it's obvious to all that, just from this thread alone, you can get into a pretty heated argument when it comes to personal music tastes. but, that aside, what i like about this doc is it does a fairly thorough job of doing what its stated goal is: to explain why the "music" business is endangered by the "record" business.
it doesn't purport to tell us why there's so much "bad" music being made today; only why so much of it is being aired on our radio waves.
i've been around for over 40 years. started listening to music on a little am radio back in the early 70s. i can attest to the fact that there was a dramatic diff. between radio stations and the music they played then (onwards thru the 80s and 90s...), and what both are like today. actually, that's not entirely true, because i stopped listening to commercial radio regularly in the mid-80s. my samplings of it since have been distasteful, to say the least. it really does all sound the same. but, the doc tells you all that...
what i like is how it tells us who's responsible, and at least gives clues as to how we can avoid a future of homogenized, bland, non-challenging, monothematic pop drivel. it's a question of business/commerce and art. in the past (that they bring up repeatedly in the doc), the 2 were able to coexist in a much more harmonious way. now, business has taken over.
now, too, what i don't like about this documentary: they don't really talk about many diff. types of music (and marginalised artists). branfored marsalis mentions ornette coleman, but otherwise there's no discussion of other jazz musicians (who've always been on the periphery of american music popularity, anyway), or electronic musicmakers, subgenres of rock like art rock, prog rock, metal (made by 'real' musicians), reggae (especially dub music), etc. while i appreciate the plight of the musicians they do feature in this film, i guess they're supposed to stand for those underappreciated and dispossessed musicians of every musical persuasion. and, i'd just like to have seen more represented specifically.
as a music lover (who's made music at diff. times in his life), i will say that i think the movie is inspirational, and should be taken as the warning sign that it is, to help us prevent a future where the free avenue of musical expression (the radio) is taken over by people who're only interested in capital.
they say it...listen to college radio, the internet, cds, ipods, etc.
gregory 022008
reply
share