The State Of Heavy Metal And The Record Industry
As we all know, the record industry has taken a dive ever since peer to peer downloading was invented. Not as many CD’s were sold over those years and to this day it is still a problem for the industry even though free peer to peer is not as popular or even as useful these days due to fake downloads. However the record industry has found a not so desirable solution to their dilemma.
Back in the days before the internet, it was very difficult to get your name out there and get signed. You had to go on the road and gig every small venue you could and when you hit the bigger places you could only hope there would be someone there that would have connections and put a good word in for you to a decent label. When this happened the band would often get a recording contract with a signing bonus. They would be required to do so many records and the record company would send them on tour and promote the hell out of them. Most of the time the band would not receive much money from the tours or record sales and would blow their bonus on all sorts of drugs and crap, leaving them broke and looking stupid.
When metal became big in the record industry back in the early 80’s, the record exec’s were signing bands left and right trying to milk their cash cow. Some bands made it big cause they were talented and had a good sound and some would not. The record company would take a loss and the band would be history. It happened over and over through each of the big genres of rock in the last 30 years. Glam rock and grunge had their days and burned out quick, You still have your fans but the scene just isn’t there anymore. But there is one thing undeniable. METAL has never died! Glam rock died, grunge died, punk died but got resurrected into an even more annoying punk, BUT METAL HAS NEVER DIED. We have had our low points but never would it become an issue that metal would die out.
Now on to the solution the geniuses at the record industry came up with. Like the 80’s cash cows, the record industry has now decided that since they are not selling as many records, they will sign every crappy band that plays a power chord. Now I’m not knockin power chords, I am a power chord fiend. I’m just saying that they will sign just about anyone with a spark of talent. Even if that talent is not original or exciting. They sign all these bands give them a contract but don’t give them big signing bonuses anymore. They then have to tour every crappy collaboration tour, exhausting themselves just to make another crappy record to fulfill their contract and fizzle out after a few years.
What I’m getting to is this: Too many bands get signed too easily. Polluting the airwaves and cable tv shows with their garbage cookie cutter sound of blast beats, noodling guitars and wanna-be death metal vocals. And on top of all that a new sub-genre starts every two minutes cause of this crap. Perhaps this phase will burn out after a few years. The dust will settle and the bands with the best sound and talent will still be standing in the ashes of this shit-storm. We can only hope…
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9 opinions for The State Of Heavy Metal And The Record Industry
Douglas Karr
Oct 17, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Investors call it ‘diversifying your portfolio’. What the record industry is doing is to buy up every last piece of talent so they can try to maintain control over the industry.
I, too, remember buying EP tapes of Metallica and Anthrax back in the early 80s as they were begging for people to come to their concerts. A decade later, I found my Napster account cancelled due to my sharing of Metallica… this after a decade of buying everything Metallica I could find.
I haven’t bought anything from Metallica since and I never will. I wish bands weren’t so hungry that they sell their souls to this wicked industry. But I also hope they remember it’s the fans that make a band successful.
I look forward to more moves by such bands as Radiohead and Prince who find out that giving away their music leads to the real money… concert sales and the items people purchase there!
Scott
Oct 17, 2007 at 8:15 pm
well said, Doug. What I liked about peer to peer sharing was that you could find stuff that was almost impossible to find in any store.
I can understand why bands these days don’t like free downloads but back in the days that Metallica was bitchin about it they were raking in the money. Unfortunately for a lot of good bands, downloading has screwed them out of a lot of royalty money. The royalties may not be much but add all those little numbers up and you have a fat chunk of change. This is why a lot of bands these days are going for their own independent labels and such, so THEY can have control cause too many times too often the record labels screw the bands out of a lot of money and this I believe makes the bands more money hungry.
Greg
Oct 18, 2007 at 7:57 pm
While I agree with the outcome of record labels signing crap bands, I don’t agree with this logic.
