A Sangean HDR-16 AM-FM-HD radio, which I bought at Fry's Electronics in March, 2020, right before the pandemic lockdowns kicked in, and several months before Fry's closed. I usually listen to the local rock station's Metal Militia HD2 channel, as you can just see in the pic. The bright LCD backlit display made the lettering a bit hard for my camera to decipher.
Recently, The Atlantic magazine had an opinion piece about the demise of new music, especially new music on the radio. The article is fairly interesting, especially when it included some statistics of which I was unaware.
First off, the writer mentioned that the audience for the Grammy awards, the annual TV show where awards are given out for various top recordings, has declined drastically since 2012. In fact, the audience last year was about one fifth what it was in 2012. In 2012, when pop music was really good, 40 million people in the US watched the Grammys. In 2020? It was just over 18 million. In 2021, it was just over 8 million viewers.
The Atlantic article can be found here.:
The writer, Ted Gioia, points out several issues that may be the cause. In his view, it's the music industry pushing old music instead of developing new music artists. And he may have a point. Corporate businesses tend to stick with what works, and if 40 year old songs by Queen and Tom Petty still are popular, then the industry will stick with the tried and true, rather than risk investing in the new music band or rapper down the street. It makes sense.
But I think there is more to the problem than music industry unwillingness to invest in new music, or new artists.
I think the quality of hit music has dived.
Here is an example that shows how far we've fallen. This catchy, upbeat, infectious hit came out in 2010, only 12 years ago. It made it to #4 on the Billboard Mainstream Hit Pop charts. It was still getting airplay two years later. Because it was good.
Compare this to much of the Billboard 100 today, and I rest my case. It's like night and day.
Just ten years ago, in 2012 (when I probably first heard "Dynamite"), the pop charts were burgeoning with catchy, infectious, and upbeat songs like this one. Today? Not so much.
SO BIG A STAR, SHE WAS IN MY LOCAL DRUG STORE
In 2012, there were TONS of big stars making good music, especially in the pop music world. And some were massive stars, who became household names. An example: Taylor Swift was making good pop, and she had a massive hit album that year ("Red"). She was so massive and popular that my local drugstore had a life-sized, photographic cardboard cut-out of her standing in the main aisle, with her CD's right next to it.
It was so real looking, that if you were 100 feet away you'd almost think it was her.
In 2012, Taylor Swift was so much a musical and popular icon she had cardboard versions of her in the aisles of drug stores. Think about it.
That was 10 years ago. So, what is Taylor Swift doing now? Because she has an issue with her old record company, she is now re-recording her old hits, and releasing them.
How is that going to invigorate the pop music scene?
And who is the popular, musical icon now? Who is that big? I can't think of anyone. Billie Eilish and a couple other stars are big, but are they as big as Taylor Swift and Katy Perry were?
It says something about the music industry, when there are no massively popular singers, and no icons.
2012: THE WORLD DIDN'T END AS PROPHESIED,
BUT WE GOT LOTS OF GOOD POP MUSIC
In 2012, other artists were also making great pop music and it was exciting to hear... Artists like Pitbull, Kesha (We R Who We R, Timber, Blow), Adele, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson ("Stronger", "Dark Side") Cher Lloyd ("Want You Back"), Havana Brown ("We Run The Night"), Calvin Harris ("Feel So Close"), Justin Bieber ("All Around The World"), and even some of the popular boy bands like One Direction and The Wanted had good sounding hits. Just one or two years earlier Taio Cruz had his massive, punchy, upbeat sing-a-long hit with "Dynamite". Katy Perry and Adele seemed literally unstoppable. Most of the hit music was danceable, had strong hooks and lyric lines easy to sing along to.
It was upbeat. And it was fun.
Some of the artists in the above list, like Havana Brown, for example, had maybe one hit that only went halfway up the pop charts. But the official video (in the hyperlink below) for Havana Brown's excellent track "We Run The Night" has had 8 million views a year.
Not bad for a track that only peaked at #26 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Pitbull raps on it. You can jog your memory, and see it here. It's quite good.:
Here's Calvin Harris's "Feel So Close", one of the better hits of 2012. It was a creative, catchy take on the electronic dance beat popular during that time, with a prominent guitar riff.:
In 2012, there were plenty of other pop artists making memorable, fun music like that. Some were one hit wonders, like Owl City w/ Carly Rae Jepsen (technically her second hit). The track "Good Times" was upbeat, punchy, had a sing-a-long feel, and had a great bass guitar line in it. In the comments under one of the YouTube vids for this song, you've got 20-somethings, who should still be loving today's music, lamenting the fact that today's music isn't as good as tracks like "Good Times."
