Barry picked up on a New York Times article last night about how CD sales were down for the 8th time out of the past 9 years and album sales overall have declined by over 50% since the year 2000. You can believe that this is because of downloads, but the reality, based on the article, is that even the growth of digital downloads is slowing precipitously.
I’m gonna do everyone in the record business a favor and explain why this is happening - your music sucks.
Let me qualify that…the music that record companies are the most heavily invested in promotionally does not lend itself to repeat listens, only ringtones. That’s why no one needs to buy the albums.
The 00’s may have been the worst decade for popular music ever. A glance at the top five album sellers will prove my point:
-The best-selling artist of the 2000s was Eminem, selling 32.2 million albums;
-The Beatles’ were a close second, selling 30.2 million albums;
-Tim McGraw was the third-best-selling artist of the 2000s, with a total of 24.8 million; Toby Keith was 4th at ~24 million; and Britney Spears was No. 5, at just under 23 million.
Let’s recap: Eminem, who is undeniably talented but hit-or-miss when not working with Dr Dre, deserves his slot, fine. Britney? Not an artist, more like a product of Hollywood management combined with Swedish pop songwriting and strategically-placed conversation-starter photos in Us Weekly. Toby Keith merely captured a jingoistic zeitgeist because of the two wars we have been fighting. He is not half the artist (especially album-wise) that many of his country music peers are. The Beatles disbanded in 1970. Their appearance in the top 5 of the 00’s decade speaks volumes in terms of the lack of creativity and imagination in the modern music industry. As for Tim McGraw, I don’t believe I can name a single song of his — chalk it up to my Yankeeness — so I have no comment (but his wife is really hot).
REPEAT: Britney sold 23 million albums this past decade. You are all morons.
I would love to see someone do a chart of album sales versus the consolidation of the radio station business. The correlation would probably show that as stations are assimilated by the Borg, the quality and diversity of music gets squished into a single, homogenized, mom-approved playlist which ends up hurting sales for virtually everyone. The “iPod Shuffle” radio format may have saved Clear Channel a lot of money but it sucked the life out of the music world.
Were there good albums produced during the 00’s decade? Of course, but you had to seek them out because they didn’t get the push that they should have gotten.
It is a tragedy that more people didn’t buy Funeral by the Arcade Fire, or Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco, or Cease to Begin by Band of Horses, or Evil Urges by My Morning Jacket, or Fishscale by Ghostface Killah, or Transatlanticism by Deathcab for Cutie, or Guero by Beck, or Songs for Silverman by Ben Folds or Hip Hop is Dead by Nas, or Day I Forgot by Pete Yorn, or Welcome Interstate Managers by Fountains of Wayne, or Eye to the Telescope by KT Tunstall, or Electric Version by The New Pornographers, or Elephant by the White Stripes, or Chutes Too Narrow by The Shins, or Be by Common, or American Idiot by Green Day, or Employment by the Kaiser Chiefs, or Sumday by Grandaddy or Veni Vidi Vicious by The Hives, or …. (these are off the top of my head, there are many other albums from the decade that were masterpieces).
Instead, most of you bought Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken and the skinny blonde singer and that girl who wore a necktie and claimed to be a punk but performed in shopping malls and the fat dude with that lameass “Follow Me” song and the creepy Disney values-friendly boy band that probably gets with chicks 3 at a time behind the scenes and the skinny blonde singer that isn’t that skinny anymore and that ridiculous album where Kanye West becomes a singer and that even more ridiculous Eddie Murphy-esque album where Jamie Foxx thinks he’s a singer and that freaky chick with all the piercings and tattoos who ended up marrying her Jewish agent or attorney or something and that pig whose name is a color and that 3rd-string member of 50 Cent’s entourage and the rapper from St Louis who can be found in the dictionary under the word “Corny” and that dude who sings about surfing and doesn’t wear shoes and that kid who beat up Rihanna and the Songs from The OC soundtrack and that Fallout Boy atrocity and the skinny blonde singer who is not so skinny anymore’s little sister who was caught lipsynching on SNL and had all kinds of plastic surgery in the hopes that you would buy more of her albums (and it worked because omfg, you DID by more of her albums!) and …. you get the point.