Before I get to this, I will agree with Douglas about Selloutica. I must have owned Master of Puppets 50 times over, and then they go after kids for downloading. They’re crap anyways, just look at St. Anger. I won’t ever give those sellouts another dime.
But back to the issue, the author is venting and needs to focus his point, this article is all over the place. Record companies never sign a band because they’re “good”, or because they have talent. They get signed because they have the potential to make money for the label. That’s it. Nothing more. The reason you’re hearing so much crappy metal is because every emo-screamo band like Chemical Romance has a huge market following at mall stores like Hot Topic, and is trendy. Trends dictate signings, and all the bands you’re hearing now is just a reflection of what’s selling. It’s a lame, redundant circle until it burns out and another trend comes along. There’s really not much more to the record industry than that.
But remember, fan support makes or breaks a band. Slayer has been going strong and kicking ass for over 20 years, and every record has gone at least gold without any radio support.
Scott
Oct 18, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Damn It Greg…your right. It is all over the place. I have a tendency to do that when I’m venting and I totally missed the point of stating the potential to make money for the record label. I need to learn to proof read more often.
Scott
Oct 19, 2007 at 9:44 am
You know, after reading my post through again, twice, I take back what I previously posted. Perhaps the article is a bit of a mess but it gets the point across and I shouldn’t have to blatently state the fact that the record labels sign potential money makers, I think thats obvious. What I think I’m clearly stating in the article is that they do it much more frequently than they used to and with little regaurd to the longevity of the band. They are going for a lot of bands they will make them a small amount of money and not a few bands that will make them a great amount of money in a longer time period.
On another note, I, like 99% of the bloggers out there have no professional writing experience so I think I do pretty well.
Milander
Oct 19, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Greg, scott you have both made good valid points.
To Greg; nice comment, my head was nodding in agreement with most of what you say however if you expect great writing then avoid blogs.
To Scott; loved the post and agree totally, metal will never die, it is the root man. Writing is a chore and is never pleasant, best I can say is practise makes perfect.
Respect to both of you.
On the topic however, have you not been seeing the direction it is taking now re: music companies and agents and new groups? We (yes, I’m in a group) sell and publicise ourselves on-line, we use word of mouth, the P2P sites, we give our music away to get as large a fan base as possible and then we TOUR. Bums on seats that’s where the money is (alongside promotional shit, T-shirts, patches, mags, posters etc…). That is the future and you don’t need a company pushing you, publicising you… FFS last place we want to be is on f*****g breakfast TV plugging out new album, hell half our fans don’t even get out of bed until two in the afternoon bless ‘em. :)
Oh yeah, metallica stopped being metal just after “ride the lightning”…. fuc*ers cut their hair short too, that is selling out, just a bunch of suits who can play guitar now. MAN, I could rant about metallica right about now.. but I won’t….
*whispers chill dude to self*
rock on guys, peace out
Scott
Oct 19, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Once again, well said, Milander. I write whats on my mind. A little off subject, The problem I see with a lot of metal blogs is that they mainly write reviews and post BS news. While I like to post relevant news I also like to write thought out posts, not some robotic BS. I like to get people thinking and adding their opinion. I don’t expect everyone to agree with what I say and I’m always open to constructive criticism.
Back to the subject. Everyone has great and valid points and I do appreciate everyones input even if I get offended by some of it…thats life. With the internet and the capability of networking around the world the possibilities for bands to promote themselves is unlimited. I am just starting to find “Local” bands that deserve more publicity and putting them out there a bit more. I would love to hear what you have to offer. Thanks.
Death metal vocalist
May 19, 2008 at 11:50 am
… You all need to be more open minded. With all due respect, Metallica is a bunch of old men. Do you think they are going to have long hair and drink blood forever. Metallica was a ideal. People loved that. Freedom of music, sex, drugs, living young and wild. Its silly to hate them for growing up. Maybe you should too.
Scott
May 19, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Metallica drank blood?
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