As reported this week by The Tennessean…
Since 2000, the number of full-time songwriters in Nashville has fallen by 80 percent, according to the Nashville Songwriters Association International. Album sales plummeted below 4 million in weekly sales in August, which marked a new low point since the industry began tracking data in 1991. Streaming services are increasing in popularity but have been unable to end the spiral.
The result has been the collapse of Nashville’s musical middle class — blue-collar songwriters, studio musicians, producers and bands who eke out a living with the same lunch-pail approach that a construction professional brings to a work site. In fawning national publications, Nashville has emerged as a glamorous place populated with music celebrities. But in actuality, making a living at music is a rather gritty chore.
Image: “Fireside Chat” sculpture at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, DC, shot by Tim Evanson under Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike 2.0 Generic (CC by 2.0).
making a living at about anything is a gritty chore… t.v. and celebrities are advertising and marketing and promoting their industries, to get the young hopefuls at home full of a dream to chase, and they make it seem utterly utopian glorious, yet anytime you decide to head down that path its just typical military style almost always…
Heck being a chef seems a glorious rock star esque venture these days when you tune into the cooking channel, but go about becoming one and its the same old story…
so we see these guys tossing money around and sleeping with any chick they want whenever they want buying whatever they want and being above the law and its like dang diggy dang whens the next voice try outs or whatever it is??? … The image music has is a problem that brings people into it that shouldnt be… so some fake it by stunting a bit and greasing around to try and be one of the few who actually arent just stunting around and no matter what attaining the heights wanted is just like trudging slowly up mt. everest one heavy boot step at a time, just waiting for the next avalanche to bury you or the newest crevasse to part way under your feet or whatever the thousandth way to perish is today, and dont forget, with the reality of the job, youll need a good pack of sherpas to really getter done propa… Lest we forget just to climb mt. everest these days you need like an $80k license, then supplies and itineraries, so its not a cheap venture…
essentially unless born rich or trust funded, most anything for those birthed into a lower social class or peasantry is just a massive grind and a trudge fest all the way, thats why they sell hope so much, to keep everyone chasing that carrot…
We could argue over which came first, chicken/egg sorta thing, but I gotta wonder if there’s some relationship between the above and this here: http://dangerousminds.net/comments/video_demonstrates_how_mind-numbingly_formulaic_and_shitty_country_pop_musi
As country (once again — we’ve been here before, kids) moves closer to mainstream pop, it experiences the same dynamics as pop. That includes labels going to a smaller group of proven producer and songwriter hitmalkers, as they chase sure-fire hits.
As country (once again — we’ve been here before, kids) moves closer to mainstream pop, it experiences the same dynamics as pop. That includes labels going to a smaller group of proven producer and songwriter hitmalkers, as they chase sure-fire hits.
Critical shortages of jingoistic doggerel!!
The terrorists have won!
Live in Nashville.
This is bullshit, and I’m sad that you recycled it from The Tennessean.
We’re still here. Different day, same underwear.
I’ve wondered if it’s a major label strategy to get the masses so used to crappy music that they actually start to think it’s good. It’s a hell of a lot easier and cheaper to produce garbage like this. http://youtu.be/FY8SwIvxj8o
If the image associated with this article is any indicator, it appears they were bronzed over.
For the other side of the story, read this… http://joshcollum.tumblr.com/post/107925044631/did-i-miss-the-collapse-of-nashvilles-musical