Here is the Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen "Good Times" lyrics vid.:
Nowadays it's a cliche for Boomers and GenX'ers to complain about 'today's music'. But when 20-somethings are complaining about today's music, and saying it sucks, Houston, we've got a problem.
In 2022, there just isn't any artist that is turning out music that is turning heads. Sure, you can blame the pandemic if you want. In 2012 the Great Recession was still on for a lot of people, and that didn't stop anyone.
The few artists that are hitting the charts are here and gone. Maybe two or three years ago Lil Nas X had a hit with Billy Ray Cyrus that crossed boundaries and hit it big. Then he faded quickly. He still makes music, but isn't the big star it looked like he would be. Billy Ray Cyrus went back to playing casinos or whatever. That seems to be a common pattern. Everything is increasingly transitory.
Here is a song from 2012 that ruled the radio. Produced by Dr. Luke (who also produced "Dynamite"), Katy Perry was unstoppable, and this track is a reason why. It's infectious, punchy, and easy to sing along to. The official video has had almost a billion views.:
Kesha (known as Ke$ha at the time) was another artist produced by Dr. Luke. Apparently Kesha and Dr. Luke have a controversy in their history together but I don't want to go into that. I am talking about the music, and Kesha's hits were about as good as it gets.
This track, "Blow", was still getting airplay in early Winter 2012 when I first heard it played on local hit FM radio. The attitude is in-your-face but upbeat, and the hooks (with mysterious sounding keyboard phrases behind them) are catchy. It's probably her best song. Most of her songs had a match of infectious good time, a bit of rebellion, with some self-effacing humor tossed in. The music was impeccably catchy.
It's yet another example of the vast difference between good hit music and passable hit music. I have posted the audio-only video below because it has a bit more sonic impact, but the official video in the hyperlink above the video has unicorns and a bit of humor thrown in. It's well worth watching, but I usually prefer hearing the song exactly as I heard it on the radio.:
Some of her other songs and videos are just as good. Here's one, We R Who We R.:
This extremely catchy dance-pop track by pop star Selena Gomez was a hit in 2010. I first heard it in the Fall or Winter of 2011 or early in 2012, late one night while DXing and the song was playing on Radio Disney (KDZR in Portland). A Year Without Rain apparently only made it to #35 on the Billboard Hot 100, although it sold over a million downloads, and was on her album that year (remember albums?). It's infinitely better than much of the dreck on the charts now. It's obviously not rock, but it definitely caught this rock-fan's ears. The video has had 261 million views in the 11 years it has existed.
Here's a link to the lyric video, for those interested.:
One thing to notice in this video, as well as many of the others I've posted here, is the incredible amount of money put into the production. This Selena Gomez video is filmed in HD widescreen -- it's almost like a movie production. The record company put up that much money, to promote a really good song -- one that only made it to #35.
Here is a screenshot of the Selena Gomez video. Look closely. Everything is PERFECT -- from her hair, to her makeup, to her dress (offscreen here, but in the video), to the setting of the desert scene behind her -- a LOT of money went into the production of this video. It is almost like a movie set -- with the same amount of quality, and obviously very expensive to produce. Similar productions happen, but are increasingly a rarity today, as the record companies lack the promo money they used to have even in 2011 and 2012. The industry itself has changed.
The mostly fun attitude expressed in many, if not most of these songs I've included in this post seems to be missing in most of today's music. It may be due to the fact that the US was pulling out of the Recession, and the population needed the upbeat entertainment in music.
Whatever the reason, something changed, and it wasn't for the better.
Now, I want to remind my readers that it's undoubtedly obvious that I am not a Millennial. Yet I found the pop music of the early 2010's to be extremely high quality and captivating. It was more fun to listen to than the new rock I was hearing at that time. I even put some of it on a mix-tape CD that I still have and play from time to time.
Then the quality of hit music seemed to dive about halfway through the 2010's -- around 2015 or so. The apparent lack of interest by younger demographics in the Grammys recently, along with a few negative comments about modern music that I've noticed under some of these 2012 pop vids, tells me I'm not alone in my assessment.
ONE ARTIST = 12 PERCENT OF THE BILLBOARD 100 CHART
A sign of the bizarre and transitory nature of the hit charts today is the fact that there are less artists with hits than there were 10 years ago. This is reflected in that barometer of American hit music, the Billboard Hot 100.
Right now there is one artist named Gunna who has 12 songs on the Billboard 100. Adele has 2 or 3. Another artist named the Weeknd has 3 or 4.
Gunna himself takes up more than 10 percent of the Billboard Hot 100. Will he become a household name, or a 'heritage artist'? I suppose time will tell.
