The Best Thing That Ever Happened to the Music Industry
The internet is the greatest thing that has ever happened to the music industry. Given the current climate of the music market this is a bold statement bound cause riots and looting. Possibly a more apt statement would be something like this, the internet is the best thing that has ever happened to consumers of electronic media. This is coming from an Australian, a vast land with a small population lumped primarily into a handful of coastal cities; in many regards a technological and cultural backwater. The internet has given us (Australians and the rest of the world too) access to remote underground cultures and helped to create a stronger global culture and greater awareness.
Almost 15 years ago the Mortal Kombat movie was released, marking my first encounter with industrial music, a disturbing and compelling event for a youth still overcoming years of damage being brought up in a Christian fundamentalist family. The Mortal Kombat soundtrack was the first album in my collection that I actually liked. Unfortunately I spent many years lost in the woods with a near fatal encounter with sheer and unbridled eclecticism (one should never listen to Alanis Morissette next to the Backstreet Boys, if at all), riding the indie rock explosion of the late nineties, and jumping on a localised grunge revival at the turn of the millennium. Did I mention I grew up in the sticks Ah, nostalgia… the point here is that without the internet Australians are doomed to half-baked home grown crap (stuff that makes radio play) and imported mainstream (the other stuff that makes radio play). All that I know about industrial would come from a handful of movie soundtracks and Reznor albums. Sure there are, or at least were, till the internet killed many of them, indie (indie in the alternate sense but not the alternate that sucks) music stores but these stores are such a tiny fragmented picture of what’s really out there.
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Everything in the music industry is about putting on a production for their fans. Hundreds of people, months or years, and millions of dollars may go into a production that appears effortless to their fans. Artists spend their careers cultivating an image and persona that will attract and interest fans. They’re not trying to be intentionally misleading, though; they’re simply trying to give the fans what they want. Fans want to look up to bands and musicians that are talented and outgoing. They want to believe that everything comes second nature to their favorite artist. They want to believe musicians live the lifestyle they can only dream about. A team of people and technology create the music we hear on the radio and in concerts, not just the members of the band we know. The image and sound of the music industry is carefully planned and coordinated every step of the way. A few fans that are close to the industry may know some of the behind the scenes details that take place, but the vast majority of fans may not realize that much of what we see and hear is not the reality, it’s a carefully crafted show.
Over time, the music industry has perfected a few tricks to making it look like the front man we see in the band has got it all. Not every musician is skilled in every aspect of the music industry. Some musicians can do it all, but they don’t have the time between tours and recordings to create their own music. Much of what we hear on the radio was not written by the artist we hear performing it. Songwriters or staff writers are professional musicians that write original music to be performed by someone else. Record producers have a lot to do with the sound we hear on the radio too. Record producers help artists achieve the sound they want in the studio. Bands may need advice on the best sound, or they may need remixing using complicated equipment. A record producer’s job is to shape and mold the final sound of an album.
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