Rock n Roll

the music industry is forever changing. growing, evolving and becoming more and more competitive. but is that really a bad thing? and if not, why are so many musicians struggling? did iTunes ruin the industry... here's what i think about the new age of music, what might be to come and where rock and roll stands. 

today, more and more musician "complain" about how hard it is to survive playing music, especially signed bands. they say, "20 years ago, it would have been like this..." but the reality is, 20 years ago, there were a LOT fewer bands. signed and not. so yeah, the bands made more money, but you there were only 100 BIG bands. today, there's 10 BIG bands, 10,000 signed medium bands, and then even more "small, signed" bands. so it may be harder to get RICH and wealthy off music, but it's actually much easier to make "a living". with that said, we look at how this happened... equipment and technology started taking exponential leaps and bounds. now everyone can afford to make a "Decent" sounding demo or EP and that used to be something only "famous" bands could do. we're on a much more even playing field. which in a way, makes it harder for everyone. think of it compared to sports, the league itself now has 1,000 teams playing for the super bowl (or #1 single) versus the league when there was only 100 teams. it's much harder to "win" today. 

iTunes has had obvious effects on the business. it's allowed users to purchase singles. it may have decreased ALBUM sales, but i don't think IT has lowered "sales". in the past, you may not have purchased a bands album only knowing/liking one song, now, you can go buy that ONE song. that's a sale the band would have lost out on. so it's not all bad, labels and bands need to learn and adapt, like every other business. as far as illegal downloads - i'll save for another blog. 

now onto rock music... why is it struggling so much right now? well here's my take... 

rock has been an always changing, always evolving genre. beatles - zepplin - motley crue - stone temple pilots - nickelback... and now mumford and sons. this seems to have created a void in "active rock". but it's ACTIVE ROCK'S FAULT. rock* isn't dead. it's changing, just like it always had. active rock is a sub-genre that has excluded itself. alt rock bands (today) like mumford n sons, Fun., and gaslight anthem receive radio on multiple stations. top 40, alt rock, mainstream rock, active rock and hot a/c. (this may be complete news to some of the listeners, understand, these are different categories of stations found on the radio today). country artists have country and top 40 play. hip hop reieves hot a/c, top 40, hot 100, top 40, and so on... however, active rock bands have limited and pigeon holed themselves to JUST active rock. we need to diversify to survive. staying the same ensures extinction. think of evolution and darwin's theory. we as rock bands need to keep growing and changing, or just keep hoping and praying top 40 picks "us" back up. we haven't created a new "sound" or a new "look" in over a decade. we're boring people. and the one HUGE core that was always rock, partying and going crazy, has been squashed as the industry has become such a "business". that behavior is no longer tolerated or encouraged. it's a tough day for these rock bands... 

people playing music today, for the MOST part, make very little money, and do this strictly to play music, the love of art and travel, and the camaraderie of meeting new people. there's many lonely, BROKE, discouraging days we all have to remind ourselves and each other to Laugh, Learn, Love and Live.