Pitbull was massive ten years ago, and for a reason: his raps were upbeat, at least on the hit records in which he appeared. In videos he always seemed to be having fun. This track was played to death during the Summer of 2012.
Now, back to Mr. Gioia's article in The Atlantic. Mr. Gioia believes that the record industry is pushing older music, because they are afraid to risk money on new artists. And he thinks that is killing music.
He's right, and he's wrong. Where he's right is that the record industry is indeed pushing older music and forgetting about finding and developing newer artists. His figure of 70% of all music on the radio being old music is probably correct. And the recording industry is in relative disarray right now. They've just recently figured out how to make money streaming -- something that the artists are discovering isn't really paying off unless they bypass the recording industry.
I know some music artists who are doing this. They make their own videos. And post them on social media. No record company needed. They're not losing money, because they know that there isn't that much money in music unless you are already a touring band.
No one buys music anymore. They listen to it online.
And streaming pays less than CD's, LP's, Cassettes, and MP3's used to. The recording companies make less money than they used to make. The industry is hurting, compared to the way it was in 2012.
Olly Murs was a one or two hit wonder, but his track 'Heart Skips A Beat' was one of the coolest, infectious tracks from 2012 -- electronic pop with a reggae beat and it was very singable -- like one big hook. This song was in heavy rotation during the Summer on Radio Disney, a national radio network which during the early 2010's had transformed itself from a kids' radio network to one that featured its own youth stars' music as well as regular pop hits like this one.
NEW MUSIC: STILL VERY MUCH ALIVE
But is this current trend 'killing music', or even killing new music?
Not really. The new music is out there. You just have to look for it online. That's the key. Online is the new version of "radio". This isn't to say that no radio stations play new music. I can hear new rock and metal on the local rock station's HD2 channel. That's where I first heard the French metal band Gojira -- whose last album actually topped the Billboard album charts for about a week.
KISW's Metal Militia HD2 channel (available to hear online) plays a cool mix of metal and hard rock from Nu-Metal to Metallica to Motorhead to Slipknot to Gojira to other, heavier acts. But KISW's regular FM channel (99.9 FM in Seattle) has a lot more older, 'classic' rock on it, which is why I listen to the HD2.
But Mr. Gioia's complaint about radio and the recording industry pushing more older music is probably true. I don't think it's killing music. I don't think it's killing new music. New music is out there. I can go to YouTube tomorrow and find a ton of guys playing new bottleneck slide tracks, and some of them get thousands of views per video. There are metal bands, alt-rock bands, and undoubtedly tons of hip-hop and rap artists who have videos and Patreons and the like, and they're probably as well off, if not better, than they'd be if they were signed to a record label that would just pump them and dump them like yesterday's trash.
Now, these new trends may be killing the music industry -- but that's another matter.
This song, 'Payphone' by pop act Maroon 5 was played hourly on every pop radio station for probably most of 2012 and even into the next year. It's because it was that good. This, by the way, is the actual radio hit without the cuss words. It's the version I remember hearing every hour on KBKS 106.1 FM ("Kiss FM") for what seems the entire year, and Radio Disney also played it to death. And you know what? I never tired of hearing it. Neither did millions of other music fans, apparently, because this song was so massive that the band's next single was delayed by a few months. Today, of course, the opposite happens: artists dump a ton of new releases out onto the charts quickly, and sometimes concurrently, hoping and praying that something will stick. Sometimes it does, but more often it probably doesn't. Such is how far down the hill hit music seems to have gone.
Payphones, of course, were already MIA before this song came out, but the imagery of some poor guy dumping quarters into a payphone trying to get ahold of a girl who dumped him struck home to people. It's an example of pretty good songwriting. It struck a chord.
THE INTERNET IS THE NEW RADIO
So the problem isn't the killing of new music. It's the changing of the guard. The Internet is the new version of "radio". The self-recorded track, and self-produced music video is the new version of the "record company". And streaming is the new version of "music sales."
I don't like it any more than a lot of my readers probably do. I'm a Generation Joneser, who grew up with the LP record and CD's. I grew up in a society where you bought music and played it on a turntable, tape player or CD player. In the 2000's and 2010's young people bought MP3's and loaded them on their MP3 players or IPods.
That music sales business model, which lasted just over a century, was based at least partially on an industry that financed the production of (usually) high quality music that people would buy. And a lot of money was made that way, by the companies, and the music stars themselves.
The music business model I just described is long past the pull date, unfortunately. People rent music via streaming subscriptions, and even though streaming royalties are fairly high, compared to radio airplay revenues, they are low compared to the CD sales and MP3 sales model. Musicians complain about low revenues. It's a brand new world, and that world is one where if you're a musician, you're on your own.
