2005 the year music broke free from the stranglehold of the corporation

December 24th, 2005

It is hard to pinpoint when things began to go wrong between the major record labels and the music-buying public. All anyone can say with any certainty is that the fun went out of the relationship a while ago. Maybe it was the record industry’s sour-faced approach to illegal file-sharing and downloading. Or perhaps it was the deadening routine of Pop Idolatry and over-hype. Either way, it was hardly surprising when the fans began to seek excitement elsewhere.
This has been the year fans have increasingly taken music into their own hands, rejecting the over-processed diet served up by many major labels in favour of something a little more homemade. In the process they have notched up numerous high-profile successes, including Arctic Monkeys , Arcade Fire , Clap Your Hands Say Yeah , Spinto Band and Nizlopi .
Enabled largely by the internet, bands have been able to record and promote their own music, and fans to revel in it and pass it on – without the aid of major label backing, stylist and towering billboard advertisements. Furthermore, fans are finding it ever easier to interact directly with their favourite bands, rather than seek nourishment from the insubstantial publicist- approved quotes given in interviews. The result, of course, is that the charts in 2005 have become imbued with a rather joyous and friendly anarchy.

Summing up the article says

Weary of stadium rockers with their “let them eat cake” and “where are the groupies?” attitudes who have populated music over the past three decades, fans are pushing their own heroes. They may not be as pretty as Rachel Stevens, they may not be as well-produced as Boyzone, but they carry with them a fanbase willing to do quite literally anything for them. “I really think in the wake of John Peel dying, more people on Radio 1 are trying to give air-play to new bands,” says Ellis. “Live music is so alive at the moment, and the internet is making A&R men redundant.” Texas Bob would take it one step further: “For so long, bands had to bow down and kowtow to the record companies,” he says. “Now you don’t need record companies – you have sites where bands can put music out and garner this core group of fans. Fans who will do anything for you. It’s the fans who have revolutionised music.”

Bob Lefsetz said last year

Music is the most personal of media. But the major labels DENY THIS! They EVISCERATE the process of discovery by BEATING PEOPLE OVER THE HEAD WITH HYPE! This is not how you build careers, this is how you kill them!
Make no mistake, independent entreprenuers are going to steal the lion?s share of the recorded music business. Because unlike the majors, they realise it?s not solely about HOW MUCH money is spent. But HOW it is spent. Let the people discover you.

And today the people can and they do. The economics of blockbuster pop artists are over

Whilst Malcolm MacClaren said

We live in a 96-bit digital world, where everything starts to sound the same, there is a movement back to the authentic and the idea of a real musical culture

Check out mercora.com and Last FM and Pandora.com and Soul seek and Pitchforkmedia.com

Like minded fans come together at Pitchforkmedia.com

This is the beginning – its not the end.

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