Manifesto

When was the last time you listened to an album?

I mean really listened, finding yourself rapt from opening stanza to closing beat, from Track 1, 00:00 to the fade out of the final track?

Sub-question: when did you last ‘discover’ an album that filled you with the desire to put aside all your other needs and wants so you could truly immerse yourself and commit to listening all the way through, time and time again?

The last album that had such a profound effect upon me was ‘Thirteenth Step’, the sophomore effort from the US part-time super-group A Perfect Circle. A concept album, the theme of addiction is explored in each song, realising itself in the form of both lyrical content and the alternate swathes of anxiety and euphoria that permeate the atmospheric backdrops. I certainly found it addictive. A fan of their first release, I pre-ordered the album and received it sometime around release day, 16^th September 2003.

Whoa, 2003!? Eight years ago, people! To add some perspective, when this record was released, Saddam Hussein was still digging holes in Tikrit. The Black Eyed Peas breakthrough hit “Where is the Love?” was at number one in the UK hit parade. And Siegfried and Roy were still in action, wowing the masses in Vegas…

This will not end well…

                            

Also, this period of time accounts for over a quarter of my life to-date (I’m 31, maths fans).

So, as a music fan, why has it been such a long time since I was enthralled by a record?

My album of the year, 2003. And ’04. And ’05, ’06, ’07, ’08, ’09, ’10, ’11. 

To explore the roots of my disillusionment, it has become apparent that I must declare war upon the current generation of popular recording artists - those championed by the likes of NME and the former MTV2, rather than whatever crimes against humanity have won the favour of the Great British public and infiltrated the charts. The crux of the issue for me is that the gap in quality between ‘singles’ and ‘album tracks’ has become, quite frankly, cavernous. I can count several regret-tinged, post-record-purchase occasions when I have wished that I had just bought particular tracks individually, so as not to dampen their impact with the dross packaged with them.

So, what are the reasons behind my nagging feeling that the ‘alternative’ - for want of a better term - music genre is failing its people, having taken a hop, step, and jump backwards in terms of quality?

Put simply, retail in the music industry has shifted dramatically over the last two decades. We have come from an age of high price, high margin CD albums sold through a traditional, single retail channel (i.e. the high street) to the present day, where the individual track is king in the brave new world of digital distribution.

Technology is, and always has been, the key industry driver. The growth of digital distribution has given consumers an unprecedented amount of flexibility as to how they purchase music. Digital also offers a marketing platform for artists and labels which would have been previously limited or stymied entirely by both cost and finite territorial reach of above the line media. Being both a music fan and an unsigned artist/manager/marketer in a previous life, first impressions are that these can only be good things. However, in practice we’re now saddled with an extremely saturated marketplace, fragmented by thousands upon thousands of voices straining to be heard.

CDs still have a role to play - first with those consumers who want a physical, tangible product that can satisfy more than just the aural sense; and secondly with ‘light buyers’ - those who foray into musical entertainment sporadically, as they don’t actually like music, though tell themselves they do. Patronising? Yes, but there are only so many ways you can explain away certain sales figures.

The 14th best-selling album in UK Chart history

What is pertinent here is that the purchasing power of these ‘light’ consumers, who account for a massive amount of sales, is drifting from the UK high street to supermarkets. This, combined with the emergence of off-shore internet trade, has reduced prices and increased promotional depth, squeezing record industry margins to historically low levels.

Remember when this was a great deal?

These changes in buying behaviour and pricing have put the industry under severe pressure in terms of growth and profit. Let’s not forget that the ultimate aim for labels is to get paid, regardless of the quality or artistic merit of their product; the bottom line is king, and profit figures are neither pleasing nor displeasing to their ears.

It is this pressure that, in my view, has driven the industry away from any role they may have had in nurturing acts, giving them both the time and tools to allow them to develop artistically. Labels are cutting their losses, focussing on minimal investment for maximum return. The instant-gratification mindset which permeates all forms of related media is realised most readily in the drop-off in quality between promising debut efforts and second releases, often rushed at the behest of labels wishing to strike whilst the iron is hot – “Don’t worry about the album, just make sure that you have two or three tracks that we can use to market you with before you are forgotten about”.

This state of affairs is even more ridiculous when you consider recent history. Two bands I plan to talk about in future posts, U2 and R.E.M., both developed in the 1980s and then endured through the 90s as the biggest acts in the world. Neither band became a global proposition until their 4^th and 5^th albums respectively. Currently, if your second record fails to gain traction, you risk being dropped. Imagine if U2 had only gotten as far as releasing ‘October’, and we were deprived of one of the greatest records of a generation, ‘Achtung Baby’ (their 7^th). Or if R.E.M. had been binned off after ‘Reckoning’, with songs like ‘Nightswimming’ the best part of ten years away from being written.

These are just two examples of artists being given the time to develop, with the end result being universal acclaim and massive popularity of band and brand which have delivered long term, even if both bands have been the victims of their own weak output over the last decade – fair play to R.E.M. for having the self-awareness to step away as their creativity waned (Bono take note). How is this model not beneficial to both music fans and the industry?

Compare this to bands who now sit on the international stage within two mediocre albums, driven by a couple of hit singles. Is it any wonder that their output doesn’t improve if they are successful on the back of being horribly average? I’m looking at you, C*ldplay.

Apologies C*ldplay fans, you’re wrong

This culture of short-termism, coupled with the desire to launch the ‘next big thing’ before the ink is even dry on an NME exclusive on the ‘last big thing’, tied in with all the pressures described above has the music scene in its death throes. I am simply no longer interested.

So, having rejected the current regime, it is only natural that my mind harks back to days passed. I long for the days when an entire record could enthral me, permeate my consciousness, absorb my attention. Ferric tape, albums in two natural parts, listening to the work as a whole, no track skipping…

But these reminiscences give rise to further questions. Maybe my unequivocal praise for older records is driven by typical golden-age theory, viewing the albums of my youth through rose-tinted spectacles. Maybe being forced to listen through album tracks throughout my formative years has endeared them to me (I didn’t have a CD player until 1996, my first exposure to the concept of skipping tracks). Maybe it is I who changed, with less patience and desire for discovery as I grow older; a victim of convenience.

Two things will help me figure this out. The first will be this column – in-between my general state of the industry musings, which will no doubt be the product of poison penmanship, I will be attempting to review old records that I was first exposed to on tape, and will try to make sense of whether they are genuinely as good as I remember them – my Ferric Tape Re-assessment.

The second thing that will help me on my quest for personal truths will be contributors, readers and friends. Who will restore my faith in modern music?

Sound off in the comments….