That’s why the top album sellers of the decade were a fake pop product/trainwreck, a 60’s group with only two of four members still alive and a couple of cowboys. Congratulations American Idol (and everyone who watches it), you succeeded in making everything suck.
Here are the gory details of the record industry, circa 2009:
CD Sales Continue Free Fall in 2009 (The Big Picture)
Tanya says:
Why are you writing about music being lame when you can't even name 1 song from the biggest stars in the music business?
I bet you do know a song of his but for the sake of writing your lame article you act like you haven't.
Sure there are plenty of lame songs out there and lame artist but there's also plenty of it that is great.
Every decade and every year there are lame artists and songs..not just this past decade.
Times have changed.
Aarons says:
So true. Well done. Great article. Couldn't agree more.
This is a music industry manifesto.
clifford says:
AMEN!!!
Chris says:
I agree with some of your article....
As a Kelly Clarkson fan, I challenge you to go to one of her concerts and come out with the same feeling as you did in your article.
Kelly writes/cowrites most of her albums.
Most artists that are hired by record labels are prepackaged and have to go by what the label wants....American Idol, at least the first season, allowed the performers to sing what they wanted, wear what they wanted, etc.
I don't think Kelly gets enough respect in the industry, although most of her contemporaries (Melissa Etheridge, Toni Braxton, En Vogue, etc) have had nothing but positive things to say about Kelly....
I don't think content has anything to do with the music sale decline....Look at single sales....
illegal downloading sites are one of the main culprits nowadays. with digital media its easier and easier to get free music, either from sites or friends.
music is like religion. it will always be an endless debate. One side for one thing, another for another. We can maybe come to some accord, but music has too many feeling attached.
The Author says:
Hey Chris, I almost never comment in my own posts, but let's discuss Kelly for a moment, since you brought her up.
I am very proud of the fact that she was born with the capacity to carry a tune, but this "writing her own songs" business is a lie, told by her and repeated by Entertainment Weekly or whatever. the fact is, her first album was laden with hits...THAT CLIVE BOUGHT FOR HER. On her follow up, she got the mistaken idea that she was talented enough to actually do the writing and it was a partial-birth abortion of a record. She then went running back to her former record company svengalis but her moment had passed.
I have nothing personal against any of the American Idol/ Mickey Mouse Club kids and wish them all the best...until they start referring to themselves as "Artists". Then it's Wabbit Season and I'm Elmer Fudd, blasting shotgun-size holes in the whole plastic artifice with nothing but my trusty keyboard and the faint hint of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on my breath.
Thx for reading,
Josh
Susan says:
I am not sure I agree with you at all. I don't think the decline in American Music sales has anything to do with AI. Quite frankly some of the most beautiful music I have heard in a long time comes from these contestants..but guess what? No one hears it! They don't get real radio play, with the exception of 2 or 3 of them. AI promotes these kids on the show but does nothing after. The real decline has been a small group of "no talent" pop people that get constantly played to the point that no one is interested. Take time to really listen to a few of the Cd's put out by some of these "so called artists" from AI and you might really find some talent there. Don't blame them....blame the record industry and their goal for the almighty dollar.
KMcCP says:
Love it!
Sarah says:
To the author: wow you sound bitter. But let's discuss Kelly instead of DISScussing her. True, she has not written every song she's ever sang. False that Clive buys every one of her songs. AND your facts/research are completely off. Her FIRST album, not laden with hits, was "Thankful". Tracks from that cd were "Miss Independent", "A Moment Like This", etc. It was filled with mostly-boring songs that Clive "BOUGHT". Her FOLLOW-UP was "Breakaway". That included "Since You Been Gone", "Because Of You", "Behind These Hazel Eyes", etc. She wrote on about half of that album. The album she wrote mostly on her own was the third, "My December" (Never Again was on that one). Actually received well by critics, it didn't sell because your money-man, Clive Davis, refused to promote it. The 4th and current album is "All I Ever Wanted". If you're going to pick on someone and discredit them...GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT.
