The final reflection in this series that I want to offer is on music. Music is somewhat touchy because its beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, but I think we can all agree when something is quality but not our style versus just plain garbage. And most of the music being created today is just that--garbage. It is all tied in to our earlier reflections on media and conglomerates ownership of multi-media outlets and the selling of records. We have moved away from quality musicians to images we can sell. Thus, the biggest thing in the music industry right now is American Idol. This is what makes money.
The decline of album sales due to Internet sharing is a large blow and one that record labels feel. There are now only four or five major labels around--again owned by the larger media corporations--Sony, Viacom, TimeWarner, Capitol, Universal, Dreamworks. But for the last number of years music has been about selling albums by a single or two. Thus the quality of an entire album suffered at the hands of acts that producers, managers and public relations people created--so they coud sell a few millions albums and then move on. Music has suffered. Go through the list of popular "musicians" of the last few years and the same is true about them as the movies an shows that are popular--directed and twelve year old kids--not to say that hasn't always been, but corporate agenda's define the field so much now that those are the only choices: Britney Spears or Backstreet Boys or Ashlee Simpson...this is the end of music. But out of the ashes something can be restored...
The hope lies in this: that the decline in music sales will forces labels to produce better quality albums and not just singles. Here's to hoping!
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