If there’s one thing I keep harping on…
it’s the state of dissarray the music industry is in. Music is alive and well, but it’s being ignored by the mainstream media who are still pushing their plastic manufactured Barbie-doll pop-tarts and Bad-boy rappers and telling us it’s music.
Well, I’m not alone in believing this. And someone has gone to great lengths to put together a film documenting it. It’s called Before the Music Dies and it’s premiering at the SXSW Film Festival this March. Check the link for all the information.
They have an amazing list of musicians that they involved in the making of the movie. I hope it gets released and we get to see it. If not, I’ll have to watch for it on IFC or Sundance channel. It sounds like a really interesting movie.
Christina from Breakerbox said,
March 1, 2006 at 7:11 am
FUCKIN’ A!
It is dying- but there are some crazy bands lurking in the dark
out there- including us- who are going to change all of that!
Administrator said,
March 25, 2006 at 11:34 am
That and there was decent parking that you could find without getting a ticket!
Time after time, I’ve said it and most musicians back me up, the quality of live music in the Buffalo area is second to none. We just don’t get the recognition for it that other cities do.
Why people continue to pay outrageous ticket prices to go sit in the nosebleed section at HSBC arena to see a washed-up band in their decline, when they can go a couple blocks in almost any direction and for the cost of a drink, or a small cover, stand three feet from a fantastic band, I’ll never understand.
I don’t mean to disparage the big national acts, but by the time they’ve gotten to that level, they are burnt out and after playing the same setlist every night to support the CD they are touring to sell, they pretty much can phone in their performance. It’s automatic and as good as they may be, they’ve lost the soul of the music by then. They get burnt out.
If we were talking clothes or cars instead of music, the mass-produced product would cost less and be sold to the masses, while the unique and custom-made product would cost more and be for the elite and cognescenti.
But we’re talking music and the copyright system that was created to protect the musician from the jukeboxes has been twisted around to work against them. Now, once a writer and musician becomes successful, they lose control of the rights to their own music and become slaves to the music industry.
The music industry punishes the independent musician by discouraging them from being successful. Unless they play ball and sign the contracts, they won’t be heard. The music industry isn’t interested in the custom product. They only want to sell the mass-market product. They don’t know how to handle anything else.
There are exceptions of course. Plenty of indie labels exist, but the playing field isn’t level and they have as hard a time as the musicians they represent. The big four or five labels control the game.