Quote:
Originally Posted by CarylB
One more nail in the coffin. I bet Mercury wish they were handling that poor silly child Rebecca Black, who may never produce anything musically worthwhile in a "career" that may be over in a heartbeat .. but it's about fast bucks gained any way they can now, not developing artists and celebrating music 
Caryl |
Actually I don't think that the music industry has changed too much over the years at all. In my view it's always been about the "fast buck", consider the contract that Meta and Jim entered into with Cleveland and the subsequent court cases to get the royalties they were owed. Likewise read some of the autobiographies of people involved in the music industry in the 60s and 70s and things really aren't too much different to today really. Sharon Osbornes autobiogrpahy is a great insight into how things were run from a management perspective back in the day.
There were as many one hit wonders in the 60s as there are today, and as many cover versions in the charts, the Beatles and The Stones spent much of the formative years of their careers playing cover versions, infact their first albums contained pretty much all cover songs, and they only developed as songwriters once they were established acts. The big difference between them and many of the acts of today is that they had (still have!) the talent.
The main difference today is that the advances in technology have allowed the music moguls to feed the taste-challenged masses via the constant, instant, in your face media with those who are talent-challenged, and the taste-challenged masses lap it all up.