 30 Radio (from the old RKO General radio network). Before that, choices about programming were largely informal and based on hunches, word of mouth, charts from other stations and cities, and, oddly enough, the tastes of the DJs.
In the 70s, the labels got involved in targeting the format requirements of Boss Radio, similar formats, and the album oriented rock format that evolved (many would say devolved) from the late 60s underground radio scene. In the early 60s and again at the end of the decade, there were explosions of interest in making music instead of just consuming it (first, the folk revival and then the hippie/alternative culture movement). Many learned a few chords and lost interest, but more than a few maintained music as a hobby, often supporting that often expensive hobby with day jobs.
As amateur musicians matured and their earning potential increased, they spent more money on gear and music production expenses, mostly subsidized by those precious day jobs. Periodicals -- supported mostly by adverts for "pro" gear used overwhelmingly by non-pros or moonlighters -- sprang up and were often packed with glossy ads for gear and services. There had to be something between the sexy pictures of guitars, amps and keyboards and all those ads... Articles on 'honing one's professionalism' an shaping one's career came to the fore. Some of the people writing those pieces were actually journalists (could happen) and actually managed to start digging up pertinent educational info.
Meanwhile, by the late 70s, a tiny handful of community colleges had begun to experiment with offering courses of instruction in video and audio work and expanding commercial music programs (themselves quite new at the time) to cover the technical sides of music production, as well as career aspects. (I'm a product of that era and two of those programs, both at then-nearly-free community colleges. I'd do anything for 'free' studio time.) Often, even in those early days, the emphasis was on best practices and how to deliver the kind of product that labels and radio (and the then growing field of music video) wanted to see.
As a consequence, bands got very good at following all these highly specific recipes for "success." But, of course, not everyone can be successful... and the convergence of all those trends had created veritable armies of well trained wannabes, their heads all filled up with nearly identical cookie cutter personal styles and musical approaches...
The damnedest thing from my point of view?
The musicians mostly seemed fine being just like all the other wannabes. It never seemed to occur to them that in a crowded marketplace, you really, really don't stand out by being just like all the other market dross waiting forlornly for Joe and Mary Consumer to walk by, clucking their tongues in disdain. "Look at that hair. What is it with these musicians that they all have to dress the same and have the same haircuts. How lame."
posted by TK Major at
9:37 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home