After a Rocky Year, Time to Face the Music

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mikenyc, Dec 29, 2002.

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  1. -=Rudy=-

    -=Rudy=- ♪♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♪♪ Staff

    Location:
    US
    I'm mostly on the side of "today's pop music is crap". It just sounds so much like a manufactured product--it all sounds the same. But didn't our parents say the same things about OUR music when we were growing up? :) I have the feeling if I programmed a synthesizer and drum machine, cooked up a catchy tune, and found a bare-midriffed 18-year-old to sing it and shake some booty, I could be making some serious money!

    Anyhoo....my thought about the ailing music industry, though....what's missing? What one thing can't you go down to your local music store and buy anymore?

    The 45 RPM single.

    For less than a buck when I was younger, I could go down to Harmony House on my bike and buy one or two of my favorite songs on singles, for a pocketful of change. Back then there were hundreds...no, thousands of singles to choose from. New releases, last year's successes and failures, even oldies.

    What is there today? A pathetic rack at the end of an aisle in Best Buy with a couple dozen CD singles. The rest? Well, your next choice is to buy an entire CD where MAYBE there's one or two good songs on it. With the companies pushing an $18.99 list price on new releases, how can a kid at the local mall music store (Sam Gouge-y) afford to spend over $20, after tax? Have allowances gone up that much?

    I'm not going to nitpick specific prices or the quality of Top 40 music (and radio) in general, but in a general sense, the record labels have taken music away from a major buying group: the teens. So much is targeted at them, and all they have available to buy are a pathetic handful of CD singles (one soundalike hit, five awful remixes), and the full album on CD. And the record companies wonder why all the kids are downloading music? For a quarter, they can throw maybe 15-20 stolen songs onto a CD.

    I'm not saying singles would revive the industry, but especially in today's economy, does $20+ look better spinning in a CD player for a month before it's forgotten, or does $20+ look better feeding the family for a couple of days?
     
  2. Mike

    Mike New Member

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Not me! Maybe a bunch of high falutin' critics with horn rimmed glasses? ;)
    Gimme J. Lo any day. :)

    Mikey From The Block
     
  3. Mike

    Mike New Member

    Location:
    New Jersey
    I agree! I've been following what's happening with singles closely the past few years. The bottom line seems to be that the record companies are afraid to have the singles cut into album sales. They've been experimenting with release dates - for example the Christina Aguilera single Dirrty was just released commercially only after the second single was on the charts. Some singles are being test marketed in limited parts of the country - Avril Lavigned - Complicated for example. But I don't believe there will be a full scale committment to the single. They have no confidence in the full length product backing up the single and it's hard to disagree about that. :D
     
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