It's So Easy

Should you have the misfortune to talk to anyone in the music industry at the moment, aside from the constant worry about where to locate the next paycheque and just what the 'new business model' is going to be (answers: 'in the post' and 'no-one, and I mean no-one, knows...'), there's much talk across the forums and generally about how empowered people have become by the opportunities the internet and technology have given them. You'll hear any commentator worth their salt trotting out the line 'anyone these days can make a record'. Which is certainly true. My band has just written, recorded, mixed and mastered a new album for the kind of money that back in the old days of Major Label domination would have got you maybe a day of studio time at Abbey Road. And whilst the general concensus amongst the people talking about it is that this ability is a good thing, you have to ask certain questions.

For instance, just because you have the tools to make a record doesn't mean you should. I initially got really excited at the Myspace explosion where the thought of bands being able to bypass the labels and communicate directly with an audience seemed like Nirvana. But after spending days trawling through page after page of bands playing everything from Rock, Metal and Funk through to Electronica, Jazz and Folk, my overriding impression was that 98% of the stuff I had listened to was actually tripe. The mighty John Peel initially coined the mantra to which I lived when he said that if he heard something he didn't like, the problem was him. If someone had gone to the lengths required to actually put a song on record, then clearly someone somewhere believed it had enough creative and artistic merit to be worth it, hence why JP didn't feel anything was 'bad' per se, just perhaps a matter of taste.

That noble standpoint has been superceded, though, by the new approach that says anyone can make a record. And the problem is, everyone does. The issue is not so much that these new records are being made, but the authors of the said works immediately seem to feel that the mere possesion of the resultant disc demands attention from an audience, real or imagined. And the sad fact is that the accessibility of new technology and home recording doesn't make up for a lack of talent. My previous statement that 98% of the stuff I initially heard on Myspace was rubbish reflects that. I was hearing stuff that just would never have been comitted to tape. Yet here it is, and whoever has spent 3 minutes concocting the piece will now expect and demand to be taken as a serious artist who will demand a serious level of respect. So 'Hooray' for open access technology and giving everyone the opportunity to be a part of the joy that is music. And 'Boo' for at the same time managing to conspire to make those same people a part of the problem. Go ahead, sit at your PC and loop endless beats and tracks. But please try not to expose the rest of us to it before it's reached anything like a refined level. There's only so much more bedroom music I can take...