According to
an article printed in the
Chronicle yesterday (and
reprinted today, much to my amusement), CD music sales are down. No surprise there. The telling statistic in the article is that 58% of fans complain that music is getting worse. Well, I've got news for them: it isn't.
Rather, what I think has happened is the industry is being extremely selective as far as what they want to promote. As music fan Kate Simkins puts it in the article, "less talented" artists who manage to craft one song that will connect with listeners will get the hell promoted out of their album, leading to excessive radio play of their one good song which is only made worse by the fact that people essentially paid 15 bucks for that song that they hear all the time anyway, and are stuck with 11 other tracks of absolute drivel.
Let's look at the
top 94 songs played this past year on
The Buzz, Houston's alternative station. Right off the bat, we note that #3 is Staind's
Right Here, a song whose popularity likely derived from the fact that it reminded people of a Richard Marx song with a similar sentiment that played constantly during the halcyon days of their youths. And yet, it is supposedly one of the best songs on the album. We also note #7 and #8, Chevelle's
Vitamin R and 10 Years'
Wasteland: both bands are little more than Tool wannabes, and I have it on good authority that the latter's album is humble at best. In addition, you have bands who basically continue to repeat the same tired formula, such as 3 Doors Down, P.O.D., and Nickelback.
So has music really gone so far south? Looking farther down the list, we see signs of life: #29 is System of a Down's
B.Y.O.B., #45 is Coheed & Cambria's
The Suffering, and #77 is the White Stripe's
My Doorbell. Indeed, many of the best songs that hit the radio these days are such as these, slightly more experimental in nature, and seemingly less radio-ready. And there are also a few that strike a chord, so to speak: Sum 41's
Pieces at #18, Rise Against's
Swing Life Away at #42 (and may they stick to acoustic, because when they get loud, they get tiresome), Coldplay's
Talk at #71, and others. Then, of course, you even have your occasional ridiculously infectious tunes, as in Fall Out Boy's
Sugar We're Going Down (#26), No Address's
When I'm Gone (#27), and Hinder's
Get Stoned (#32).
But even in spite of a few gems, it's hard to deny that radio just hasn't cut it lately. However, I think the most important point to take from that is that music has not necessarily gotten worse: it's just that good music is harder to find. Let's look at some of my favorite albums of the year: local artist
iSOLA's Loud Alarms, Bloc Party's
Silent Alarm, the Decemberists'
Picaresque, the New Pornographers'
Twin Cinema, and many others. You know how many times I heard songs off those albums on the radio? That's right, not once, even though all have tunes that would seemingly fit right in on the radio. This isn't a bad thing, in fact it's almost a good thing (no risk of overplay, for example). It just means music fans have to work a little harder. In particular, I've found routine trips to independent music stores (though
that might get harder in Houston soon) to be a good way to remain apprised of good local and national stuff.
Wow, I can't believe I just spent all that time writing that post when I'm leaving for Florida in only a few hours. Best get back to packing.
Oh, and congrats to the Steelers.
Song lyric of the day:
"Whatever happened to our inner glow?
Whatever happened to the song, the soul
The me I used to know?
Whatever happened to my radio?"
- Blue October,
Inner Glow
