Biggest Music What Ifs ______

[LG]

Are you talking about CDs or downloads? If we are talking about the evoulution of Napster and Itunes as well as the numerous downloading and torrent sites out there than I fully agree. At least with CDs bands still understand the care it took to make an album. I feel like downloading has severly wounded the music industry as a whole. Everyone is trying to make singles and get their song on a commercial or t.v. show. Making a great music can't be forced. The best albums usually come together without trying to make singles.
Rock music suffers the least of the genres because there are still bands that believe in the album. Although mainstream rock suffers greatly. Look at the grammy nominess for rock over the last 6 years. Foo Fighters is still one of the highest selling rock bands out there. Which is sad to me because I haven't thought they've done anything special since the 90's

The whole thing Greg, both CD and digital downloads, without the one you wouldn't have the other. It's a confluence of technology that has permanently changed the musical landscape.

I do realize that some smart individual would eventually come along and invent a new technology, even if Philips didn't do it in the mid 80's. But the wholesale destruction of the recording industry would have been delayed at least for a few years. A monopoly is a powerful thing, and perhaps the labels could have delayed the inevitable for a few decades at least.

It's all just food for thought, and fun to speculate about.

Oh and nice to see you again.

 

[gregjohnson1229]

But rock and roll WAS a singles dominated genre for well over a decade before albums took over in importance.

You make a great point.

 

[gregjohnson1229]

The whole thing Greg, both CD and digital downloads, without the one you wouldn't have the other. It's a confluence of technology that has permanently changed the musical landscape.

I do realize that some smart individual would eventually come along and invent a new technology, even if Philips didn't do it in the mid 80's. But the wholesale destruction of the recording industry would have been delayed at least for a few years. A monopoly is a powerful thing, and perhaps the labels could have delayed the inevitable for a few decades at least.

It's all just food for thought, and fun to speculate about.

Oh and nice to see you again.

thanks LG

 

[oscar gamble]

the wholesale destruction of the recording industry

If you ask me, this isn't entirely a bad thing.

 

[Lynch]

I'm not going to waste my time with "what ifs" regarding stupid, senseless and destructive deaths and suicides of rockers thanks to terrible lifestyle choices and habits (ie: overdoses, accidental or otherwise).


But one that I do think a lot about would be the tragic helicopter crash that took the life of Stevie Ray Vaughan. Stevie had his demons before and during his rise to fame. Supposedly he had cleaned up and gotten straight towards the late 80's. He seemed to have gotten his life back in order and was putting out fantastic music (as he did his whole career) and then blam, he's gone. What sort of music would he have put out after? would he have continued to grow and evolve as a musician or would he have stuck with what he was good at? Would he still be putting out music today? His tragic death was such a loss to the blues and rock communities.

 

[Lynch]

Another one, Randy Rhoads, dies in a senseless small airplane crash (they crashed while doing a very low level fly-by). How long would he have stayed with Ozzy? the impact that this man had on guitarists around the world while basically only recording two incredible studio albums (and one live album release years after his death).... it just makes me wonder what he could have done and how his style would have changed and grown over the years if not for that plane crash. Rumor had it that he wasn't particularly happy with everything in Ozzy's camp and may have left sometime in the near future anyway. we'll never know. But what a loss.

 

[Lynch]

Cliff Burton died in a bus accident in Sweden. How different would Metallica have been had he not died? Would they still have gone the route of becoming more mainstream as they did with the Black album and beyond? would they have stuck more with the thrash theme that they started out with? I don't think they would have. they evolved with every album during Burton's time with the band and I think that would have continued. I don't think they would have gone the route of the Black album, Load and Re-Load, but it would have definitely changed. But to what extent?

 

[LG]

If you ask me, this isn't entirely a bad thing.

I can agree with that, in many ways the Labels stampede to greed and reselling their entire back catalog to us in CD form was like a lottery win. Unfortunately for them when the rest of the technology caught up, the flexibility of the digital format was Pandora's box literally. They have been trying to plug all the holes in the dike ever since.

I have never liked the one-sided contracts labels held over their stable of talented musicians, makes it hard to feel sorry for them for sure.

 

[oscar gamble]

I can agree with that, in many ways the Labels stampede to greed and reselling their entire back catalog to us in CD form was like a lottery win. Unfortunately for them when the rest of the technology caught up, the flexibility of the digital format was Pandora's box literally. They have been trying to plug all the holes in the dike ever since.

I have never liked the one-sided contracts labels held over their stable of talented musicians, makes it hard to feel sorry for them for sure.

The worst part of the downloading trend is the closing of a lot of record stores, including many mom and pop shops.

If the major labels had embraced the new technology instead of trying to stop it, they may have come out much better than they have. Their short-sightedness is typical of their business model.

 

[ladyislingering]

What if Marc Bolan had never met Gloria Jones?

What if Bryan Ferry had left Roxy Music instead of Brian Eno?

What if Woodstock had never happened?

What if Buddy Holly decided to take the bus instead?