Also, for example: "Because of You" Pretty major hit in 2005/2006 (whether you like the song or not). KELLY wrote it herself...at age 16. That's been very well-documented. "Behind These Hazel Eyes" and "Never Again" Both top 10 songs (don't care if you don't like them). Kelly had a major hand in writing both of them. Another good song (and current hit), "Already Gone", was written by Kelly (along with Ryan Tedder). You should also go to youtube and check out some more stuff she's written and that's under-appreciated. I recommend "Sober", "Maybe", "Cry" and any of the songs that just leaked. She's also starting to produce some music and write for other artists, by request.
Point is: after Idol, the contestant signs their life away (for example, From Justin to Kelly). They don't have proper control over their careers and don't have much of a say in their first albums. To me, Kelly is developing as a song writer, and due to the fact that she can sing anything, anytime, anywhere, she'll be around long enough to continue to show her songwriting improvement. It's obvious you've never seen the girl sing live, so I find it hilarious that you'd sit here and rip on her. You sound like one of Clive's cronies. The singers aren't the ones going around and calling themselves "artists". It's the media, blogs, agents, management, etc. Don't blame them. Everyone gets their break in different ways. I hope your self-esteem is going up by shredding the integrity and careers of others.
LAME.
sassy says:
Josh, you don't know what you are talking about. Chris is correct. Kelly Clarkson is talented, creative, and artistic. She writes or co-writes a lot of her own music. She also experiments with the way she performs her own songs live, and she performs a variety of different genre covers live because her label won't let her be as creative on her albums.(She does it beautifully!) I can tell from your article that you have never had the fortunate opportunity to see Kelly perform live. She is amazing. Your information regarding her albums is also incorrect. It was Kelly's 2nd album that was laden full of hits, and it was her 3rd album that had all of the songs written or co-written by Ms. Clarkson. (This album was raw, personal, and great by the way). And Kelly did write or co-write some of the songs on the massively popular album "Breakaway".("Because of You" when she was 16!) It sounds like from your article that you pretty much hate all music and musicians so maybe you should write about something you know or at least like. Listen to Chris and see Kelly live before you write a misinformed and inaccurate article about her. Thanks.
sassy says:
Hey Josh, Maybe you should have Sarah do your research. Sarah, thank you for commenting valid and accurate information about an amazing singer/song writer/artist!
Chris says:
Josh,
I get it...Kelly may not be your cup of tea...
but when we dig deep..I'm sure we can pull up dirt on ANY artist....
I DO MEAN -ANY- ARTIST...
as long as someone else is fronting the bill, or even a portion of it, the artist will never get 100% full control.
I stand by my original challenge: go to a Kelly Clarkson concert and come out with the SAME feeling as you do now. (Kelly recently covered the White Stripes and the Black Keys on tour) Granted, you still may not like her music, you'll appreciate her as an artist, YES AN ARTIST!
BTW, calling Kelly Clarkson a liar is a pretty serious charge. How about you contact Kelly directly if you're gonna discredit her?
As I said, music is like religion to some people. The debate will forever go on as to what is good and what isn't.
Aggie says:
Hey Josh, Kelly won the ASCAP songwriting award in 2007 for her song she wrote when she was 16, Because Of You. That year she won 3 writing awards for Behind These Hazel Eyes and Walkaway. Guess Entertainment Weekly or whoever BOUGHT that award for her too.
Sarah says:
Come on guys! This "author" isn't interested in facts! He just goes around hating life (and music/radio). He'd probably be shocked to know that a few of Kelly Clarkson's favorite artists/groups are The Black Keys, The White Stripes, The Toadies, Patty Griffin and Ray LaMontagne. All singer/songwriter types. But again, Kelly must suck so bad that even people like Reba McEntire wouldn't cover and release one of her songs (oh wait that happened? She re-released Because Of You? WITH Kelly? AND it was nominated for a Grammy?) Wow that Kelly....what a loser.
Come out and play Josh! Oh that's right, you got owned in your own article and rarely comment on posts.
