Would Arrowhead's Toys in the Attic sell today?

[alanm]

Was bored when I got home and wanted to listen to some music. So I was perusing and saw Arrowsmith's Toys in the Attic amonst the multitudes of CD's. It's been a long time since I listened to this particular album. But I think it still holds up. Yeah it's Bronco week. **** off. Just wondering.Remember I was bored. And maybe feeling a little old.

[Saccopoo]

Also, the more pertinent question is:

Would Aerosmith even have made "Toys In The Attic" today?

While there has been some swing/big band revival (e.g., Justin Timberlake, Harry Connick, etc.), Glenn Miller and the Andrew Sisters aren't still filling up the charts with #1 hits.

Bubblegum, candy store rock 'n roll?

Sgt. Peppers did a number on that back in 1967.

Same thing with groupie rock played by hair bands in the late '80's and early '90's...



Music is and has always been a constantly changing force. However, it's never going away. It's been a cultural universal since the beginning of mankind and will be there until the end.

And like I said, there are plenty of bands selling out major stadiums right here right now in 2015. Just because they aren't playing "You Can't Fight This Feeling" doesn't mean that what they are playing isn't rock and roll. It is. Maybe not "your" conceptualizations of what you lived as rock and roll as a teenager, but they are still playing it regardless, kids are still buying it (Google Music, iTunes, Bandcamp, et al.) and they are still going to the shows.

In fact, I think that at a grass roots level, the music scene is incredibly vibrant. Kids these days are really into music - not from a "let's jam and get some hot pussy" perspective, but actually listening to and appreciating music on a more philosophical, internal level. And I think it's being shown in the insane myriad of music that's available out there today. There is a ton of amazing artists who are expressing themselves freely, creatively due to avenues that they never had before such as Bandcamp and the like.

I think it's actually a very cool and exciting time in music right now.

[Deberg_1990]

Heres another question,

Are music videos dead? I know they still make them......but they certainly dont seem to have much relevance these days.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Heres another question,

Are music videos dead? I know they still make them......but they certainly dont seem to have much relevance these days.

Yes, every artist makes music videos. They're just a promotional tool that cost a mere fraction of what they cost in the 80's and 90's but still just as important.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

I think it's actually a very cool and exciting time in music right now.

There are very, very few people working in the business, on either side of the glass, that would agree with you.

It's an extremely tenuous time for everyone involved, whether you're a artist, mixer, producer, composer, music supervisor, A&R, promoter, band manager or lawyer. There are very few bands that earn any money at the end of the day and 98% of all releases in 2014 sold less than 5,000 copies.

Streaming pays a pittance and while Spotify is valued at more than $14 billion dollars, they actually own nothing. Streaming rates are less than 1/10000th of cent per play.

Unless you're working at an extremely high level, you're not earning a living, let alone, buying a house and raising a family. As mentioned earlier, most of these bands on tours like the Van's Warped tour and so on are financed by their parents.

Music has been devalued to background noise and while you may think it's an "exciting" time, it's anything but.

[Saccopoo]

Blame Sony. They tried to kill off any type of format that would have allowed the evolution of hard material end goods in the music industry because they wanted absolute exclusivity on those items, much the same as they had with the CD. Or not as the download and streaming is most likely the logical progression based on available technology and it obviously doesn't allow for the music industry, which founded and built it's empire on albums to tapes to CD's to continue to revel in the mass profits of mass reproduction of said items.

And I think it's exciting from a creativity perspective. There seems to be a lot less constraints on artists to manufacture a product that has to maintain a certain set of perceived parameters to be successful in the minds of music executives.

I'm sure it sucks for the companies and associative businesses who built themselves up to huge profit industries because of the technological changes afforded the past ten or so years, but music itself is more full of variety and passion and introspection than any time that I can remember.

[Halfcan]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

Have you heard of bands like the Sex Pistols, Ramones, Velvet Underground, the , etc., etc., etc.?

How about Elvis? Mozart?

People have been saying that same thing forever.

Tons of great music out there right now.

As Dane said, it's a different world in terms of people turning into "rock" stars, but not really. Been to a Katy Perry concert lately? Rock star. Taylor Swift? Packed stadiums. Radiohead? LCD Soundsystem sold out MSG for a week on their closing tour. Imagine Dragons tickets sold out here in a day and were going for insane prices afterwards. There are plenty of rock stars emerging all the time.

Just because they aren't playing '70's and 80's stadium rock anthems doesn't mean that they aren't out there filling arenas. They are.

I had bootleg cassettes of the Ramones before they signed their record deal. I was always looking for new bands- and when I would hear something I liked-would send off a letter to the band or fan club.

I lost track of how many bands I listened to years before they broke in the States. ACDC - when they were only known in Australia. U2 before they recorded their first record. And plenty of American bands - The Cars, Ramones, Blondie and Guns and Roses-who were nobodies for a long time before they finally hit it. Lots of bands never made it for one reason or another, but I liked their stuff and would go see them if they came through KC.

