Hip Hop continues to take criticism
Posted April 19, 2007 — in Music News
Hip Hop continues to take sharp criticism as sales continue to tank…..
According to the NY POST Snoop Dogg demands $150,000 fee to play at an event and you have to accommodate his unusual tastes and enormous entourage. Organizers of Tuesday night’s Pussycat Dolls concert at Cipriani Wall Street to benefit UNICEF, which also featured the rapper, had to fly in more than 10 members of his posse, first-class. Then, at the last minute, Snoop almost didn’t go on because, “he insisted on having an Xbox in his dressing room,” an insider said. Pussycat Dolls were paid $300,000 to perform.
Recently..
Russell Simmons held a ‘closed door’ meeting with artists and executives from the Hip-Hop/urban community to discuss the future of Hip-Hop and how the genre can be moved forward in a positive direction. Sources told AllHipHop.com. Attendees included Atlantic’s Craig Kallman and Julie Greenwald, Sony Urban’s Lisa Ellis, Universal Motown’s Sylvia Rhone, MTV’s Judy McGrath, etc.
And today…..
The rapper Cam’ron tells ‘60 MINUTES‘: He wouldn’t help police catch even a serial killer because it would hurt his business and code of ethics.
If Urban is tanking, then you know it’s the end of the line. Read more of KOAR’s continued coverage of this sinking ship. Country is in a bad way, too, but as of now is the last major label stronghold.
The fact that the pussycat dolls got $300,000 to lipsync is enough said about the music industry:) The whole industry is coming apart at the seems and i am glad. You reap what you sow. You plant seeds of crap and nothing can come of it but a big tree of shit!!LOL Enjoy your shit tree record labels, because no one else is paying it any attention anymore.:)
Comment by Cris — April 19, 2007 @ 11:10 am
Last week…Comeback Kid, a band that I’m guessing plays for easily less than $5000 based on the $12 ticket prices, gave me great sing-alongs and much more energy than any of these acts named could ever achieve.
Comment by A2daC — April 19, 2007 @ 11:14 am
Good read from Lefsetz….
Hip-hop will not come back.
Hip-hop was of a time and place that no longer exists. Built on a foundation of truth about the inner city, it resonated with blacks and whites because of its truth. But it was blown up by nineties society. When we were all in it together, when the hip merged with the mainstream, when we had no choice. There’s no longer one scene, but many. Furthermore, like the major labels, big time rap consolidated and became about only a few themes, bitches, hos and cash. With choice, people went elsewhere. They’re not coming back. Hip-hop will survive, but as a shadow of its former self.
Video has moved to the Web.
You’re better off breaking on YouTube than MTV, or anywhere else on television. Because clicks on YouTube have the imprimatur of the public’s choice. People are sick of being dictated to by the man, they want to make their own choices.
Singles are death.
Unless you can convince the public to believe in the act, and want to purchase everything it ever does, you’re fucked. There’s just not enough money in singles.
The cost of production has gone down, irrevocably.
You don’t want to be in the studio business. Sure, you can make a better record in a big room with state of the art equipment, but who is going to BUY that record? Economics dictate that production costs be lower. And with the new computer tools, they can be.
The major labels will lose market share.
What they do best is find bland talent and utilizing carpet bomb marketing, they try to sell it worldwide. There is a business here. It costs money, that indies don’t have. If you want to be ubiquitous, you’ve got to be on a major label. But not only does this reach for the brass ring come with costs to your career, most types of music just can’t be sold in quantity anymore. So we’ve got indie niches. Until the majors enter these indie niches, they will forever lose market share. The networks merged with the cable channels. Will the majors take over the indies? Only if they’re smart.
The credible acts of tomorrow will not sell out.
And credibility will equate to “career”. If you want people to believe in you, if you want to be able to play music for a decade, you cannot make a deal with Procter & Gamble, or even Jagermeister for that matter. The more you take the cash from anyone but your core constituency, your fans, the more these same fans can’t believe in you. Go for the slow build, not the fast ascent. Artist development is not only in the hands of the label, but the act itself. If you’re looking for shortcuts, you’re negatively impacting your career. If you’re good, people will find you, you’ll develop. Then again, most acts aren’t any good.
Music is not cool.
I just did two hours on this last night on KLSX. The only callers who said music was cool were those into heavy metal bands you’ve never heard of.
Doesn’t matter what you think of music, its image hasn’t been tarnished, it’s been TRASHED!
The whole industry is in trouble. As a result of the RIAA suing its customers, hip-hop being a joke and the selling of vapid, no-talent singers who don’t write their own material and sound like an imitation of Mariah Carey, if they can sing at all.
People have tuned new music out.
