From December 2011 - full article starts about half way down THIS PAGE if you're interested. It's mainly about Jet's perception of the music industry as it's developed during his lifetime.
 
I think in this extract he's got it just about spot on. To put it in context, this part leads on from his perceived demise of the CD 'era'.
 

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So, what’s next? Well, in my opinion we have already got the ‘what’s next’, it’s the Cowell empire!

Now, I’m not going to jump on the ‘I hate Simon Cowell’ bandwagon. Love him or hate him, he is just a businessman, doing what businessmen do. They make money. That’s their job. The real problem as I see it, is not Mr Cowell per se, businessmen will always grab as much as they are able. It’s that he has been allowed to create yet another virtual monopoly, and that shouldn’t be allowed and there is no meaningful alternative to it. Anyone with wall to wall TV coverage, could sell sand to Arabs and you wouldn’t need any talent to achieve it. How can anyone compete against that kind of dissemination.

So we as a nation, are no longer able to enjoy the wide and varied creations of the worlds finest artists, because their work would simply be stolen, but we are able to be battered and brainwashed with an avalanche of repetitive mediocrity for weeks if not months on end, created, not by artists of extraordinary vision and ability, but by businessmen who’s abilities are not derived from the creative music processes, but rather, the manipulation of the balance sheet. That just cannot be right.

It should not be so surprising, that programmes emanating from the newly constituted music industry format, bespoken by a new breed of muso-magnates, have succeeded in supplanting a thriving and vibrant musical industry, with a chain of mindless repetition, reliant on endless overstatement of it’s participating stars’ abilities and alleged sales achievements and aspirations, rather than any self evident and/or stunning display of inherent creative ability, has succeeded in it’s quest so to do, by way of it’s unchallenged monopoly of the supreme marketing podia of television, whilst it’s defeated former music industry would-be competitors’ resources, have been stolen, thereby rendering them impotent. Nice one Simon!

At the very least, there ought to be a level playing field upon which those that choose to buy into the creations of the businessman, can do so, but alongside those who would choose that of the artist.

The tool that facilitates this biassed marketplace against fair competition, is of course the talent show. The talent show is nothing new, it’s been around as long as I’ve been watching TV. The basic principles remain the same. You watch a series of competitors vying to be chosen as the ‘best’ of the entrants.

In other words, it’s all about watching people learning how to do something. Become professional singers, in the case of the largest of the genre.

Then there’s another show about learning how to become a variety act, or a novelty act. Then there’s a show about learning how to survive in a jungle.

Followed by another about learning how to become a dancer. And yet another about how to become a cook.

It’s all so ridiculous. What’s actually happened, is that we have gone from watching the craftsman, to watching the apprentice! And as if you needed any confirmation about that, we even have one CALLED ‘The Apprentice’, which is about watching people who want to learn how to become business people!

Now we are no longer watching great performers, we are reduced to watching learners. In any event, the majority of contestants are failures by definition since there can only be one winner! So we are in effect, watching a bunch of no-hopers showing us how bad they are. Admittedly, some are actually so bad they inadvertently become quite funny, but that’s not the point.

Have we all gone completely mad to stand for this nonsense? This surely, if nothing else is, is something up with which, we most vehemently should not have to put! Where are the crusaders when you need them? Why is no-one shouting from the rooftops?

Of course Mr Cowell’s end product is still exposed to the worst wild-west like activities of the internet, like everyone else, but he has the overwhelming advantage of massive and biassed broadcasted marketing facilities whilst the rest of the industry can go to hell, and has largely done so.

Are we all now, those of us still surviving within the industry of music, actually occupying the position once experienced by our beloved Beeb? Do we need to become as radical as did they back in the 60's and face the music of the 10's by joining those in the vanguard, if it can be so described, even if we were able?

But perhaps I’ve got this all wrong. Is it a question of that lexicon of notes about which I previously speculated, having finally reached the end of the road? Is it just that we have now used-up all the possible combinations of notes and genre within the pantheon of music? Has the last song now been written? Is that the reason that music has plummeted down to where it now is? Are we now back at the proverbial square one?

Do we now have to regress to the point where it all started scores of, maybe even hundreds of, years ago, and start all over again? If that is so, then we had all better find something else to do until we get back to where we were in the 50's/60's and once again marvel at the excitement of music.

Of course if that is the case, it won’t in fact be us enjoying it, but rather some distant relatives of ours, if they in turn succeed in surviving through the dangerous world we now inhabit. Oh dear, it all now looks rather depressing, but I needed to get it off my chest................................just for the record.

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Some very good food for thought there.  Thanks, Steve.  

Many of us know it.
 
Jet Black sezzit from a position where somebody might hear it.  Good for him.
 
Yet millions will veg out in front of the one eyed tranquiliser nightly encouraging it. Even paying good money to subscribe to the merchandise and downloads generated by it.  There isn't a 'them' in this scenario it's all of us that need to take responsibility for sleep wallking our way into making magnates unassailable. 
 
TBH 'Making it' in the music business these days is nearer to what our Karl has done recently than it is to making a hit record and has been for a fair while now.
 
I tend not to see the 'recording' industry as much of anything really, I never have.  The fact remains if you want to 'play' you best turn up in front of a crowd, look them in the eye and make something happen.  There's always a market for someone that can entertain a crowd and always will be.
 