Calling Swift and Perry -Rock stars is funny- but yes they are big-and No I don't like their crappy music. Music is geared to 13 year old girls now because they are the only ones buying it. "Artist" are more focused on creating a single and milking it til it drops off the charts and winning Teen music awards-then putting out quality stuff.

The Golden age of Rock Stars is long gone- but I am glad I got to see all those bands in their prime.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

Blame Sony. They tried to kill off any type of format that would have allowed the evolution of hard material end goods in the music industry because they wanted absolute exclusivity on those items, much the same as they had with the CD. Or not as the download and streaming is most likely the logical progression based on available technology and it obviously doesn't allow for the music industry, which founded and built it's empire on albums to tapes to CD's to continue to revel in the mass profits of mass reproduction of said items.

And I think it's exciting from a creativity perspective. There seems to be a lot less constraints on artists to manufacture a product that has to maintain a certain set of perceived parameters to be successful in the minds of music executives.

I'm sure it sucks for the companies and associative businesses who built themselves up to huge profit industries because of the technological changes afforded the past ten or so years, but music itself is more full of variety and passion and introspection than any time that I can remember.

Yeah, you pretty much couldn't be more wrong

[Halfcan]

Originally Posted by Chromatic

I think what it comes down to with a lot of these "Music isn't the same these days! It sucks" guys is they just straight up miss their youth. It's like when they get a certain age a switch is flipped where everything that came after their time is bad.

And there are others like myself that miss the Full sound of a masterpiece and used to love to open that record up and check out the lyrics and beautiful art work.

You get none of that now days. Digital takes the top end and the bottom end off the music. I listen to Spotify and it sounds like you are listening to the music before they invented STEREO. No background sounds or layers- just flat.

But that is what you get for free.

So when some say -they don't make music like they used to - well they don't.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by Halfcan

And there are others like myself that miss the Full sound of a masterpiece and used to love to open that record up and check out the lyrics and beautiful art work.

You get none of that now days. Digital takes the top end and the bottom end off the music. I listen to Spotify and it sounds like you are listening to the music before they invented STEREO. No background sounds or layers- just flat.

But that is what you get for free.

So when some say -they don't make music like they used to - well they don't.

You can adjust the quality settings on streaming services for higher quality, but most people don't.

It obviously sucks up data at a higher rate.

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

Blame Sony. They tried to kill off any type of format that would have allowed the evolution of hard material end goods in the music industry because they wanted absolute exclusivity on those items, much the same as they had with the CD. Or not as the download and streaming is most likely the logical progression based on available technology and it obviously doesn't allow for the music industry, which founded and built it's empire on albums to tapes to CD's to continue to revel in the mass profits of mass reproduction of said items.

And I think it's exciting from a creativity perspective. There seems to be a lot less constraints on artists to manufacture a product that has to maintain a certain set of perceived parameters to be successful in the minds of music executives.

I'm sure it sucks for the companies and associative businesses who built themselves up to huge profit industries because of the technological changes afforded the past ten or so years, but music itself is more full of variety and passion and introspection than any time that I can remember.

The compact disc format was invented by Philips, not Sony.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

The compact disc format was invented by Philips, not Sony.

And beyond that, there was a royalty built-in to each and every blank cassette and CD sold that is/was paid to every music publisher.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by Halfcan

And there are others like myself that miss the Full sound of a masterpiece and used to love to open that record up and check out the lyrics and beautiful art work.

You get none of that now days. Digital takes the top end and the bottom end off the music. I listen to Spotify and it sounds like you are listening to the music before they invented STEREO. No background sounds or layers- just flat.

But that is what you get for free.

So when some say -they don't make music like they used to - well they don't.

There has been a resurgence in the release of vinyl. A lot of artists are releasing their stuff on wax these days. No, it's not a massive rededication to that format, but there is an interest in it.

And there are plenty of new full album releases that are absolutely brilliant.

You guys seem to be stuck on this "if it doesn't sound like ACDC or REO Speedwagon, it sucks" shit.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

The compact disc format was invented by Philips, not Sony.

Actually, it was a co-release, with Sony actually benefitting from the patent licensing the most.

American inventor James T. Russell has been credited with inventing the first system to record digital information on an optical transparent foil that is lit from behind by a high-power halogen lamp.[3][4] Russell's patent application was first filed in 1966, and he was granted a patent in 1970. Following litigation, Sony and Philips licensed Russell's patents (then held by a Canadian company, Optical Recording Corp.) in the 1980s.[5][6][7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_disc

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

There has been a resurgence in the release of vinyl. A lot of artists are releasing their stuff on wax these days. No, it's not a massive rededication to that format, but there is an interest in it.

And there are plenty of new full album releases that are absolutely brilliant.

You guys seem to be stuck on this "if it doesn't sound like ACDC or REO Speedwagon, it sucks" shit.

Again, untrue.

It's really great that you're connecting with new artists but that doesn't translate to money in their pockets.

[Demonpenz]

I want to be line "Yeah but music makes me feel great and Dane when I go to a concert I feel like I can just follow the band and love will take me through where ever I go" then reality and being old is staring me in the face. It is always about dollars. I do want to know what Dane thinks about Black Keys.