The Music Industry: No Talent Required

Since the beginning of time, we have all loved music, people of all ages and races. They say some things get better during time, like a fine wine. I think the music industry is one big exception for this. It’s been changed drastically since my parents were coming up, and not only has the music itself changed, but the way its run has changed as well. It hasn’t changed for the better at all, and I know a lot of people I know are no longer satisfied with the music industry at all, save for a select few.

Back in my parents’ day, or even my grandparents’ day, music was all about having fun, enjoying yourself. I saw prominent examples of this in my one elective class I took this semester called History of Rock and Roll. We watched YouTube clips of old performances and artists, and learned about them as well. You could tell that each artist enjoyed what they did, and had fun. They truly appreciated all their fans, their managers, their bands, and so forth. My favorite part was learning about Bandstand, which was started here in Philadelphia. All the cool kids would go there afterschool and have fun on the show, or watch from home and dance from their living rooms. Teenage girls adored Elvis. All the guys enjoyed Buddy Holly and the Crickets. All the free love hippies enjoyed the sounds of Janis Joplin or The Lovin’ Spoonful. People just listened to records or went to live performances simply for the fun aspect of it all.

Fast forward now to my parents’ era, the 70’s and 80’s. Music had gotten a little bit more expressive in the 1970’s, with bands like The Rolling Stones, Parliament, and R&B and funk bands like Earth Wind and Fire and the Gap Band. Music got just a little flamboyant, but who cared about the way they all dressed? These people produced something people could get down to! They’d have block parties to it, go to the disco, dance around in their rooms, go to the skating rink; it was still all about fun.

It got a little more expressive in the 1980’s, a lot actually. Madonna was the one who was the one huge staple in the 80’s as far as music goes. She was a huge influence on young girls then, with the teased hair, makeup, petty coats etc. Her music was equally as expressive. She spoke on taboo subjects that no one would dare to tread upon, and parents hated her for it. Her fans and supporters continued to back her up and support her though, and they loved her music and ate it up. Arena rock was a huge thing in the 80’s and that’s something the young men of that generation emulated. It was about the music still, but it had a stronger impact on the future generations.

As we move into the 90’s, we can see that music is now going into a period where pop music is dominant. Acts such as N’ Sync, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys and more, come into play, establishing the bubblegum scene. Less real instruments were used in the recording of such music, and the R&B scene followed suit with this as well. Nevertheless, the talent was still there, the music produced was bearable. Our parents disagreed with that and preferred their old school, but we knew what we were talking about. It was that way all the way up until the end of the 90’s and everyone was still satisfied with the quality of this music.

At the dawn of the new millennium, it all had gotten too sweet, too reproduced, too much of the same thing. Now it was becoming a bit less bearable, almost half and half.  It was time for a change now, we wanted something new. We should have been careful what we wished for.

Since maybe 2008, the music industry has been reduced to trash. You no longer need talent to be signed. If you’re hot, interesting, or odd, then congratulations! You got yourself a record deal! Unfortunately, mainstream music has now been reduced to poor beats and senseless subjects, sometimes the same thing. In rap, you hear now is about how shiny someone’s rims are, how many women they can get, and how much money they have. It’s old. It’s stale. But the big executives think that it’s a cash cow, which unfortunately most of the time it is.

The first part about this whole thing I’ll address is the whole fascination with autotune. Autotune was developed in the 1970’s, and was mostly used to correct pitch...until artists like T-Pain came along. T-Pain started the whole new fascination with autotune  when he came onto the music scene in 2005, but he didn’t use it heavily at all, and his music was actually decent. After that it all went downhill. He no longer sounded like himself, but rather like a robot. And then it all snowballed into every other artist’s music. It infected hip-hop faster than the swine flu and I hated everything about it. I thought to myself, if you all are such talented rappers and R&B artists, why do you need this crutch? Why do you all need to sound like droids?

Then there are the artists that have been established for several years but now they have gotten lazy. They go into the booth, be lazy with their voices, and let the studio magic do the rest of the rest, thinking that the fans are stupid, and that no one will notice what they have done. A prime example of this is Britney Spears’ Blackout, released in 2007.  It was bad enough that the songs on that album didn’t sound like her style at all, but her voice no longer sounded like Britney Spears, she just sounded like a computer.  She previously had all her albums before Blackout reach number one, but this one’s performance was very weak, and that was the end result. The only excuse I would give her for that was her mental state at the time, since she wasn’t doing very well. I have even found videos of people singing covers of her songs on YouTube and doing a better job then she did, which should be quite embarrassing for her.

Moving on, I have noticed that a lot of these new acts are talentless. I simply do not understand how they even got people to listen to their demos if they had one. Let’s take Soulja Boy for one. If there is some talent in his rhyming skills, I certainly don’t se it because it is overshadowed by overbearing beats that go terribly with his “skills”, or lack thereof. The music behind his rhyming is what actually drives me away from his music. Things like this are the reason why the only rapper I really respect at the moment is Jay-Z. Another one is Ke$ha. I will admit that I have a few of her songs on my iTunes, but most of the time I can’t tell if she is singing, rapping, or just simply talking, and it is at that point that she sounds to me like a little girl that has gotten lost and wondered into some producer’s studio to play around. The rest of the time she sounds as if she’s strung out on some kind of drug. And again, the music behind her…whatever it is that she’s  doing is just simply terrible.

