Trends In Popular Music Track Economy

[JohnMCA72]

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/115790889.html

[richardmac]

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Great article - and I agree, in tough times, people DO want danceable fun catchy music with upbeat lyrics. One could argue that we ALWAYS want that type of music, but I remember the 80's, when rock, pop, and heavy metal all co-mingled in the Top 40. The 90's brought us even more depressing music with bands like Nirvana and the grunge woe is me life sucks movement, followed by the huge radio hit "How You Remind Me," a dark and depressing lyric and song, which came out in 2001 and just missed the end of the 90's. As for the 2000's, I think of Usher, Lifehouse, Kelly Clarkson, Gorillaz, Rob Thomas, Black Eyed Pees, Katy Perry, etc. We got sick of grunge and depressing music. Now it's all about either being cool or having fun or being cool while having fun.

 

CD sales have not hit the floor yet but are almost there, and digital music sales seem to have reached their peak, and now I think things will start to settle. The new music biz is/will be about thrift, economy, sure things, product tie-ins, the current trends, and marketing to the tweens. Everyone thinks the old music biz will totally die, but they're wrong. Labels will still be around, but they'll have far less power. We like to pretend that radio no longer matters but it still does. Radio audiences for music are shrinking but they, too, will hit bottom. From there, there's nowhere to go but up. I think the music biz will sink lower than it is right now, settle on the bottom, stabilize, and then show a very slight recovery. There are still going to be artists in the future that sell a million albums, but that will be the new "superstar" level.

 

So if you want to write songs and sell them, keep your dark sad ballads to yourself and write fun music. That seems to be the moral. America doesn't need your depressing songs right now. If the economy recovers and unemployment gets low and salaries go up, THEN we'll want to be depressed again. It sounds weird but it's true.