And although it's mostly killed the era of the music star, the new model ain't necessarily a bad thing for music. If you're a musician or singer, you don't have to wait to "get signed". You can put your music up on the internet anyway, and see if it flies.
For radio? It's not a great sign. Right now, radio is still more portable (being that there are many areas where cell service is marginal), and radio is still free. But how long until radio becomes little more than an archaic vestige of a prior age? Time will tell.
Looking back, it's still hard to believe how powerful a hit this song was. Kelly Clarkson didn't write this song about empowerment and personal endurance, but she definitely delivered on it vocally. I had never heard her before I heard this song being played on the radio, and I was impressed by her expressive, blowtorch voice. I thought she would make a great rock singer. She still probably would. I almost didn't add this vid here but Stronger is a classic example of what appears to be missing in hit music today.
One thing that may keep radio going is streaming. And not in the way one may think. Streaming costs internet platforms and streaming radio stations lots of money. The artists' representatives want the streaming royalty rates (that radio and streaming platforms like Spotify and Pandora pay) to go even further UP. If and when that happens, the big online music platforms will have to increase their subscription rates to still make a profit. Meanwhile, hit radio is free (Broadcast music, at least in the US, is under a completely different royalty scheme from streaming).
You can't beat the price of free, can you?
I'll end this diatribe with a bit of positivity. Andy Grammer was a one or two hit wonder from the early 2010's, whose biggest hit was this track, "Keep Your Head Up". It was an upbeat, hooky, infectious sing-a-long song that always reminded me of better days and California sunshine -- perhaps because it was written, produced and recorded there. It wasn't a massive hit -- it only made it to #53 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #21 on the Billboard pop chart, but the video single (linked below) has had 10 million views since it was released in November, 2010. I think I first heard it on Radio Disney while DXing one night, or maybe on one of the local pop radio stations (KBKS FM 106.1), probably in 2011.
The radio and pop charts could use more songs like these.
WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS MORE GOJIRA.
I will try to end this blog article on a high note. As I mentioned earlier, a year or so ago I discovered the French-American rock band Gojira on KISW's HD2 channel. The song was The Cell. Instantly, my interest was piqued.
Gojira are named after the famous movie monster Godzilla. Because of naming rights, the band had to adapt their name to the Japanese version of the "Godzilla" name. It works. What first struck me about Gojira was the hooky chorus lines, the intense lyrics, and Joe Duplantier's singing voice. He reminds me a little bit of Jaz Coleman, the singer in the UK alternative rock band Killing Joke. They both have commanding sounding roars when they sing.
For those not initiated, here is an example of Killing Joke, from one of their better albums, the self-titled one they put out in 2003. The track was a single that got little if any airplay in the US, it's called "Seeing Red". Nirvana's Dave Grohl plays drums on the entire CD. It's awesome.:
After a year of not listening to current rock music much, I dug into the YouTube vids and -- almost by accident -- I found a Gojira concert live (one hour at 'Hellfest' 2019, which can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuOQxYxWntU) and I rediscovered the band, and checked out their hits.
Gojira have an excellent song from their 2016 album, "Magma". The song is called Stranded.:
Here is The Cell. It is also off their 2016 "Magma" album. It is really good.:
Here is a live version of 'Stranded' that was recorded at a club in Switzerland. It's a good recording, and looks like the Swiss crowd was having a blast.:
I read that Gojira's new album actually hit the #1 position on the Billboard 200 album chart when it came out.
Perhaps there is hope for rock music yet. Gojira are quite good. They're the real deal.
Until next time, my friends, peace and good health to each and every one of you, all over the world.
C.C., January 25th, 2022.
PS: As you may be able to see, I learned how to embed YouTube videos in my blog posts. That opens up a new world for me in blogging, as I am a music fan -- especially a rock, metal, and blues music fan. That said, you'll notice two links connected with most of the videos here: the panel, which plays the YouTube vid on my blog page (a very cool feature for Blogger to include!), and a hyperlink above it.
On some of these vids, the hyperlink above the YT panel leads to another video, sometimes the actual official band's video, where you can see the artist singing. That is the case with Gojira's The Cell, and Havana Brown & Pitbull's We Run The Night.
Peace to all.
C.C.
ADDENDUM, June 13, 2022. While reading through this again, I noticed a couple places where a couple sentences were partially, or entirely deleted somehow during the editing or posting process. I fixed those 'glitches', and also added the Selena Gomez video while I was re-editing. I also added a few sentences here and there.
I also changed the title. After re-reading the article, and thinking about the radio and music industry, I think it is indeed dying.
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