America Has Failed
By Andy (2000/08/08)
The music selection out there is the most limited I have ever seen it. I used to go to Best Buy and even if a band was only played once on the radio you were likely to find it. Unless the band has really established its self prior to a year and a half ago, or a record company has thrown a minimum of $500,000, you're not going to see them on the shelf.
It's bad enough that we HAVE to hear the same four songs a million times, from artists that suck. But it goes too far when we can't get the music we want, when we do decide to buy something we want to hear. Limited for the sole reason that someone decided this band doesn't have that look or sound similar enough to something else that was successful. This jaded limitation is everywhere, you can't go anywhere without it being in your face all the fucking time. A rough quote from a very good movie sums it up perfectly for me; "it makes me sick, somehow I feel I have been permeated, infected by some virus. I have got to escape."
Why American commercialism? About a year ago I went on a trip to Toronto, which has much more of a European influence with how things are done commercially (at least in record stores) Sure, you have whatever artist was big at the time there, but you also have a a large selection to choose from. Good luck finding Geneva, or the full discography of the Cure in American stores. I'm willing to bet you won't. To bring up another, perhaps perfect example of what I'm talking about; I had never been so embarrassed to be an American as the time of the '94 Olympics. EVERYTHING was big, loud, and expensive. Compare it to any previous Olympic event in any country, and you'll see what I'm talking about. Yes, perhaps that's the American way to be bigger and better than anybody else, but it just went too far. I really believe it's a blemish on our history, it was blatant showing off.
Now back to music, unless your a record company whore, most lines of distributions (stores that you buy CD's from) won't carry you, because it's too much of a commercial risk. What is even more ironic about that, THEY CAUSE that commercial risk by not exposing new things, and sticking to their safe "formula". In this light, is it really such a surprise that people are turning to electronic music as a means to just get SOMETHING ELSE, other than what is being shoved down our throats? For that matter it doesn't even have to be "something else", it can be to get what they want, not what some execs want you to have.
To bring up another point, the system is supposed to support the customers making the choice of what lives and dies, but that is no longer the case. The record companies have tied so much stuff in the laws and courts, that capitalism no longer functions correctly. For now forget about price, that's a side issue (but an important one and closely related) to the real travesty, the customer is truly limited and can no longer make the choices they want. At this point I've lost all hope in the United States of America. It makes me wonder, what is happening in other industries?