September 23, 2004
"Cynics" vs. "True Believers" re: pop music
Alec Hanley Bemis has a feature in the LA Weekly in which he holds for that 1999 marked the end of pop music as the RIAA knows it. He argues that the introduction of Napster and similar technologies rapidly and permenantly changed the way we buy music. Instead of buying what is marketed to us, we buy what we like. The article is rather lengthy, but quite in depth, and well worth the read.
Essentially, Bemis argues that instead ofa dozen or so multi-million album blockbusters, the industry can now expect dozens and dozens of quarter and half-million album hits.
Case in point: in 1999, the top 25 selling albums included the Dixie Chicks’ Wide Open Spaces (10 million records sold), ’N Sync’s ’N Sync (10 million), Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time (12 million), Backstreet Boys’ debut (13 million), and Shania Twain’s Come On Over (17 million). In short, the nadir of manufactured pop.
In 2004, the fifty best selling albums as of June 5, 2004, list only a single album with 5 million in sales: OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, and that's really only got half that, because as a double-album it counts twice. Number three is by an emo band. We've got Morrissey, Modest Mouse, and Franz Ferdinand on the list too. [I'd post a link to the data, but Billboard.com charges for that kind of info, so no link for them.] In short, indie bands are selling better than they ever did before, while we aren't really seeing mega-hits.
I think this is a tremendously positive development, and can only hope that the big 5 labels have to file for bankruptcy before they sue anyone else.
Well Ryan, I've been doing some thinking on this issue (great post by the way, and I wholeheartedlyl agree), and I'm wondering just how much of the schlock put out by the big record labels is a testimony to the buying power of 14 year old girls.
Mesh, Noel, Macey, April and I were talkin' 'bout this last night on the way to Wilco. At the show, this girl yelled out "Poor Places" really loudly, and I guess she was really young, 'cause Tweedy is like "Geez, you must be 14. Why didn't you bring all your friends? We coulda been rich!"
Posted by: JosiahQ at September 23, 2004 08:12 PMmusic is best when you ignore all sale records and stats.
Posted by: James at September 23, 2004 08:42 PMWell, that's true, if you are doing it for a hobby. If you want to actually sell something, it's a tough series of concessions and firm stances.
Posted by: mesh at October 3, 2004 04:05 PM