

  Does The New Business Of Music Change The Way Music Sounds?  - prakash
http://www.fistfulayen.com/blog/?p=233

======
SwellJoe
I've been thinking for a while now about the likelihood of a return to a
singles focused pop music business, like we had in the 50's and 60's. Most
folks here grew up after the "album rock" generation, and so don't really
remember it (I don't either), but there was a time when a single was the way
bands were heard. It was possible to go into a studio for a day, cut two
sides, and be on the radio a week or two later. And then do it again every two
months until you had an album worth of songs. That became passe eventually, as
the record labels got addicted to the bigger high of a $10+ album sale, and
found that they could put two or three good singles on the album and the rest
filler and make more than having to push each single individually. There have,
of course, been album bands, like latter-era Beatles, and Pink Floyd, that
made true albums wherein removing one track would damage the whole and
listening to one track in isolation is less satisfying than the whole, but I'm
talking the pure pop industry...the Motown folks, Elvis, most popular country
music, etc., the people who were shooting for two and a half minutes of gold,
nothing more, nothing less.

Anyway, I think that's probably a good direction for pop music to go. Most
60's girl groups didn't make wonderful music...but every once in a while,
something like "Be My Baby" came along, and it's sold an awful lot of records
over the years (and certainly has more stamina than any Britney creation).
It'd be nice if there were a strong motivation built into the industry for pop
records of that quality, and if there were a channel that could be effectively
used to sell one really brilliant pop tune. And, what do you know, with
iTunes, Unbox, and others there is!

The traditional music business has a vested interest in _not_ seeing that
happen (again, they like the now $15+ album sales way too much to accept a
world in which all of their channel stuffing results in $0.99 sales). But, if
a well-funded new label sprung into existence, focused exclusively on
producing fantastic pop singles with good young talent, it'd probably change
the face of the pop music industry. This is one of those weird ideas that
doesn't really fit either the long tail or the traditional blockbuster
approach, but I think it's inevitable.

------
gasull
Also, the old business of music is changing the way music can sound. How? With
sample trolling:

* How Copyright Law Changed Hip Hop. An interview with Public Enemy's Chuck D and Hank Shocklee

[http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/20/public_enemy.htm...](http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/20/public_enemy.html)

* Jay-Z Versus the Sample Troll

<http://www.slate.com/id/2153961>

