I've long thought about saying this, but have bit my tongue. I cannot stay quiet any longer. I just think it's too important for the whole planet that things change. I know that a blog on my little hyper local blog is not likely to change the world, if anything at all, but if no one ever says anything, then we lose. If I can start a debate, great, if I can't, well at least I tried.
1. I believe that the primary function of the music industry is to make teenagers politically disengaged and keep them stupid, until they have financial commitments and have to behave themselves and play the game that the powers that be make us play to control us. People in their late teens & early twenties are at their most idealistic, passionate and also their most physically powerful. They see that things need changing and want to enact that. This is why when Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader, young people flocked to him. You may feel they were naive or mislead, but you cannot deny that their motivation was they believed he may actually change things. The Labour party let all of those dreaming teenagers down. I have come to believe that the Music Industrie's job is to keep the lid on such things. This is why it subliminally promotes recreational drug use and hedonistic attitudes. If people are stoned or partying, they are not on the streets causing problems for the establishment. Occasionally this all breaks down, but the industry does everything it can to subvert it. In the 1960's, artists such as Country Joe McDonald, who came to prominance for the anti Vietnam "Fish Cheer" were marginalised, whilst manufactured bubblegum pop acts such as the Monkees were plugged to death. The same was true of Punk, where anarchist bands such as Crass (who were one of the best live acts I ever saw) with their mantra of fight war not wars, were completely ignored by the mainstream industry, whilst bands that were prepared to drop the politics and play power pop, angst teen anthems were given the full backing of the industry. I've seen thousands of bands over the years and probably a couple of hundered artists that were amazing, but completely off message. They did there stuff, but you never hear them on the radio and they never get the support of major labels etc.
2. I believe that the gate keepers of the music media (not the presenters but the people who employ them) have created an environment where it is genuinely impossible to be a radical artist and have commercial success. There are artists that are successful that promote subcultures (hard drug use, etc) that get played, but artists writing songs about genuine change don't get played on air.
3. Far more songs have been banned than you can imagine. Nearly all are relatively innocuous, but the government of the day deemed them in some way politically subversive. Almost none have been banned for promoting drug use. Clearly some songs are banned for rude words etc, but check out the list on Wikipedia and see wh wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_banned_by_the_BBC
4. The UK government spent decades clamping down on people running pirate radio stations, which solely played music. Why? Because they knew that they couldn't control them. Governments only spend money on things they think are important and in policing only on things that they think threaten their power.
5. The music industry loves drug addled stars, as they can control them. I once heard an interview with Lousiana voodoo Jazz legend Dr John, where he stated the first thing the label did when he was signed was get him hooked on heroin, so they could control him. It made me realise that the myth that hard drugs are subversive is a lie put around to screw up people who are creative. If you want to be truly subversive and creative, stay clean and write about what you care about.
6. The music industry positively discriminates against new artists and new material, as established artists are far cheaper, more profitable and easier to control. When a band like the Rolling Stones releases a new album, they get a massive boost in sales on old material. This costs the labels nothing. New material and new artists are expensive to promote.
7. The media and the music media in particular, are not interested in promoting up and coming artists. If you watch a show such as Graham Norton, he will chat endlessly with big stars. At the end, a new act might be reeled on, play a tune, then get 30 seconds to say something. I am not having a pop at Norton, who does not produce the show. The one person who bucks the trend is Jools Holland. Needless to say, the BBC puts his show on at a time that is pretty inaccessible. The BBC dropped the TOTP show, where new artists did get played. They maintanined the brand though, endlessly showing old repeats, that are free to produce.
8. When musicians speak, it can make a difference. If this was not true, Donald Trump would not have posted this about Bruce Springsteen.
Springsteen is in the lucky position of being established and not giving a flying ****. The media ridicules "pop stars who dabble in politics". Why do you think this is? Succeeding in music is perhaps the most difficult thing in the world. No one gets handed success on a plate, yet musicians are always portrayed as being lazy substance abusers. When someone such as Britney Spears has mental health issues, the media glory in it. Why? Because it is a useful tool in undermining the credibility of people like Springsteen who are eloquent, articulate and highly intelligent. To what purpose? To protect the likes of Trump IMHO.
9. The people who control the music industry are two faced liars, who pretend to support the grassroots music scene but in truth hate it and just see it as a breeding ground for talent, to be robbed of its riches with no payback. I was shocked to learn that my band, The False Dots are second only to Madness in the number of times we've played the Dublin Castle. We've been around for 46 years. How could this be? The answer is simple, apart from Madness, who come back for the odd small show, most bands either split up or the industry swallows them up and they move to larger venues. The smaller venues get nothing back. There was talk of a ticket levy from major labels. I personally think the PRS should also pay a 2% levy on all artists who earn more than £100,000 a year in royalties back to the the grassroots industry. They'd have no career without the likes of the Dublin Castle. But this will only happen if theya are dragged their kicking and screaming.
10. The music industry actually likes it when young stars die. This may sound horrific, but I've heard it said dozens of times, when an artists tragically passes away that "It's good for sales". The first few times I heard this, I just took it as a joke, but I realise that labels actively have plans made and teams ready to plug the music of artists when they die. There is the mythology around artists dying at 27. There is nothing a label loves more than when an artist has passed the peak of their career, the label is considering dropping them and they drop dead. That way, the label doesn't have to invest in new material that won't sell and they'll turn a quick buck on the old material, as fans have one last hurrah.
I'm only pleased that I rarely have to deal with big labels and big players in the music industry in my business area. We are just part of the business that work our nuts off helping artists get a foot on the ladder, so the industry can take advantage of them. I've spent my life, since I became a punk rocker in 1977, hoping things would change. The only way they will is when artists can control their own fate. The sad truth is that all manner of people make billions from music, but artists at the bottom get no support at all and if they show any creativity at all, they will get squashed.
One of the saddest things for me, is I am actually glad that my band never became superstars. We had and are still having a blast and doing the music we love, and there is a bit of a message in there. The nearest the band ever got to a deal was in 1984, when Venessa Sagoe was singing. The key song we presented was Action Shock, which is a song that is deeply critical of politicians who destroy young people in the pursuit of war and and also looks at the challenges that a young man faces when he has to kill a fellow human being for reasons he doesn't fully understand. Oddly we didn't get a deal. Although Venessa doesn't sing with us anymore, we still peform the number albleit in a different way. You can hear it tomorrow at The Dublin Castle, we are plaing a matinee show (Click here for details) to launch our new, independently released single Groovetown.
Venessa Sagoe sings Actions Shock in 1984
The False Dots perform Action Shock in 2024
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