13 Dec
2002
13 Dec
'02
10:40 p.m.
The MPAA and RIAA are failing to see that we are
slowly turning from
consumers to producers/consumers and this has actually been going on for
some time now.
I think you are greatly overestimating the ambition and attention span of
the public.
In 1989, a little known musician spent a week mixing
his own
music on a Macintosh (doing two takes per song) and in 1990 released the
album to critical and commerical success (Nine Inch Nail's "Pretty Hate
Machine"). That was 12 years ago. Imagine what can happen now.
The reason this guy became popular is because he can actually craft a good
song*. It is not something that everyone can do, even if they actually
spend the hours to crank out a tune. Many kids try, but almost all quit
after they find out that the tracks they just laid all sound like a bunch of
Casio presets.
Look what happened when the electric guitar started coming out in force,
back in the 1960s. With a fairly minimal amount of training, you can make
a song. What we ended up with is a bunch of crappy garage bands making
crappy music, and pretty much everyone went nowhere selling out in the huge
garage sale guitar glut of years later.
*No, not a Trent fan - no CDs, no MP3s...hell, I didn't even give him any
airplay...and yes, I *reeeally* don't like the RIAA. Oh, and he did have
a bit of help from Adrian Sherwood - that didn't hurt the record, certainly.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org