Davi Napoleon says:
Never heard of Kelly Clarkson, but there have been some terrific jazz and classical releases in the last years that haven't been selling. Chris has it right--one person purchases a CD and the whole school/neighborhood/circle of friends owns it without buying it. It may be easier to measure the success of a track or set of tracks by how many times people play it for free on myspace or musician websites than by sales.
Nathan Alderman says:
Mr. Brown, it seems you underestimated fans of mediocre pop music. You'll probably have to get armed guards like that Danish cartoonist who offended Muslims.
JC says:
Joshua,
Of course the music business sucks. But so does the media. Write an article like this about yourself, because you deserve it. Of course outing yourself and your own kind would require some honesty and you can't have that. The media is just as bad as the music business. You're all trying to convince somebody to believe what you want them to believe and make money in the process.
So knock off the annoying whining routine about music because you and your profession suck too. In fact, you're probably worse. You don't even need an ounce of intelligence to get a job as a journalist. And you surely don't need any talent. And apparently you don't need facts on your side either. Your article validates that for us. A least there are good songs out there. Can't say you've ever written anything that went beyond mediocre.
Blame whatever or whoever you want for music sucking, as long as you keep in mind that the rest of us can blame the internet for providing yet another platform for poorly informed media members to hack their way through another article. So THANK YOU for making sure we remember the media sucks. And congratulations on being the media equivalent of pop music pap.
JC says:
So, I just read that this guy is a financial advisor and stockbroker.
1) That proves that the internet has provided a platform for any idiot to write an article about something they know nothing about and pass it off as journalism.
2) I should have taken him to task for how much the idiots in the financial industry suck. If financial advisers are spending their time advising us about the music industry then you can see why none of them had a clue we were about to take an economic hit.
3) They should start a show called American Stockbroker. Our stockbrokers would still be tools, but they would probably be more attractive.
Jennifer says:
I, for one, couldn't agree more. If only more writers had the bravery to say this, the music business might actually listen.
Husam Al Shabayat says:
These comments are absolutely hilarious and show how artistically bankrupt we have become. If some of the most beautiful music you have heard in a while has been on American Idol, I suggest you go see any decent local band wherever you live. And I'm sorry to tell y'all, but Kelly Clarkson is just another saccharine, average pop star.
JC, you are the dumbest of them all by far. You almost make me embarrassed to be human. Before you go off on a rant to insult the writer, you use your first sentense TO AGREE WITH HIM ABSOLUTELY. Can a human being actually be that dumb?
That said, I am not sure what Amy Whinehouse's husband being Jewish has to do with anything. Would the writer have said her "black agent or lawyer?" Or "Mexican?" Especially considering Winehouse is Jewish too. A very odd choice of prose.
dana says:
^JC, that was a really good post. i agree. journalism really has become overly biased, subjective, and stupid... in most cases, especially internet journalism.
but anyway, i agree that the music business sucks now. so does the financial industry, food industry, entertainment industry... EVERYTHING! (i am so sounding like an anarchist right now). you know why? BECAUSE THERE ARE TOO MANY EFFING PEOPLE IN THE WORLD! too many people who do things they shouldn't be doing because they're actually completely clueless. sometimes, i just want to rewind back to the time when people were doing what they were supposed to be doing but i cannot, for the life of me, think of a time when that has ever been. so scratch wishful thinking.
american idol DID worsen the music business situation. but thank you, idol, for kelly clarkson. she's awesome. chau!
Husam Al Shabayat says:
This is not really journalism. This is a blog. You fellow understand what that is, right?
Anyone else notice that the only people who disagree seem to be Kelly Clarckson fans...and the two most vociferous a-holes insulting the writer both state that they actually agree with him. Dana, you wanna know why it seems like the worlds sucks so bad? I don't have all of the answers, but I can tell you that you will find a lot of them in the mirror.
dana says:
^To the dude above, (Husam Al Shabayat)
Cool! You're citing a Michael Jackson song on me? I could sing along but there's no accompaniment. You know, you should start learning to spell people's names correctly. To show a little respect. I mean Kelly Clarkson's fans might be bashing others here but the actual Kelly Clarkson's got no beef with you so try to be a little bit more considerate with her name. It's Clarkson. And by the way, is 'sentense' another way for spelling 'sentence'? I haven't seen 'sentense' in the dictionary yet. Maybe mine is outdated.
