Mellencamp on Music Business

Thanks for the link. My point of view may differ from the previous posts. I grew up with vinyl and still think it gives the best performance. CDs may have been a clever ploy to ensnare the masses but it gave us a portable medium which was better than cassette tapes. And the sound from a CD on good equipment is still damn good, just not quite as good as vinyl and without the pops, scratches and vulnerability. Also, my 16 year old son has brought music to me that he has discovered on Youtube, found the obscure recordings on CD or download, and is excited. The future will be high res downloads to music servers and distributed throughout our homes. I hope the future artists will record their own music, download it to the internet, bypass the companies ("The Man") and let us buy what we like, in high resolution downloads. To hell with the record companies, and Wal-Mart.

I think John has some interesting things to say--he recently interviewed on NPR. I was impressed by his gig last summer with Lucinda Williams and very impressed by his latest record. TBone Burnett produced and the sound quality is high. John has done a number of charity gigs and donated to support farmers and disabled veterans. I think he deserves your attention and support.

While John Mellencamp certainly has a right to his opinions,I agree with Tomcy6,unless he donates all his millions that he has made from the "music business",he really falls on a deaf ear, he talks about corporate greed, what about musicians greed etc.

I do agree with him on the "artist" owning and funding a record label, he should start one up, with all of its upfront overhead, signs some bands, make cds, and when they dont sell, and he loses millions,does he say, what the heck.

Record companies are not in this for fun,it costs alot of money to sign, record, promote, market a new act, and most go down the drain financially,doesn't mean their music isn't any good, the cd just didnt sell.

Has the music business changed, sure, the music and demographics have changed, the rock thing is over, and 50 -100yrs from now, it will go down as one of the great eras of the 20th century.

So, to John Mellencamp (and i do like his music) go ahead, fire up your own corporation, funded by you, and see what happens, I hope it works out.

I thought his best point in the whole article was: sing the chorus from I Need a Lover... now sing a chorus from any Mariah Carey song. I've asked a couple of people to try that and you can guess the outcome. I was reminded of the point when I heard Anoop sing an Usher song on American Idol the other night. There's just no song to sing there.

So much of what you hear today in popular music has no underlying song. There is a problem with the record business. His point on soundscan is valid. Music is Big Box business. A lot of what gets played in several genres - rock, country, top 40 come immediately to mind - is unabashed slick corporate garbage. I think a lot of the fractured genres we hear about such as alt country, new bluegrass, some folkie rock are outgrowths of the core problem. People can't stand the stuff played on radio and seek out these slivers of creativity.

Interesting comments. I guess I think this is a pretty hopeful time for American popular music. Lot's of mass-market junk (as always, I assume), but lots of smaller label stuff that is really good (the music more often than the recordings, alas).
J