Now let’s move on to the ones who aren’t popular for their skills, but simply because they’re considered “hot”. The first person that comes to my mind when I talk about this part of the topic is Beyonce. Back in the day when she was with Destiny’s Child, I totally dug her music. I loved their sound, everything about them. When she went solo, I was like “Okay, Beyonce’s just simply doing her thing, moving forward.” Her first album was okay, more true to herself than anything. The second and third is where everything just gets messy. Her music began to sound like the same reciprocated garbage that you hear on the radio, and then all of a sudden she’s screaming instead of singing? Where did this come from? Then her stage outfits become smaller and smaller, and it becomes clear that her “talent” is not the reason she is still famous. People love seeing a woman in something that leaves things to the imagination, simple as that. It’s almost as if she’s in lingerie onstage, the way people gawk at her. And it also doesn’t help that she’s started this whole “Diva” empire that so many girls and women have embodied faithfully.

The industry nowadays has also turned people into who they don’t want to be. Lady Gaga is one of those people. As much as I like her stuff, I am disappointed in her. The industry has turned her into this techno dance queen, with a damn good fashion sense.  Most of us know better than to think that she was signed like this, but the way she is now, you could never really tell.  I have seen clips of her on YouTube before she was famous, and let me just say—Lady Gaga is genuinely talented. She has an amazing voice, and she isn’t a real blonde, her hair is chocolate brown. She was something like Vanessa Carlton, or Alicia Keys, playing piano and singing. Now, she’s just…out there, if you will. I’m just wondering, if you have that kind of talent, why would you cover it up with the overwhelming sound of techno? Why are you cheating yourself with a voice as beautiful as that?

Then there is the fact that you no longer need a demo to try to get into the music business. Now you can easily get picked up on MySpace of YouTube, which makes it almost too easy for people in my opinion. And then once someone picks you up that way, most of the time (mainly in hip hop though) you have about 5 or so “mixtapes” and then if people like your mixtapes, then you are worthy of finally actually recording a studio album. I think that makes no sense. For all those mixtapes, you can just compile all those songs into one album and make that the debut album. It’s the most backwards idea in the world.

One of the final topics I’ll address is how some of these artists gain a huge following, but they are anything but positive. The one person that comes to mind when I talk about things like this is Nicki Minaj. For one, before she was famous, she was slim, not so curvaceous, and pretty. Naturally pretty. Now both her chest and rear end are both plastic. She was one of those people I mentioned above, who was found on MySpace and had a million mixtapes. Her first studio album is yet to be released. Now that she’s famous off of her mixtapes and people know her name, she has unofficially started this whole Harajuku Barbie movement. Now everywhere you turn you have girls from ages maybe 15 to 30 (yes 30) imitating her. It’s sad, really. Not attractive at all. They make themselves look like her down to the T. If she didn’t have a trash mouth, and didn’t have her breasts hanging out of every outfit she wears, then I would be like “Okay, maybe it isn’t so bad.” But you have 15 year olds saying things like, “It’s Barbie b***h,” and calling themselves Harajuku when they don’t dress anything like the Harajuku style in Japan. Maybe if Nicki actually dressed the Harajuku style instead of just dubbing herself with that name she wouldn’t seem like such a fake. I don’t understand why you would take something as innocent as a child’s toy and turn it into something so vulgar. Now when I see Barbie dolls, I scowl because I can’t help but think of today’s definition of a Barbie. Like, why do you want to be fake and plastic? Why? Congratulations, Nicki Minaj, you are the world’s first living human Barbie doll. Be proud.

The last issue that I have with the music industry that I will address is the different levels of fame that there are. It seems as if you rap or sing about nonsense, look really hot, or have no talent, you have an instant ticket to fame or riches. I find that the best music and artists are underground, or not popular because they’re not what the industry wants, or what the brainwashed fans want. The most underrated musicians, singers, and rappers are the ones with the true talent. Think about it. Common, Lupe Fiasco, Sy Smith, The Roots, Amel Larrieux and even producers like Afta-1 and Flying Lotus. I bet you’ve never even heard of half those people I named, have you? That’s no fault of yours. That’s the fault of the music industry, and these artists’ choice to remain true to who they are. The industry bigwigs will never want them because they won’t succumb. Then there are those who have just taken a step back because their eyes were open to what was going on. Artists like Jon B. and Ashanti. People like them have dimmed down for a bit because they don’t like the way that the industry is going, and I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t either.

In conclusion, I will say that I’m very disappointed in what the music industry has become, and because of these changes I no longer listen to the radio, I refuse. I heard a bit of what’s on the radio now back in March, and I thought my ears were going to start bleeding. It’s just straight GARBAGE for the most part. Of course then there’s people like Alicia Keys that are still doing good, but then there’s people like Usher and R. Kelly who have sold out and now sound like everyone else. And then everything and everyone in between sounds like trash, and you can tell they are only doing it for the huge checks, and chicks. That’s why you haven’t heard from people like Lil’ Flip since 2002. They have their check, their fancy cars, and plenty of women, why should they come back for their fans? Please, that’s just unheard of. I am just fine sticking with the music that I grew up with and the few acts out here that are actually real. If listening to real music means that I have to be stuck in the past, then so be it. Now I see where my parents and grandparents are coming from. No amount of money you give me can sway me, or change my mind for a second. If this industry ever wants to clean up their act (which I seriously doubt will EVER happen), they have a hell of a lot of work to do.