Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] more music to grade by...

[Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 01:50:10 -0600 (CST), Mike Miller
<EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> On Fri, 17 Dec 2004, Jonathan King wrote:
> 
> > incredible:  the other Beach Boys album that came out (over studio
> > objections) was Pet Sounds.
> 
> And "Pet Sounds" is widely considered to be one of the best rock albums of
> all time (sometimes critics put it at #1).  Anyway, this leads to the
> obvious question:  what are these record producers thinking if they
> sometimes oppose selling the best album ever made?

Brian Wilson was the (or a) producer of Pet Sounds.  And the label
opposed releasing it because they believed it would not sell well and
might dampen enthusiasm for more Beach Boys "product".  As it turned
out, Pet Sounds *didn't* sell well at the time, which put pressure on
Wilson and the others in the band not to follow up with anything as
artsy as the original plan for SMiLE.

So what the record companies were thinking of was: money.  What a surprise...

> Obviously, they don't
> know a good thing when they have one.  Right now they have a stifling grip
> on the music business.

You make no sense.  They ARE the (pre-recorded) music business.  And
it's not their place to care whether something is good or not, only
whether it will sell well.  You have my sympathy if you find this
depressing, but it's not like there ever were a golden age where sales
didn't matter.  Only an age where there was less efficient marketing
to (say) pre-teens or young married white women or whatever other
market segment is of interest.

>  They don't want to take big chances with their
> money, so they work to promote things that fit in with what is already
> popular.  The obvious effect is to crush innovation and cause stagnation
> in popular music.

Only in pre-recorded popular music on major labels.  To be honest,
there is so much music out there these days that I can't understand
the "crush innovation" comment much.  They don't promote innovation
because it doesn't seem to sell, or sell as well as other stuff.
 
> What can we do?  Don't buy popular CDs.  Listen to more free MP3s on the
> web.  Support local bands.  I don't know how much we can do, but we have
> to do something.

But what you like and support what you like.  Expecting or hoping that
everybody else will like it strikes me as a fairly hopeless endeavor,
but there's lots of good stuff out there.  So tell people out there
what seems to be good.  Now telling people that SMiLe is an impressive
album isn't saying much, since everybody is saying that, but there you
go.  My last music to grade by was Neon Golden by The NoTwist, which
has also has a dedicated but much smaller following.  I think
everybody should run out and buy it, but I don't expect them to.

Now, geek that I am, I also check with Amazon and try to find out what
other stuff people who bought X also bought; it's a surprisingly good
heuristic as to what I'll like.  So in theory, I'm supposed to like
The Shins, Wrens, and Death Cab for Cutie.  In actuality, I've never
heard of any of these bands, but I'll make a small effort. :-)

jking
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