Well, to each his own. I could probably post some clips, or cobble together the top ten yearly lists, and maybe produce a passing resemblance of an adequate decade of music. But personally most of it hasn't had staying power for me, and I'm perfectly content to spend my time pluggin holes in my jazz collection or collecting the odd show by Big Star or Television without resorting to my mortal shame.
I still think that this misses the point I was making, which was less about a lack of talent available for those looking to dig but about the ability of these artists to afford to make it their day job.
Yes, there's no question about the convenience that modern technology has for the listener, and I don't disrespect that as a listener myself. But the question of whether at least some of these conveniences (downloading, streaming) might make it much more difficult for the artist to produce this work is worth considering. One thing I've noted from the last decade is how quickly many promising artists disappeared after a year or two. The economic data in that Adam video is legitimate. It may be easier for the listener to find niches in which to enjoy music, but it's harder for an artist to develop these niches and maintain a sustainable career. It may get better, as virtually every musician union is negotiating these streaming services for better rates. But all of the working musicians that I know personally or follow online are acknowledging that it's not the most welcoming environment right now for new talent, and that due to the squeeze between downloading and streaming, there's a growing common popular perception that music is not something that's worth paying for, the definition of devaluation, and, as it correlates, is increasingly seen as disposable. At least musicians are the only category of vocation that I can think of that many people think should be free from compensation. Not that you feel this way, but I'm just stressing the financially dire state of things that acts as a deterrent. Maybe that's why I don't like Whiplash. I don't believe that musicians necessarily have to suffer.
Well, I think it has
always been true that most people don't "make it", even a lot of talented AF people. But a whole lot of talented people that don't fit the mold of what the music industry is looking for now have direct-to-consumer avenues to get their work out there and numerous musicians have turned
that into actual fame.
I'm not a Halsey fan, but she's talented as hell and she started with self-released music on social-media. She's now a star and a millionaire. These new technologies aren't just good for listeners they have changed the game for
artists. Hell, I watch Jazz musicians I would never have heard of, Classical musicians (my beloved Stephanie Jones for example) listen to hip-hop musicians, rock musicians, pretty much every genre I can imagine because
everyone can get their music out there now, and if it's good enough, they're gonna get picked up by the public and probably by the industry as well.
Not to mention all the musicians that are now able to support themselves as YouTubers, people who may not make great creative content but it's just good enough or they teach or they literally just talk about music but now to an audience of thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, sometimes even over a million people. I follow one guitar teacher who's doing so well with his online work he's actually stopped producing regular content to focus on bigger projects.
So, I don't feel like I had to cobble anything together here, this is the music I listen to, these are musicians that without the current format might be unknown and working at the carwash or the coffee shop but instead are at least some kind of stars or get to have careers because of the current environment for music distribution. Inside the music industry, yes it still sucks, maybe it sucks even more than it used to, which was always a lot (ask all the people we think of as having been stars at least for a while, that were dead broke the day the industry dropped them), but there are so many more opportunities now for musicians. And for listeners.
By the way, I also love Big Star and Television. And last night my Record Of The Night was Duke Ellington and John Coltrane Live.