By Erich Vieth on March 22nd, 2007
The beginning of the end of crappy music?
[E]ven though people are spending as much time in their cars as they used to, consumers have been turning off music stations in droves. 27 per cent since 2001, I believe, about on par with the declines of CD sales.
You would think this means people are just listening to stolen music played on their Ipod Nanos, but consider this: Sales from independent labels are actually holding steady.
To oversimplify things just a little, this indicates that the labels have been putting out a steady stream of prepackaged junk in an effort to appease the radio programmers and that consumers have been rejecting it.
In his post on Huffpo, Jacob Bernstein puts much of the blame on the commercial consolidation of radio.
No. There has been crap music always, ever since Aristotle and the Platonists did a cover version of that old Sumerian ballad “By The Time I Get to Uruk.”
This is because there is a market for crap music.
But it ain’t the only market, so this may be a relief of sorts, and none too soon.
Crappy music is always with us. Since the end of the 70’s its been all moan, drone, and talk. Rock on, The Who!