Music quality is going downhill?

Bryan Bradfield · Post by **Bryan Bradfield** » 1 Dec 2006 6:26 pm

Eric Jaeger -

You said "But the suits seem to have a stranglehold these days, and the path to the public seems firmly in their hands. There is a lot of good music and committed musicians out there, but they seem consigned to some "indie hell"."

Wow! - Is there a major label heaven? I've heard some non-tantalizing stories about the manipulations of artists by the suits at the major labels.

As an independent, I don't like the terms offered by the established larger record shops either. On our first CD, my band was asked to reduce the retail price to 75% of what we had been asking, and the store wanted 1/3 of that. We would be left with about 50% of our original net. We feel that we did better selling off the side of the stage.

Then you said "I console myself that I can at least find music out there that I like, and in some sense that's a lot better than the disco era."

Interestingly, I'm finding a great deal of what I enjoy from fellow forumites. Recent CD acquisitions that I am very pleased with involve forumites Jody Carver, Tim Tweedale, Chris Scruggs, Jimmy Roy, Lee Jeffriess, & Joey Ace/Al Brisco.[This message was edited by Bryan Bradfield on 01 December 2006 at 06:33 PM.]

George Rout · Post by **George Rout** » 1 Dec 2006 7:21 pm

In my opinion, music is matter of taste. I will never debate with someone what is and isn't good music, because it's a preference thing. Personally, I hate most of the noise (which some folks call music) of today, screach-owl sounds (females screeching repetetive lines), boring and machine type sounds. On top of that, I have asked so many stores if they would turn down the volume on their music, telling them, "Even if it WAS my music preference, it's too bloody loud".

Over the past few months, I have been browsing Myspace looking for "my preferred sounds" and there's quite a bit in the indies area.

There was a report recently that standard radio stations are losing business. This seems to be a shock to them. Here in Niagara, we don't have a spot left on the AM or FM dial because of the huge Toronto and Buffalo (and everything inbetween) markets. However, there is not one station that you can leave on for several hours, except maybe AM740 out of Toronto, which doesn't have hype sounds, and plays a variety of music. Yes, there are some stations that play "jazz" all the time, but if you're not a jazz fan as I am not, I don't tune in.

I listen to radio only to hear local news because I can't stand what they call music. Okay, okay, I'm off my soapbox now!!! Geo

Bryan Bradfield · Post by **Bryan Bradfield** » 1 Dec 2006 7:25 pm

Oops - another recent CD acquisition that I've been enjoying is from Mr. Rout.

How are ya doin', George?

And George, you returned the topic to my original statement, or intent - that we all have a particular era that our ears have locked into, and that as we all fade away, the music of the era is going to disappear.[This message was edited by Bryan Bradfield on 01 December 2006 at 07:27 PM.]

Tom Olson · Post by **Tom Olson** » 2 Dec 2006 8:00 am

What's interesting to me personally is that when disco came out, I HATED it with a PASSION.

But, for some strange, unknown reason, these days when I hear a KC and the Sunshine Band or BeeGee's or some funk song or whatever from the mid to late 70's come on the radio, I think it actually sounds pretty good.[This message was edited by Tom Olson on 02 December 2006 at 08:53 AM.]

John Steele (deceased) · Post by **John Steele (deceased)** » 2 Dec 2006 3:07 pm

"He performed some old Led Zeppelin songs from 40 years ago that he reinterpreted/updated and made to sound fresh and new. He re-created them and they were fantastic."


Was that the stuff they stole from Willie Dixon ?

-John[This message was edited by John Steele on 02 December 2006 at 03:08 PM.]

Leslie Ehrlich · Post by **Leslie Ehrlich** » 3 Dec 2006 10:30 pm

Not me. When I hear the Bee Gees singing 'Night Fever' or 'Stayin' Alive' or if I hear KC and the Sunshine Band doing 'Shake Your Booty' or 'Get Down Tonight' the music still sounds like it's coming from a machine.

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 3 Dec 2006 10:57 pm

Did anybody know that Stephen Stills came up with, and played, the guitar hook in "Staying Alive"? There's a shocker for ya.

Actually, if you recall the riff it's pure Stills.

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 5 Dec 2006 10:00 am

From an article on the Pollstar website on Jerry Douglas, commenting on why he stepped away from so much studio work in Nashville to become a permanent member of Union Station, as well as spending more time on his solo career:

"I was doing nothing but sessions," Douglas told Pollstar. "The music seemed like it was turning in a direction that I wasn't really that crazy about. It seemed like it was becoming more of a parody of itself than having any really good musical content."

You can read the article here:
http://pollstar.com/

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[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 05 December 2006 at 10:02 AM.]

Eric Jaeger · Post by **Eric Jaeger** » 5 Dec 2006 2:50 pm

Bryan, fair point on "major label heaven"! I was thinking of how much sneering goes on about indies, though to me most of the interesting music these days comes out on indies, they just don't get distribution or promotion, and the only way to find out about them is places like the forum.

I'll recommend a local label called "Hightone" that has a pretty good artist roster. Like Alligator, they were founded because the owners liked music they couldn't find, so they decided to put it out themselves. By now they have people like Joe Ely, Redd Volkaert, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Bill Kirchen, Big Sandy... not a bad job.

There's also a very good local record store (there's an endangered concept!) called Downhome Records that I recommend to anyone visiting the Bay Area. If it's a major hit, they don't have it, but if it's obscure they probably have it.

An interesting sidelight: record companies are starting to pay more attention to non-rap non-metal non-emo etc because they've just discovered that record BUYERS (as opposed to downloaders etc) are in the 30+ years of age range, and have different tastes than adolescents (surprise!). Will it make a difference? Who knows?

-eric

Darryl Hattenhauer · Post by **Darryl Hattenhauer** » 7 Dec 2006 2:31 pm

Seems to me there has been increasingly more great music in recent decades. But it's getting hard to find because the mass media suppresses it in favor of the human karaoke machines like Britney who get imitated by the not-quite human karaoke machines on American Idol.

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"Most people's favorite music is from the era before they got married." --Earnest Bovine

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 7 Dec 2006 2:40 pm

I was at one of the Tower Records stores in San Jose yesterday, bought a half dozen CD's at 60% off in their going-out-of-business sale. Got out the door for $42.87...picked up the latest Dale Watson, the new Los Lobos, the latest Allison Moorer, the soundtrack from Grizzly Man, music by Richard Thompson-some of the best soundtrack music I have ever heard, and two classic albums by one of the great singer/songwriters, Jesse Winchester.

More real music from recent years, of the utmost quality, recorded live in the studio. Check out this short video on YouTube on the making of Jorma Kauknonen's "Blue Country Heart" which picked up a Grammy a few years ago. Jorma, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, Byron House, Sam Bush. This is real quality. it's out there folks-it just ain't on your local "Today's Hot Country" station.

Oh yeah-even though I got some great deals on those CD's marked down 60% from ballpark
$18, I find it curious that ALL rap Cd's were already marked down to $2, regardless...

Check out the "Blue Country Heart" video here:
http://tinyurl.com/y5q2pt

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Mark

Gene H. Brown · Post by **Gene H. Brown** » 7 Dec 2006 9:21 pm

Music quality isn't going downhill, it's already there, my friend, and it's very very sad!!

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If You Keep Pickin That Thing, It'll Never Heal!