Having kids changes what you listen to because at their young age we can't instill our taste upon them. In the car they want to listen to their top 40 tunes; not the new Destroyer album I just grabbed. And as they get older and develop their own tastes for certain music, I realize more and more that I don't want to interfere in shaping this process. The fact that they like music in the first place makes me happy.
I love that I caught my 3 year old sitting on the toilet last week using the toilet paper pedestal as a microphone to sing "Let It Go" and that my 6 year old jumps on the couch singing "WHO DAT? WHO DAT? I-G-G-Y".
That said I've been listening to a LOT of radio lately. This is a complete 180 for me; a couple of years ago I was oblivious to popular music. My friends would be astonished that I didn't know certain songs. I wasn't even familiar with the tracks or artists getting nominated for Grammy's or VMA's or whatever shitty music industry circle jerk they have at various times throughout the year.
Today, I get a little giddy for T-Swift's Blank Space or a little Hey Mama (David Guetta) that comes through the ole airwaves. Mostly because my kids joyfully yell "YAY.....It's our SUMMER song" (FYI, every song is their 'summer song'), but also because I actually enjoy some of these pop songs too.
I'm finding out that pop music does not necessarily suck. Let's face it, these songs are extremely well written and they nail they formula that most of the listening public fawns over. They do their job and they make money.
BUT something still troubles me about radio. I'm finding that if I perfectly time my scanning of radio stations (between commercials and shit) I can and HAVE heard "Shut Up And Dance" by Walk The Moon 3 times in 30 minutes. Most major markets have 2-3 top 40 stations and I'm guessing that each of these stations has a rotation of maybe 10 songs at most.
Top 40 my ass!
Radio doesn't have a quality problem, it has a quantity problem. And while to some degree radio has always had a quantity problem, it was at least limited to a particular station. It didn't span across 3 or 4 stations.
This brings me to dilemma. I enjoy these songs and I have no problem supporting these artists, but my principles get in the way because in the back of my mind I know I'm feeding the evil beasts by listening to them. These beasts are the 3 big record companies (Warner, Sony, and Universal) AND the six big media companies that control 90% of the media (compared to 1983 when roughly 50 companies owned the media.)
I'm directly supporting these monopolies who are purposely dwindling down the selection of songs we hear!
Why are they decreasing the rotation though? Here is the kick in the balls. Let's take for example David Guetta's "Hey Mama".
- 'Hey Mama' is 10th track off the album Listen.
- Listen was released via Parlaphone Records
- Parlaphone's parent comapny is Warner Music Group
- Warner Music Group and Clear Channel have a partnership that allows Warner promote music through the radio giant and take in revenue from radio.
- Clear Channel owns 850 radio stations nations wide.
This tells me that the consumers have less of a role in creating the demand. These huge companies are creating the demand for us and sweeping up the profits of the demand they are creating. It's just bucking fackwords. And now I feel dirty for liking 'Hey Mama', but that isn't David Guetta's fault.
I guess what I'm saying is I've learned to re-direct my anger with the music industry. Whether you love a certain artist or hate them, let's all be careful not to villainize the artists because it's so easy for us to throw out absurd statements that blame them for this lack of diversity.
No shithead, Justin Bieber is not ruining music.....it's fucking monopolization. It's large corporations taking away our selection. Enjoy the music that is served to you on a silver platter (aka radio), but also help the cause by finding new music on your own and sharing that music you love with anybody who will listen.