First off, I spent very little time at home researching things to blog about for Wednesday, thus the no show. I wanted to have an interview done, in all honesty. It's something I think would be neat because I have never done one before. So, on Tuesday morning, I realized that I was 3 days behind in prep, let alone in actual work. Life goes on.
I purchased myself a new laptop this week! By new, I mean my first laptop ever. I picked up the acer Chromebook. It's pretty in it's simplicity. So far I have used it for browsing, a thrilling round of Angry Birds, and now this blog post into starting bit. It is kind of strange; I feel like I'm using an oversized tablet. The screen is small (11.5 inches) and the keyboard is bizarre, but I'm enjoying its company all the same. I think I'm going to name him Ace. Every piece of electronics need a name. Except consoles: They do not have a soul.
Since I haven't pushed this thing yet, I'm not sure of it's processing power. It is hard to push a PC that is a web browser and, therefore, you have to go out of your way to find games.
{Please be kind to the following opinion piece about the music industry}
EVERYONE MUST REMEMBER THAT RECORD STORE DAY IS APRIL 20TH. GO FIND A LOCAL RECORD STORE AND LET THEM KNOW YOU APRECIATE THEM.
Yes, there will be a lot of links to allmusic.com for this next bit. Mostly because I feel like they have some solid information. Partially because I like links.
I have had a few conversations about where the music industry is going this week. I see it either crashing and going the way of the late '80s/early '90s, or the more early '80s. Early '80s being a world of happy people being happy about the everything they think they have, and the early '90s being a world of "fuck the mainstream." Right now it appears to be something along the line of an over saturation of bands who all either sound the same or use the same ideas to convey the popular sound. The underground is starting to swell again to the same capacity like the early 2000s when we had the emo invasion happening beside the semi hip-hop British Invasion-Inspired sounds by bands like The Gorillaz and Danger Mouse making huge waves. Along the sides of all of that, Jack White was getting his start with The White Stripes and Weezer made a come back. All of a sudden, it seemed like those bands started to become background to acts that used those ideas and made them accessible to everyone. Even bands that had been around forever changed their sound just enough to fit in. The prime examples being Kings of Leon having a single (and album) which barely resembled the previous albums.
My personal hope is for the industry to change in every way. We already have had a major upset with things like home recording and self distribution becoming incredibly easy and cheap. This has caused a massive over saturation of sounds and ideas which has a major up (new music always popping up and around) and major downs (a million to one odds to find anything to enjoy). The way I would like to see everything go is either a movement or a community in popular music. From what I have seen, there hasn't been a real mass community built around a band since Death Cab For Cutie circa 2005. Back then, it was rare to know someone who wasn't either gushing over how great Plans was, or how Transatlanticism was better. Regardless of your views, it felt like everyone had some sort of tie to that band. Now it feels like there is a greater segregation between cliques. I will admit, this may be an age thing: although I work at a music store, I haven't been a part of a community that wasn't metal in years. Please, for the love of all that is Holy, let this paragraph be my absence from something amazing, then let me know how to get in.
A movement is something I feel like I have always missed out on. I came in late for the early 2000s punk uprising, but too early for the Emo brigade. I jumped ship from metal just before the death metal revival of 2005 (I say that because Cephalic Carnage had just released Anomalies), and I hated the people jumping into the post-post-hardcore. I only really got into math rock in the last few years and this fucking country has always had shit electro.
I would like to conclude with what I think this current music industry is doing right from my perspective and where they could improve. I think bringing vinyl back to the forefront was a brilliant move. Though I do not have exact numbers (hook ups?), I know that new music sales at my work have increased exponentially since we started carrying vinyl. I sell (on average) a record a day with one record a week being a new release.
Digital distribution is probably a new market standard for top twenty groups thanks to the reinstatement of the single buying ability: it is quite nice to grab that one song if the rest of the album sucks. I do not think iTunes will reign supreme for another decade, but they will try.
BandCamp.com has made everything so beautiful for the independent musician and label. With free download readily available for those who want to do so, plus the introduction of the supplied online store, TuneCore and iTunes actually have a true competitor on the field. I just hope they can keep it up without corruption.
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