The Commercial Overhype Surrounding the Music Industry - Article Example

College The commercial overhype surrounding the music industry The music industry has been marked by a rise in the use of futuristic sounds over the past few years. Drum sets have been replaced by electronic bass thumps, guitarists and vocalists have become invisible, and multi-member rock bands have been reduced to superstar DJs. These DJs have a vast knowledge of the music that they create, although their skills are generally limited to spinning pre-recorded tracks on turntables or CD players. Yet, the younger generation is becoming increasingly attracted to the faster tempo and heavier beat of this musical style. Various electronic dance music festivals around the world have managed to draw the attention of other media that has helped propagate the popularity of electronic music. The major festivals attract over a hundred thousand people and create endorsement opportunities for major record labels, distributors, and promoters. This has helped fuel massive investment into this genre, giving it quick commercial success. In the past, music was real and was played by real musical instruments. Such instruments included drums, sticks and pianos that were used to accompany the smooth natural voice. However with the commercialization of music, an artificial sense of superiority has been created. Most of the music played in clubs and everywhere else is not the real music rather it is just the use of electronics to create a certain type of music that is similar to the natural music but sounds superior to the natural music. This kind of creation has made it almost impossible for natural music to make it in the market as it very inferior to the EDM. There is a worry that the future generations will not have the taste of any natural music due to the current trend. EDM is currently receiving much attention in the field of music. Lots of endorsements are given to EDM while few or no events are organized to appreciate the value of natural music and voice. This is making the talent to fade away from the earth. For example, the MTV award is held each year to appreciate the talent that young musicians have. However this is not done based on their voices rather by the beats that they create (Jense 67). Few of the talented musicians and bands remaining in the world have to change with the trend and try to adopt their music and style to sound as the EDM which is much appealing to the audience. For example, the common Kenyan Orutu band had change their music style and start using Pianos and computer generated beats so as to cope with the changing market. This is so since the group was in fear of being extinct yet they had the talent. Few people get to attend the shows of talented bands because their music does not sound as they know it. The bands therefore have to add in a little bit in their music so as to help move the crowd and create something that the people want. In the past, gospel artist sang for God with their natural voice and masses were held with the priests own natural voice. People in the church rarely used any musical instrument to go with their music. However the trend has changed and currently most churches do things differently now. Priest hold their masses and use musical Keyboards to go with their voices while church choirs also use musical beats generated by musical Keyboards and computer accompany their music that they used to do with their natural voices. The Wanted, a very good local rock band started as a normal band and was liked by many due to the unquestioned talent. However with the continuous changes, these bands had to change so as to get acceptance from the consumer of their music’s. Their latest released music was done by computer generated beats and after this, they saw an increase in the number of fans they had by almost 200%. This shows how people are madly in love with EDM as opposed to natural music. It is because of all these that this paper discusses the main questions; The incessant rise of commercially hyped music today poses a threat to other genres in the industry that are not as accredited, causing them to be regarded unjustifiably as lower art (Appel Et all 45). First of all, the most of the electronic dance music in the market does not base on the content of the lyrics rather they are based on their sounds and beats. An example is some of the hip-hop music where musicians rarely speak a word but the audience is always screaming their lungs out. This shows that EDM is able to reach out to a larger crowd than any other type of music. This is because few people take their time to get the message that the music is passing out rather listen and dance to the beats. By so doing the sole purpose of music to communicate and pass some message to the audience is lost at all. DJ’s are also using bootleg mixes for creating a numbers. This has done more harm than good to the appreciation of natural music. These mixes barely have any words in them and as a result pass no message to the crowd. It is important that musical leaders like DJ’s realize their roles in the society and start creating music that is not only entertaining to the crowd rather offers a chance to change the society. In the 60’s, rock music was considered to be the music of the rebellious and younger generation. During these times, most of the rock posters and fans were drug addicts and caused a lot of trouble both at home and in schools. Rock was the bad music of the time and most people considered this genre of music to be evil and driving the young to be a bad influence to the society. It was because at the time, the message passed by rock musicians was all about sex and drugs and as a result, most people fell for this and got into the wrong hands of the law. Currently, the new Woodstock replacing rock music is EDM. Today most of the crimes and drug related activities are performed by youngsters who are addicted to EDM. Even though the music does not have any message in it, the beats are known to cause some mental dysfunctions that may cause the youngster to such activities. The musicians also consider the bad lifestyle to be cool and this is what the younger fans try to copy in order to be just like them. Several classic rock bands that used to perform in various functions have lost their focus and instead are moving in for commercialization. As a result of this, many of them have changed their sounds, their style and genre. Some of these bands have even abandoned their styles and instead focused on the use of EDM. All this is done in order for the bands to be able to survive in the changing market of technology. For example, Chinese Democracy, a song that was released by Guns N Roses two years ago, was a flop as it was very different from GNR’s original style that was popular in the 80s. AC/DC released a “Greatest Hits” album in collaboration with the Iron-Man movies. A visit to the common clubs and any other place where current music is played and what you notice is that the current music is that the current music is modern and use sounds that are not natural rather electronic to create beats. The beats are attractive and the rhythm closely matches. Everything seems perfect unlike the slow music that is a characteristic of the past music industry. All these are done so as to satisfy the growing need for stronger beats that everyone needs. It is for this reason that most artists have even gone further by playing their music on their computers at concerts instead of using natural instruments and natural voices to play their music to the crowd. It is possible that the future generation will never have a taste of how natural music feels like and how to use musical instrument. This is killing the rich culture that music has passed for generations from one generation to another and instead creating a culture that does not appreciate culture and talent (Bindas 109). Rock music was characterized by powerful lyrics that could be remembered for generation. Songs like Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin, 1971), Gimme Shelter (The Rolling Stones, 1969), and A Day in the Life (The Beatles, 1967) are still remembered for their lyrics. However EDM has lyrics but few can remember any word that is described in the music. It is because unlike rock which conveys its message to the audience through the use of strong lyrics and use of poems, EDM, use tempo and varied beat structure to entertain the crowd. At the end, EDM ends up passing no message to the crowd at all while rock does pass the message to the crowd. Despite all these, most people especially the youth still go for the EDM because of their strong and attractive beats forgetting that it has no message to pass out. In conclusion, it is evident from the above discussions that The incessant rise of commercially hyped music today poses a threat to other genres in the industry that are not as accredited, causing them to be regarded unjustifiably as lower art. If not looked into, then EDM pose the threat of destroying all the good culture that music has brought to us for this long. In addition, it poses as a threat to all the other good musical genres that are almost out of the market. People need to change this and instead start listening to other genres of music and help in their promotion. Work cited Appell, Glenn, and David Hemphill. American Popular Music: A Multicultural History. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006. Print. Jensen, Joli. The Nashville Sound: Authenticity, Commercialization, and Country Music. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1998. Print. Bindas, Kenneth J. America's Musical Pulse: Popular Music in Twentieth-Century Society. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 1992. Print. Read More