So, let's get to the point. You're calling me an a-hole because I like Kelly Clarkson? To tell you frankly, I found it pretty funny that a lot of Kelly Clarkson fans were here dissing the writer because of her but there weren't as much Clay Aiken fans or Britney Spears fans, etc. doing the same thing_ so I decided to tag along with the wave. I wouldn't take it to heart that much that you are defending this writer - enough for you to call me or whoever those two people you are referring to as a-holes for disagreeing with this writer's and your point of view. You two must be best friends or something. That's nice. Also, I wouldn't disagree with finding out why this world sucks through a mirror because I'm pretty sure you found out about that a long time ago and now, you're sharing the secret with me. Thank you. However, I do have to tell you that blogging IS a form of journalism. Not the most reliable form of journalism - but nonetheless, it is journalism. Don't ask me how it's considered journalism. It would be like asking how Andy Warhol painted a can of soup and called it art.
Look, read my post again. Let me clarify - I found JC's post good because it was funny. I remarked that internet journalism is overly biased, subjective, and stupid because that's what it is. It's a general summation of an observation. Does that mean I'm only referring to this thing we're commenting on? No. Does it allude to that? Maybe. Haha!
Why do you have to beat up people who don't agree with you way too much? You need to relax. And by the way, what is your idea of beautiful music? Since we're on the topic, do tell. I happen to know American Idol makes their contestants cover songs so technically, they don't make songs that fast. They cover the old ones from different eras first, right? Yeah, I do watch the show, dude. I don't like that they put the spotlight on that much people because there are A LOT of people who want fame. It's sickening.
Anyway, so as I was saying, chill a bit, Husam Al Shabayat. I'm not looking for a fight. But if you go around calling people who disagree with you as a-holes, you might not end up in a very nice situation. Word of the 17-year-old, my friend. Just looking out for you. (^_^)v
JC says:
To Husam,
To quote you, "You almost make me embarrassed to be human. Before you go off on a rant to insult the writer, you use your first sentense TO AGREE WITH HIM ABSOLUTELY."
First of all, you should be embarrassed that you can't spell sentence even with a built in spell check. Secondly, you should be embarrassed that you can't comprehend what you read. And lastly, I'll type this next SENTENCE real slow so you can get it. I only agreed that the music business sucks, not his idiotic reasoning for why it sucks. That's why he got called out for his attempt at journalism.
You did not see an "absolute agreement" with him, you idiot. He can tell me the sky looks blue because it was colored that way with your crayons. Well, of course, the sky looks blue, but he still doesn't know what the hell he is talking about. And neither do you.
Sarah says:
Spell check is a wonderful thing. Try it before you attempt to insult others. I also agree that SOME of the music business sucks. I do not agree with some of the artists he's attempting to discredit (and call liars). It's so easy to attack the American Idol kids. Try something original. Most of those contestants aren't even popular enough to have a huge impact on the music biz. A few have made major marks (Clarkson, Underwood), but others are barely blips on the screen. People like Clay Aiken and Fantasia did not bring down the music business alone. Go blame those who use auto-tune because the can't sing or something like that. Not kids who get up on stage, sing live, and usually sing pretty well. Or go blame those who created the music-sharing sites. Go whine about limewire, ares, or whatever people use. File-sharing is dooming music/sales, not people like Kelly Clarkson. Morons.
MusicIsDead says:
Josh,
While I agree on your point that most of the buying population patronize popular music over artistic ones, I beg to disagree about Kelly Clarkson. She's a real case study because she started out as some pop tart singer who sings formula-driven songs. But when you look at the catalog of songs that she has written, you would be pleasantly surprised to see that there is more to her than what the label has been feeding her. Irvine, Maybe, Sober, Haunted, Hear Me, there's a gazillion songs out there that she has written and they are nothing like the music she puts out in public. To me, she's more like Alanis Morissette who started out as some cheesy pop singer in Canada and later on moved to more mature material and was later on regarded as a formidable voice in the 90s music.