Music pt. 1 - "A new world" Al Green

We're entering a new world that I believe is going to revive GOOD MUSIC. Once again, thanks to my man James Andrews who suggested I read "The Long Tail," I have continued to redefine and refine my thoughts about the music industry and where it is heading.

In my humble opinion, the future looks BETTER THAN EVER!!!

What has happened in the last few decades, since radio, tv, and other forms of mass media, is we have become a generation of Hits/Blockbusters. We have been living in a "physical" world, meaning we buy our stuff at retail stores, listen to the radio, watch tv, etc. In a retail store, there is limited space to carry products, so what products are you gonna carry? ...What sells the most right? Why would you carry anything else. So, what you end up with, is a store with the top 100 or 1000 albums (in the case of music). Similarly, radio and tv have limited time to play songs. Again, what are they gonna play? ...What most people want to hear...the lowest common denominator. It's a vicious cycle because the masses are fed the same garbage and that's what the stores end up selling, so for music enthusiasts like myself and most of you, it's tough to find and hear GOOD MUSIC.

So, what's changed???

We now live in a "digital" world where there is unlimited space. Online stores like itunes, Napster, Rhapsody, Amazon, etc. have over 2 million songs available to listen to and purchase and that number is growing every day. Furthermore, you have websites like Lastfm.com and Pandora.com that do a great job of helping you discover new music. Slowly, people are spending more and more time on their computers and less on tv, radio, magazines, newspapers, etc. because they are finding more interesting and self stimulating material there. Even the "masses"...the "sheep" are finding music and stuff that they like that is not in the "main stream."

We're becoming a world of "niches" instead of hits and blockbusters. Those hits and blockbusters will always exist, but they will not dominate as much as they have. Instead, we will continue to come through massive amounts of information, picking out what we're feelin' and what represents OUR STYLE.

In regards to music, this means that within each "niche," only the best music will be successful and "best" will be defined by us the consumers, not the corporations!!! Yeaaaeeee yeeaaaeeee. Time to get gansta on these punk mutha-fuckas that have been feeding us garbage for so many years!!!!

Major labels are shitting themselves right now trying to hold onto what they've had, which was nothing short of dominance and control over the masses.

The people are taking over and GOOD MUSIC will survive!! Word-of-mouth will be of the FEW forms of trusted sources. Through word-of-mouth, hand-to-hand, and the digital spaces that translate them for us, we will continue to discover a WHOLE NEW WORLD out there of super old to brand new, obscure to common, foreign to domestic, and independent to major label music that we LIKE!!

SO HAVE NO FEAR...GOOD MUSIC IS HERE TO STAY, THRIVE, AND PROSPER!!!!!!