Interesting article, to be sure.
Kate Bennett wrote:
> sorry its so long, i wasn't given a link...(relates to the discussion on
> rome burning & rock stars falling, etc.)
> BY MICHAEL WOLFF
>
> Radio and rock and roll have had the most remarkable symbioti
> relationship
> in media -- the synergy that everybody has tried to re-create in media
> conglomerates. Radio got free content; music labels got free promotion.
>
> "They're thugs," says a former high-ranking music exec of my acquaintance,
> who is no shrinking violet himself.
>
> Such thuggishness, when the business was about courting difficult acts,
> enforcing contracts, procuring drugs, paying off every
> one who needed to be
> paid off,
This one's for you, Alan Freid-
Wherever you go
Whatever you do
Because the things they're doing today
Would make a saint out of you
Cash-a-wadda wadda, cash-a-wadda wadda.....
-Neil Young, "Payola Blues"
Brenda said:
Live performances are scarce compared to the abundance of
recorded music. And if Clear Channel continues on the path of
the last couple of months (declining stock price and more legal
attention than they anticipated) the company will, with any luck,
be broken up and the concert business will be more competitive.
And the artists who give more than just "sounding like the record"
will continue to pack houses.
This is the place where his analogy with authors and rock stars
falls down in my view. The experience of hearing Toni Morrison
read "Song of Solomon" was great but it was not nearly as
monumental as hearing Joni perform "Hejira" live with an
orchestra.
(Randy now)
Another place the analogy breaks down is that you can create
a novel with a typewriter and a stack of paper. Creating a full
blown professional-sounding record takes wads of time and
money, equipment and personnel. There has to be a way to
make it pay. Otherwise only the independantly wealthy will
be making records. John Ashcroft will be in heavy rotation on
MTV! Oh God, the real future of music!
RR
practicing scales while Rome burns
