Despite the quantity of genres and artists available, the condition of the music industry is worsening. Musicians don’t seem to care about what they’re putting out on the air waves nowadays.
They could care less about what the lyrics say and are focused instead on going platinum.
Compare those songs to ones that came out decades before, and you’ll hear a notable difference in quality and passion.
This decrease in quality is a result of the way we as a society need music. In the past we viewed music as a form of art, with each generation having its own style.
Now we view music as something we play just to pass the time as we drive around town. There is no coherent style for this generation’s music.
Musicians and bands would spends days working on one song, while the album took months or even years to complete.
Today’s artists, however, seem more concerned making noise with the same chord progression to a different beat.
This cannot be pinned on a sole style of music though, as bands across all genres seem prone to this habit of repetition to gain success.
The change occurred when the music industry realized that it could make more money and gain more fame by creating songs that address a certain audience.
Pre-teen girls go just crazy over bands like One Direction, as most teens enjoy blasting the latest 2 Chainz single.
Each audience has a constant need for the latest and greatest songs. They don’t care what it is, what band creates it, or how well-crafted it is.
Today, all that matters is quantity over quality.
Record companies are at fault as well, since they pressure and limit the artist on what they can create and when it needs to be out.
This is nothing new, as even famous bands and musicians like The Beatles and David Bowie felt pressure from their superiors to churn out hits.
The difference between now and then is the freedom bands have over what label they choose, and how that label affects the style of music they produce.
Luckily there is a new factor coming into play in the music scene: the underground artist movement.
Bands and singers from a multitude of genres have slowly but surely started to rise from obscurity and into the spot light.
These artists usually produce their own music under their own label, allowing them to be creative as they want without having to worry about what executives think is popular.
Hopefully these little, so-called “Indie” artists bring a new breath into a seemingly stale and dying art.
