The State Of Music Rant

The X Factor is back on the telly, pop is swarming the charts and Take That have sold out arenas, but is this the end for album driven rock music? Dan Oldfield slings on a leather jacket, lights a cigarette with a bottle of Jack Daniels and delves in.

“This could be the end, because I ain’t got a home” sings Caleb Followill on the first track of Kings Of Leon’s new record Come Around Sundown. A story about a doomed relationship possibly, or a metaphor for something much bigger?

Following the meteoric rise of their previous LP and the resurgence for rock music that was Sex On Fire and Use Somebody the Kings now find themselves slipping out the charts just 3 years on. Maybe this song is the absolute epitome of the current state of rock music.

Kings Of Leon

But they aren’t the only ones. Picture the scene; it’s 8:00 on a Saturday evening and millions of families are settling down to watch ‘The X Factor’ and line Mr Cowell’s high-waist banded trouser pockets. 


The winner of the pop talent contest is guaranteed a Christmas number one, various others will have lucrative careers and each pop icon selected to make a special appearance on the show will also receive a little boost  in popularity themselves. 


This is great for the average singles-driven, auto-tune, perfume tie-in singer but where will they be in five years time? Who can the kids watching the competition relate to? 


Who one day is going to save their lives with a revelatory lyric, a stirring melody or bombastic guitar solo? This seems to be the problem with the current trends in the music industry.

Of course it’s not all doom and gloom, these sorts of shows are single-handedly keeping classic bands reforming and re-releasing with their inspired choices of songs to cover or even adapt.


Just witness ‘Glee’s’ interpretation of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ or ‘The X Factor’s’ decision to include Bon Jovi perform on the show just a few days ago. But this is an age-old concept only designed for these bands to perform a series of sell-out concerts, release a mediocre new album and perhaps a greatest hits for those who missed out before.


Bands don’t need a TV show to make some money from reforming just ask Take That or Led Zeppelin.

Throughout every century and every era at least one artist or band has arrived seemingly from space, guitar or voicebox in hand purpose built to change music forever, provide a generation with an attitude and a voice, dress sense and soundtrack and leave an indelible mark on history.

Frank Sinatra was probably the first back in the distant 1940’s before Elvis’ gyrating hips sent teenagers into overdrive in the 50’s. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones left a fair few girls with hoarse voices as the 60’s came and went with Jimi Hendrix’s short life before punk ripped up the rulebook and spat its way to the top in the late 70’s. 


The 80’s was a time for big hair and power pop in the charts but a generation of kids were getting depressed on Joy Division and The Smiths who kick started indie. 


Kurt Cobain then set the template for the title of ‘role model’ in the early 90’s before his suicide paved the way for Blur and Oasis to invoke the spirit of the 60’s again and create the biggest pop sensation since that time. 


The last wave of inspiration we’ve ridden since came in 2001 when The Strokes and The Libertines instantly became the coolest bands on the planet with their leather jackets and punk with a pop sensibility tunes.

But what since? Sure the Arctic Monkeys created a bit of a stir later in the ‘noughties’ but have since rebelled against their popularity with an opinion splitting third album. And whoever wishes to claim The Kooks and Razorlight defined a meaningful pop-indie era really knows nothing at all about music. 


Not even Kings Of Leon, the biggest band in a generation can claim their place in the pantheon of icons because even they themselves will admit that they like Bono just as much as Nirvana. And know the ‘nu-folk’ revival spearheaded by Mumford And Sons definitely does not count.

The revolutionary iPod

But maybe we don’t need to worry about this and instead focus on the incredible diversity we have now. No more will anyone in leathers be set upon by teens with their top bottoms done up and Vespa scooters between their legs because everything written before the year 2000 can now be considered as ‘classic’, ‘nostalgic’ and therefore cool. 


We’re now in an era where Bon Jovi can appear in a pop competition and likewise that pop competition in question can appear in the NME, for so long the bible of good music taste.


New genres are invented almost every day and now don’t just like either ‘punk’ or ‘metal’ but we can indulge in ‘dubstep’ or ‘glo-fi’, ‘trip-hop’ and ‘witch house’ and without even knowing. 


Even this author is the same who despite knowing the definitions of said genres and claiming impeccable taste has to sift through 10,000 tracks on an iPod filled with Duran Duran and U2 because the music they make is just too good to remove.

