TODD L BAUERLE.com

Death of an Art From

Spring 2001

By: Todd Bauerle

Music by it's very nature is an art form that embraces change. In fact, change is what keeps music at the forefront of culture. If there ceased to be new artists, we simply would tire of the old ones. True some classics do exist, probably more than we realize. Who can say that today Mozart, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky are not just as talented and even more popular than in their own day? By that same token, who can say that the Beatles, Led Zepplin, and the Rolling Stones are not as talented today as in the sixties and seventies? Many reasons exist that continue to bring these artists and others like them back to the limelight year after year. One of which is that some people still have not heard "Stairway to Heaven" or Beethoven's Fifth in it's entirety. The reason for this is because so much exists in the world of music and it is impossible for someone to hear it all, and new music is being written all the time.

Let's look at the new music for a moment. Unfortunately too many styles now exist to cover them all adequately. Hours could be spent on just the topic of Rap, Blues, Dance, Punk, Alternative, and even Country. What is most interesting in our current time is most of these music types fall under the giant umbrella of Popular Music. Pop has often been used to describe what is popular in a given time period. Many artists did not "fit" into the mainstream because of their departure from the norm. The strong emergence of this alternative music has its roots in many different areas. Some may say that Neil Young was the father of Grunge music prominent in the early 1990's, while others would claim that the pop song craft the Beatles made famous in the 1960's is the same pop song formula that dominates the radio stations today. Both of these statements are true, and many more can be made in attempt to define this popular alternative.

Leaving Rap, Country, Dance and other styles behind, let us focus ourselves on the above contradiction in terms: Popular Alternative. Truly if the music is Popular it ceases to be an alternative, and the converse it true as well. But how else can this style of music be defined. More and more radio stations claim they are alternative in format, but really it's Pop; and when that is said I include everything from Matchbox Twenty to the Backstreet Boys and Eminem (not that the latter are my favorites by any stretch of the imagination). True everyone does not like the same music and different tastes exists, but I would like to share the viewpoint given in the movie Almost Famous, "Rock and Roll is dead," and this generation missed the last gasp by twenty-five years.

Everyone knows the shot was fired but no one is willing to admit the patient is dead. When this shot was fired can be disputed forever, but it was fired around the time of the 60's and 70's, that's for sure. Maybe it happened when everyone saw how much money was to be made in music when the Beatles became a success in America. Maybe it happened when the Stones made their debut and the people behind them eagerly awaited the returns with adding machines and left with full pockets. One thing is clear, it was those people behind the music who killed the art and made it impossible for unknown talent to make it big.

They days of scantily clad women and extreme drug use behind and on stage are still here, even though everyone is aware of the destruction that awaits them . . . don't forget Jim Morrison, among others. The screaming fans still flock to the concert halls, but they are more naïve than you can imagine as to the corruption that brought them screaming in the first place. Record labels killed rock and roll. Executives at record labels loaded the gun. The entire pop culture of music exists in it's present form probably because a few individuals heard something they liked and by virtue of who they know and bribe, it gets played on the radio and is hailed as the next popular sound or hit group.

Now in all fairness, everyone cannot be called a sell out. Musicians are still around whom refuse to dance or be made into puppets for executives. The Smashing Pumpkins are a group that comes to mind. Here is a true alternative to the mainstream because they focused their talent on the art and their own sound. Unfortunately, the executives won in this case and recently the Smashing Pumpkins broke up because the scene was too political. As their last stab at the industry they released the final album as free and only available for download on the internet.

Now here is an area that is being tightened down quicker that anyone would have thought. In attempt to control every facet of the music industry, the record companies have shut down online music trading in the name of copyright laws. How strange is it to take note that in this day of music trading on the internet that record sales are up. This process, made famous by communities like Napster, made new artists flourish like never before, especially in the "Alternative" music scene.

I give example from personal experience of this. Several months ago I stumbled across a band I had never heard of before, American Hi-Fi. I read about them on the internet and downloaded their album off Napster. After liking what I heard so much I contacted a local radio station and told one of the DJ's about it. He pulled the lead single off the net and played on the air at my request. This single "Flavor of the Week" was added to 101.5 [in Phoenix], KZON's play list soon after. This song is currently being played to death on the air and the CD is available in large quantities all over. Now I don't claim to be responsible for this trend because good music circulates no matter what, but the speed at which it happened can be linked to the use of internet music trading.

This would seem like a good thing, but the record companies don't approve for two reasons. The first, it would appear because they have no way of controlling it. The second, which is obvious, is they are not able to profit off online trading. Because of this, a revolutionary method of promoting new music and new artists has been crushed.

I say artists because that is what musicians are, and music is an art form. However when greed and corruption spreads in to and art form it refuses to become art. Moreover the music becomes more cliché when it becomes popular because we are told that it is. Rock and Roll, the art . . . truly is dead. We are just here for the viewing.