http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22685721

Good on him. Diversity should mean more than some sh1tty dance troupe

This made me laugh

Pop music industry is failing?

From what I can tell it's been failing since the 1990s. Churning out endless clones of the same rubbish is not the way I remember pop music when I was a kid.

From last year: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jul/27/pop-music-sounds-same-survey-reveals

There are the occasional good new acts, but the music industry has become staid thanks to the likes of talent shows. The Christmas number one has been the property of Simon Cowell for a number of years now.

Is that so much worse than Mr Blobby and Cliff Richard?

Go into a shop in December. I can guarantee that the music being played will come from Slade, Cliff, Jonah Lewie et al. There will be no Christmas #1 from any of Cowell's output.

Really? Were you from the same decade as me - the 80s - when this slice of cack was a chart mega hit for Stock Aitken and Waterman?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hg7M8qI5m8

Or perhaps you have a few years on me, in which case perhaps this delightful number 1 hit from 1976 brings tears to your eye, or perhaps to your sphincter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykKNC6NjgMc

If you go all the way back to the 60s I'll have to look up who did that rubber ball song (well, it was the 60s, every song in was in the chart at least 5 times with different singers back then).

Empirically, I must contend that 90% of pop music now is [LIFTED], but that has always been the case.


I am tempted to argue that indie music has gotten genuinely dull. But I suppose if we bear in mind the Mock Turtles and Inspiral Carpets I probably sustain that argument.

- at all of those!

I'm not saying there has never been rubbish pop music, it's just there used to be a bit of variety as well. I grew up in the 1970s, with all the glam rock, disco, punk and the Osmonds. There were some real doozies back then, but generally speaking the bands that made it to the charts had made an effort. Even the Bay City Rollers - a manufactured band - turfed out a couple of half-decent tunes. The early 1980s, to my mind, were a golden age akin to the mid-1960s.

Maybe I'm just getting old, but it strikes me that since about 1990 there really hasn't been much innovation from the pop music industry. Boy bands and girl bands, whether "talent show" sourced or not, only seem to do dodgy covers of stuff, and don't get me started on that rap/hip-hop/R'n'B (in my day, that was rhythm and blues; gawd knows what it is supposed to be now). Dime a dozen "rock" bands all thrashing about lost love, winsome young ladies - with or without a guitar - whispering about lost love, all seemingly drawn from the same vat of mush that makes the pop music industry these days. Perhaps the industry execs are afraid to branch out and find new exciting talent in case it flops and the whole edifice comes crashing down around their ears.

As Mitch Benn put it, cripes, nearly a decade ago now, Everything Sounds Like Coldplay Now. http://youtu.be/OtfNI6P7zDo

Frankly, yes.

Sorry this is going to be a long reply, but as someone who would benefit from a grant like this, I think it needs saying.

Firstly pop music is not failing on musical level. In fact for listeners it has never been a better time for music. I think people tend to look at back at the past (and especially those years when they were forming their musical tastes) with a fair amount of selective memory. In reality, unless you have very indiscriminatory taste, most music from any given era is pretty dire with just a few gems here and there. The older those gems are the better and more fondly you remember them, hence the perception that music in the past was superior. Despite all the wonderful songs I can remember from the 70s, I can also remember sitting for hours in front of the radio with my fingers poised to record the few good records that got played. I had to sit through an awful lot of dross to hear (and record) them.

Nowadays the whole world (literally) of music is available to you. You are no longer shackled to what you hear on the radio or read about in the music press. Back in the 70s, if it wasn't being played on the radio or available to buy in the local record store then it might as well not exist. Now I can find any band recommended to me and hear their music with a few clicks of my mouse. Admittedly tracking down stuff you are going to like takes a bit more effort now that it's no longer being spoon fed to you by the mainstream media, but ultimately IMO that's good thing. You can develop your musical taste all by yourself.

Where pop music is failing is at a business level. For most new artists it is almost impossible to make money selling recordings any more. There are people still making money from recording, but it tends to be established artists with sizeable fan-base who still want to pay for music, or short-term "entertainers" who'll have a couple of hits and them disappear. For all their supposed failings, record companies in the past made it possible for people to make a living out of playing and recording music. Imagine trying to approach your bank for money for 3-5 people to live on while also paying for studio time, new equipment and tour support, all given without any guarantees or security other than at the end of the year your band would have made some recordings and played some gigs; you'd be laughed out of the building!

At the moment it is very difficult to move a new band past the stage of playing to your friends in your home town. It takes time, effort, money and then you still need a fair dose of luck. In the present financial climate few people have much time and energy for anything that doesn't produce an income, and after that not much disposable money.

My band is lucky in that after 3 years of existence we have built up a good reputation and following, so that now as a band, financially, we just about break even. That means that playing gigs, selling merchandise and recordings, plus PRS and MCPS royalties, covers the cost of rehearsing, recording and getting to the gigs to play them, as well as having some money to pay for producing new merchandise and promotion etc. up front. What it doesn't do is support any of us outside of being in the band. Consequently we all have other jobs that provide income for our normal living expenses. Unfortunately every hour spent in these is a potential hour not spent doing something that would benefit the band like writing new songs, rehearsing, promoting the band etc. Right now we're having to decide between spending money on promotion for forthcoming single or buying a band van to get us and all our equipment to gigs. Ideally we need both. The promotion isn't going to be as effective as it could be if we can only do gigs where the drum kit and backline is provided, and without the increased promotion we are going to struggle to get more and better gigs. Unfortunately we can only afford one or the other...

Thank you for that perspective. You are probably right about my - in particular - rose-tinted spectacles. I know there's a ton of great stuff out there, but I simply don't know where to begin to find it. I therefore tend to stay with my own collection and memories. I guess I'm not that interested in following new bands in the way I might have been if I were thirty years younger.

I don't care who, where or when my music comes from so long as it's good - and the last decade or so pop-wise hasn't given me much to work with! I wouldn't even torrent today's top 40 never mind buy it. And those 'indie' bands with their godawful Autotuned accents... I reserve special hatred for the local ones

The best stuff I've heard recently has all been comebacks from artists who are more rock anyway and on Radio 2 (Bowie, Depeche Mode, kinda, Status Quo and that 'Stones single from months ago ).