Hot Garbage Isn't So Bad Afterall

One thing I learned in this class that I found surprising was the relationship between independent record labels and major labels. Major labels suck all that is good out of music and dumb it down, compress it, digitize it, polish it, mass market it and blow it at the whole world like hot garbage on a windy day whether they want it or not. Because most people don't care enough about music to search deeper, they'll accept the trash coming out of the radio speakers. I prefer to search for independent artists that take risks in their music and with their recording style. Until the chapter on the music industry, I never realized that the calves that suck from the music industry’s utters are actually doing me a huge favor!

Independents can take risks on new bands only when they have enough money to do so. Every so often, major labels come sniffing around young independent bands that can be commercially viable with a little polishing. They lure the band, who is usually very poor, into huge record advances. Then they buy out the contracts from independent labels for huge sums of money. The band sells out and is compensated. Sometimes they hit it big, and sometimes they don’t. The independent label, however, has a new stack of cash in order to offer several new artists small contracts. This is when I, the consumer, get to go into the record store and search for that new sound.

I think the good bands would still do what they do whether people listen to them or not, but without small, independent labels, it would be very difficult to filter out so many bands in order to zero in on one I like. You Tube and Myspace are great places to check out bands, but the independent labels help group like-minded bands together so it’s easier for people to buy new music. Independents like Sub Pop, Matador, and Swami would have much less power to sign bands I do like without have a band here or there cross into the mainstream. It’s very similar to the movie industry how one Star Wars can pay for twenty movies like In the Bedroom or You Can Count on Me. For music, one Nirvana can pay for Michael Yonkers or the A-Frames.