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Technology Stocks : MUSIC STOCKS: HIGH-TECH AND INTERNET- Winners and losers. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ~digs who wrote (149)	1/9/2002 9:43:30 AM
From: Rande Is	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 179

I met a bright 19 year old on a plane this past week who stunned me. He favors rap music, but not recent rap. . .rather the older stuff, when the artists were expressing their frustrations over this and that. He says that todays rap lacks passion and conviction. . .like the artists are going through the motions without saying anything. He blames MTV for destroying a music that was anti-commercial in its roots. . . .but is now. . .purely about commerce and the almighty dollar. But that isn't what floored me. This did. . . .he said, "you can turn the dial from station to station these days and all you hear is noise." Isn't that what our parents said about rock and roll . . .like 30-40 years ago? I never knew a young person when I was growing up that wasn't enthralled with the music of his day. And for many years kids seem to love the music of the day. . . .can't get enough of it. . . biggest consumers, etc. So if this is even remotely true, then not only are record sales off due to piracy issues, but due to disinterest. And that opens a whole new can of worms for the record industry. To me it explains a lot of what I've been seeing at home. . . .where our 21 year old prefers the Doors to Limp Biscuit (I can't stand that MTV created band either. . all hype and no substance). Our girls would rather spend their money on a BOCELLI record than risk it buying one of the new artists of the day. And our youngest boy, who likes metal spent his Christmas money on an aluminum deck for his skateboard and didn't buy a single CD this year. The world has changed. But the industry has remained the same. I like the line in the movie, "Almost Famous" where the older wiser rock writer says that the record companies have killed the music. A prime and most recent example of this are the Insane Clown Posse (ICP) from Detroit. They have been attracting massive crowds of loyal face painting fans who have turned from commercial music to a band that has historically thumbed their nose at the system and the record biz. The fans ate that up. . . and joined right in the revolution. But the attention the ICP was getting got back to NYC, where some hot shot A&R reps caught a plane and threw around some money. . . . . my guess is that it didn't take them but 3 days to convince the band to sign with them and take a bushel full of money home with them. The band doesn't know yet that all the front money that a record company gives them is a loan. . and must be paid back through royalties before they make a dime of their own. Another one bites the dust . . after tasting of the apple. The real losers are the fans. . . who lose their idols to the American dream. We used to call it "selling out". That is a great term. But if EVERYONE sells out then the term loses its impact. . . because it implies a point of reference where artistic integrity rules. And as we all know, it doesn't. Rande Is (copied from Insighters.com)