When you consider the facts its really not all bad. Despite the NME declaring the industry practically dead and buried in an issue only a few weeks ago now the broader scope of things shows a different story. 


Kings Of Leon, despite dropping fast, did get to number 1, as did Rage Against The Machine last Christmas even if on a back of a remarkable FaceBook campaign. 


Foo Fighters are as in demand as Take That as they announce 2011 tickets and Arcade Fire have already sold out the O2 arena for a date this Christmas remarkable for a band your mum will surely have not heard of, seriously go ask her, she won’t know.

Guitar Hero

Done? Good, and told you so. These are all positives but tied to some sort of event rather than letting the music create the phenomenon itself. 


Guitar Hero is another example of this which has led to many kids buying guitars, true, but the music is attached to something of novelty value. Music festivals are also examples of this and sell out on the back of established headliners rather than new talent.

It seems music is now a throwaway accessory like an item of clothing, a fashion. Rather than saving for a precious vinyl and absorbing yourself in it singles are downloaded, often illegally, and swapped the next week for a replacement. 


The question is whether this is a sustainable future for the music industry. Will bands have longevity and profitable sales with this format? Or will we see the next sensation with a day job in a few years time? 


It is already common knowledge that merchandise and concerts are keeping bands alive but questions again arise with regards to pop artists going on tour, yes Take That have sold out but what can they really offer ticket holders other than identikit versions of the album tracks? 


More and more gig goers are beginning to realise this and make do instead with hearing the music played in clubs for example.

The worry for bands who can provide an experience for fans is the continuing closures of smaller concert venues. 


At least one has closed in every major city in the UK and the latest in trouble is the infamous 100 Club in London, historic for unveiling punk in the 70’s as well as the indie revival in the early 2000’s. 


This is no fault of the bands themselves, in fact quite the opposite because the owner of the 100 Club has recently said that they can sell out every concert until the end of the year. Instead it is due to sailing rent prices and taxes imposed by the government after the recession.

A concert-goer in Canterbury; Grace Cunningham concurs. She tells me that “with concert tickets increasing it becomes much harder to take a risk on a new band, especially buying merchandise as well which is where most revenue now comes from. In fact the only way to take a risk on a band is to use illegal downloads to hear them first, which goes against profit in the first place.”

Radiohead's 'In Rainbows'

So what can us music enthusiasts do to ensure our passion doesn’t get turned into an expensive collection akin to purchasing paintings or regarded with the same derision as stamp collecting? 


Well first and foremost new music isn’t dying out, it’s just not hitting the general public in the same way as before and doesn’t seem to be collating into any real ‘movement’ because of the divisive styles now being produced. In fact the internet has given bedroom artists and local bands a platform for their music and the continuing popularity of MySpace and FaceBook gives them an outlet for people and producers to unearth new talent. 


Some bands have beaten the hackers and used the internet as an intelligent distribution with Radiohead a good example allowing fans to pay what they wanted for their latest album “In Rainbows.” However, questions arise as to whether a new band would be able to use this method and have the same impact.

Secondly, and a positive to the true anoraks among us (of which I know you are, yes you) good guitar music is now the preserve of the underground again. 


Sure, it may boil over in the next few months or years (and then you can expect another article declaring ‘rock music is back’) but for now only those in the know will be able to tell their friends about the ‘next big thing’ or just a great sounding band without their mums knowing the name of them (which is insatiably cool to the opposite sex, honest, well if you’re a girl that is.)

And now music stereotype is extinct. Because of the fragmentation of the industry the notion of ‘cool’ is now questioned. So many bands are now classed as ‘retro’ or perhaps ‘invoking the spirit of former times’ which makes their influences somehow now in fashion.


This is perfect for the 80’s child in us all who is rather partial to Frankie Goes To Hollywood or Tears For Fears and of course a nice bit of Genesis flavoured prog rock.

So then, breathe a sigh of relief because everything is ok. Music still exists, Simon Cowell hasn’t taken over the world (yet) and we’ve still got countless bands who have yet to reform (hello Busted.) So as The Libertines once said; ‘if you’ve lost your faith in love and music, oh, the end won’t be long.’ Amen.