Yes, there is great new music out there. But the casual listener is not exposed to it, and therefore has tuned out, and is into other entertainment media.
As for modern music like Justin Timberlake, that’s seen as a vehicle to bump bodies in the club, it’s not something you want to listen to on the stereo at home. And until that desirable listening experience comes back with new music, and people haven’t changed, they still want it, kids still sit in front of their computer or fall asleep with their iPods to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, we’re fucked.
Music should be paid for.
Music shouldn’t be free. But the major labels made it so.
You can’t pull people back into the past. You’ve got to monetize the way they presently acquire music.
This is immutable.
The more P2P is demonized, the less revenue comes in, the more the business of selling music goes into the toilet.
People only want to see stars.
Oh, you might want to see the Decemberists, but most people don’t know who they are and don’t care. And the Decemberists have got TRACTION! There is not a healthy live music scene. Live music is like blockbuster movies. Everybody wants to see a very few acts. Not that we should blame them, there aren’t many good acts out there. And tickets are too expensive and a show is no longer about the music, but the production.
A greedy industry is looking to get all the money and is not looking to the future, when there are no superstar new acts that anybody wants to see.
Melody never goes out of style.
Beats might be selling, but there is ALWAYS room for a well-sung song with a melody and hooky changes, which people can sing along with. Those who realize this will end up with all the money.
Comment by koar — April 19, 2007 @ 11:27 am
good songs? yea we got them.image?no.looks? no.are we the next big thing? hell no.but we do ok.we still have the dream but not so big anymore.just thank full for a good time and the friends and fans we meet.are biggest goal?is to get health care for the band and thier familys.you know if we can afford that i guess we made it.
Comment by larry anderson — April 19, 2007 @ 2:39 pm
I blame everything on radio. Whenever a radio station decides to pull its head out of its ass and play a new band, they start blowing up. i used to listen to the radio to find new artists. i have bought cd’s and become long time fans of bands like papa roach, linkin park, pod, crossfade, breaking benjamin, three days grace, and even trapt and story of the year. i heard all these bands for the first time on the radio. now radio stations only play bands that are already developed or they pick a very small number of new artists to add to rotation and most of them suck.
everyone that still listens to radio thinks that their are no new artists out there and that music is dead. but that is not true. i could list 20 bands right now that would explode if they were put into solid rotation on radio. if i had a quarter for everytime i have heard ozzy on our “new rock” radio station, i would be as rich snoop dogg.
DB
Comment by DB — April 19, 2007 @ 2:46 pm
Right on DB…seems like there is plenty of room to add some new stuff to the radio playlists. Heck, they could just use 4 or 5 spots currently filled by the new Daughtry single…he’d still be getting 6 or 7 spins a day and we’d get to hear something new!! Satelite radio does a better job…if only the sound quality was a little better. But I hear lots of stuff there that doesn’t make it on the FM dial that would likely be much bigger if given the chance for wider exposure. If they would spread the wealth around a little, you might end up with a bunch of half million to million seller albums instead of a couple that do 5 million ’cause they spin a single 12 times a day. Radio is still the best way to introduce MOST people to new music…that is, as long as what they play is actually good. That seems to be a rather large obstacle at the moment as well. This thing could still be salvaged if the labels and radio would wake up and realize that a lot of people still buy CD’s…they just expect quality songs and a band that can actually perform what’s on their CD and at least make it reasonably recognizable. And sadly, that just hasn’t been very frequent of late.
Comment by Jason — April 19, 2007 @ 9:24 pm
Regarding Comeback Kid, those guys get around $1200 for headline shows, and are slotted as support for the Rise Against / Silverstein tour over the summer. They’ll get between $250 and $600 per night, depending on the market. Crazy, right?
Bands don’t make money off cds anymore, so they charge an arm and a leg to see them live, and most bands suck live. Do yourself a favor - go see Sevendust or Nonpoint. It’ll change your life.
Comment by Gary — April 20, 2007 @ 7:10 am
WTF?? I think 300 grand for one performer is absurd as hell!!! Don’t get me wrong,that kind of $$$ is respectable for a band that actually plays and sounds alot like the product they are seling,but for a group of non talented lip singers,hahaha,makes one wonder who the idiot is paying that $$$.
Comment by Full Devil Jacket — April 20, 2007 @ 1:41 pm
i agree with every thing cause they are not talking bout the girls with an education or trying to get an education ,there talking bout the people who are not doing anything with there life and deserve the name that every rapper is talking bout so you can’t blame them because they deserve it they need to quiet doing what there doing and get an education maybe they wouldn’t be called out there name and thats what everyone needs to understand
Comment by Jenee Bunch — April 26, 2007 @ 10:43 am