How did the Telecommunications Act of 1996 ruin popular music?
That law enabled corporations (Clear Channel, Cumulus Media, etc.) to
buy as many radio stations as they wanted. Think about it, I bet your
favorite station changed formats some time between 1997-2001. So now
there’s a monopoly on radio. That’s why there are no more radio DJs
playing anything they just feel like listening to. It’s all formatted,
and these days usually a computer running everything. There’s a good documentary about it .
But there were other effects from this, I think, in that now there is
no real such thing as bands starting from nowhere, getting popular
within a scene, then getting signed. These days the labels just put
together the groups they want, and they collude with the radio stations,
and if you plug something into the top 40 and play it over and over
again, people will get used to it and buy it because most people aren’t really that discerning anyway .
I also think this is why rap and pop stars have been pushed over bands
and groups, because you only have to pay one person to be famous. So
they don’t even bother sending out scouts to find cutting edge music
anymore, they just pick somebody and make them popular. People who are
actually into music are just going to find their niche stuff online
anyway these days and buy direct, so the pop market is a total charade
with no real ground level culture involved whatsoever.
p.s. This is just my own opinion, but I think the early 90s was the
most raw era for popular music with things like grunge, gangsta rap,
metal, alternative, afrocentric hip-hop, horrorcore and hardcore
hip-hop, all that Subpop type indie rock and dream pop and shoegaze and
whatnot, a lot of things from the late 80s to mid 90s was pretty serious
stuff… Not that there wasn’t some bubblegum dance stuff too, but it was
actually interesting to see a huge portion of mainstream music dealing
with serious topics and moods rather than the usual upbeat jams or sappy
love songs that have dominated every other decade before and after.
(CavemanCircus.com)
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