Make music because you enjoy it.  What else is there?

A colleague was explaining to me that he thinks that live music and connecting with the audience is where it's at and that he doesn't see much value in recordings, records, or listening to records.



I asked him how a young person in China would be able to experience the Beatles under his preferred paradigm.


I asked him if he thought music, as documented on the Grateful Dead's American Beauty, should have just blown away in the wind for no one in the future to enjoy the moment when that performance came together with a synergy that may rarely be equaled.



I was gonna ask him if he appreciated the idea that John Coltrane, after he rehearsed it for 6 months, managed to get Giant Steps down on tape for anyone, anywhere, to enjoy listening to. I was gonna ask him, but then I realized that I don't think he knows who John Coltrane is.



The great recordings will always rise to the top and there will always be people interested in listening to great recordings.

That's why the internet is full of traffic with music flying back and forth to eager ears.

best regards,
mike






edit grammar

I think Cowell's empire will crumble soon enough.

Those that want good, creative music can find it in a thousand different places now, whereas decades ago TV was king, and a handful of radio stations sticking rigidly to a playlist.

What amazes me is why anyone actually wants to go on those shows, do they not wonder what happened to the past winners? Very few have managed to stay the course, most have been dropped like a stone after one album and a couple of tours.

A month ago, I watched Taylor Hicks rehearse for an hour in an arena. He performed a song for an appreciative live audience, and national broadcast, later that evening. The G.E. Smith band backed him up and it sounded great.

I downloaded Melinda Doolittle's record a few weeks back simply because she is a most excellent singer.

Those singers did perform in front of live audiences on Simon Cowell's TV show and they did connect with the audiences that they performed for. It's pretty simple. They did it. I'd like to see Mr. Jet Black step up and perform one of his own songs for an audience of 30 million humans and see if he can hang with the people he describes as apprentices.


The only thing those singers haven't done is assumed the role of "artistes" and become known for writing their own material.

If musicians only performed their own material there would be a lot less music to listen to.


best regards,
mike

I'd like to see Mr. Jet Black step up and perform one of his own songs for an audience of 30 million humans and see if he can hang with the people he describes as apprentices.

Google 'The Stranglers'. At 74 years old, he's probably played to quite a few people in his time.

If musicians only performed their own material there would be a lot less music to listen to.

Same amount of songs though eh?

Here's an example; I don't think Ella Fitzgerald ever wrote a single song, yet she made many sound better than the song writers could have ever hoped for.


;-)

"Google 'The Stranglers"

Yes, I happen to know of the Stranglers... they're the guys that made 17 studio albums and after lots of expensive 1980's MTV airplay they got one of those records to enter the U.S. charts and top out at 172.

The rest of the albums never even made it on to the RADAR over here... we had our own punk rock.

The singles weren't listened to much either... we have our own punk rock. :-)

My comment was merely a reaction to Mr Black's comments that people whom have out performed him are some how apprentices. That doesn't seem accurate.


best regards,
mike






edited grammar

I think Cowell's empire will crumble soon enough.

It is already crumbling I think... of course Simon and people like Randy Jackson will prosper. They will find and promote talent. The most disturbing thing in the world of music (to me) is that there seems to be no way at the present time for an artist to make an album, put it out, and not have a million people steal it (assuming it is a popular artist). That is something that must be fixed somehow. I can understand high school or college students, many of whom are on a tight budget and who live off music as much or more than food will borrow copy and steal music... that just comes with the age and immaturity of the person BUT.. once they are out of school and (hopefully) working, they should buy the music they listen to and really, they should go and buy the stuff that they really like even if they have a stolen copy... dream on, but that is the way I think.
I used Napster back when it was online but I never kept and used music from there. I would listen to a LOT of different music and if I found something I liked, I would find and buy it. I know it is unreasonable to expect honest behavior from dishonest people but I like to think that they really don't think of it as stealing, that somehow they just don't understand... the alternative is unacceptable to me... so I give the benefit of doubt.


Anyway, I found the story and am going to read it while I eat this chicken, tomato, and lettuce sandwich my wifey just set on the arm of my big chair... if you're looking at the link for the story, it starts where there is a picture of a Mohawk and an older gentleman... It says Just For The Record above the picture.
...and thanks for posting this!!


PS.. I really think that Simon cares about the music industry but... yes he is a businessman, however.. businessmen have always ,ade the music industry work. It is just that in the 60s (give or take) they had good songwriters, good artists (mostly), and good promotion... along with a medium that was hard to duplicate by some kid. Boyce and Hart... Berry Gordy... etc. Then the bans like Lynyrd Skynyrd who woodshedded until they were awesome, artists who put in so much time with others that they couldn't fail... like Firefall from the Spirit family tree. The BEATLES along with Sir. George Martin.. times were different for sure and there HAS to be a way to protect the artist today and to insure the prosperity of the artist (much more so than the 60s era when so many artists got ripped off by the record companies)... still, businessmen and promotion have always been what has made the music industry work. There are aberrations like the Grateful Dead but not too many... and artists like John Fogerty who just refused to perform his music and make someone else rich on it. Respect there! Sorry for the rambling rant... but there really is a problem, IMO.


Julien