I’m pretty sure that most people are tired of hearing from the music industry about how the business model has been blown to hell.
One facet of the demise of the record biz, that hasn’t been covered a whole lot is, the fact that the hip-hop genre is free falling at a much faster rate than the rest of the collective industry.
This N.Y. Times piece by Kalefa Sanneh brings up some interesting points that I have not heard in the media previously.
Because hip-hop is so intensely self-aware, and self-reflexive, it came to be known as big-money music, a genre obsessed with its own success. If we are now entering an age of diminished commercial expectations, that will inevitably change how hip-hop sounds too.
Can these guys have success writing songs about how much money they’re making if nobody’s making any money? Sanneh’s article goes into some specific numbers that demonstrate hip-hop’s decline in relation to the rest of the field. I wonder how much, if any, of this decline has to do with the fans being weary of the braggadocio theme.
To me, the rapper boasting about money, sexual conquest etc., is not at all unlike what a lot of pre-war and post-war blues singers were saying lyrically. You could also say that these era’s were when blues came the closest to being main stream music in a product sales sense. After blues music’s commercial peak, it seems to me that the lyrical content moved away from the braggadocio. Now, is this evolution, survival of the fittest, where the better writer adapts and writes about more relevant subject matter and therefore, is able to keep working after the peak?
If so, will a similar thing happen with hip-hop?
Sanneh discussing California rapper, Turf Talk and questions about how hip-hop will evolve….
Under-the-radar releases, weird tour schedules, modest sales figures: none of this is new. The success of Southern hip-hop in the last decade was built on a foundation of independent and independent-minded rappers, many of whom worked with the scrappy regional distributor Southwest Wholesale, which is now closed, like many of the little shops it used to serve. In an earlier era these regional scenes were farm teams for the industry, grooming the top players and then sending them up to the big leagues. But what if there are no big leagues anymore? What if there’s no major label willing or able to help Turf Talk get his platinum plaque? Would his next album sound as brash? Will his musical descendants be as motivated? The mainstream hip-hop industry relies on a thriving underground, but isn’t the reverse also true?
I think it’s some insightful writing and the questions that Sanneh brings up are valid. Furthermore, they are valid far beyond the boundaries of hip-hop. The same questions apply to all musical genres and, as we go along, all creative mediums.
Can an independent scene thrive without a mainstream, commercial one to offset it?
Would Nirvana happen if there had been no Loverboy? Would the Sex Pistols exist if there were no Emerson, Lake and Palmer?
If you tear down the establishment, there is no possible anti-establishment.
Closing the perimeter, if an artist like Turf Talk is not able to develop further, in a creative sense, because the industry has crumbled around him, he never becomes mainstream and he ends up working as a telemarketer instead of releasing his seventh C.D., the next guy doesn’t have his example to strive toward or rebel against.
What ends up falling by the wayside is creativity. Because creativity is not something that just appears. It is a developed skill. If a person doesn’t have time to develop it, it won’t magically appear. That doesn’t just apply to music. It works with, literature, film, food, video games all the stuff people like to do.
So, if you are a fan of music, but you don’t like hip-hop, you should pay attention to what Kalefa Sanneh recognizes here. Because your Emo, indie-rock, post-punk, Americana, bluegrass, atmospheric music is going to follow suit. If you don’t give a damn about music, the deterioration of creativity will, chances are, effect something you do like; T.V., movies, books, video game development; something. They are all headed down the same road.
It’s not something that is going to happen overnight and it’s not the end time of all things creative. Things evolve, sometimes they devolve. The suddenness of hip-hop’s sales decline has caught people by surprise. The music industry is thought by the public to be a big, slow witted, bloated buffoon who is just getting what it deserves. It’s a simple minded characterization because, at this point in the game, the natural selection has been ongoing far longer than in other industries that are reliant on creativity as a wellspring. The people who have survived in the music business have been caught off guard by hip-hop’s demise.
The big picture is this; the quality of creativity is going to trend downward. In everything. Hip-hop’s rapid sales decline is evidence that it’s going to happen sooner than we expected.
Analogue wrote,
Hey
Great post and a great article also, which I’m going to link from my blog for somewhat unrelated reasons and will cite your post here as source.
I haven’t got time to comment on the wider sweep of your argument right now but I will say that if you want to hear good music about being broke in Hip-Hop, check out “Mess I Made” by Sean Price.
Price was one half of the moderately successful New York act Helter Skelter in the mid 90s. The way he tells it on record, after his fifteen minutes of fame dried up, he ended up doing odd jobs, construction work and selling small amounts of crack to get by - in other words he was roughly where he started before Rap.
The track is witty, well-written and at times kind of heart-breaking - there’s a video on YouTube somewhere. It represents a comeback ten years after he first blew - last I know if it, he was recording for his crew’s own “Duck Down Records” label. I’d imagine the deal he gets is similar to that on Koch, the label mentioned in the NY Times piece.
Link | December 17th, 2008 at 7:03 am
Pat Darnell and Friends wrote,
In transportation engineering this phenom is called reaction time, in mechanical systems it is called slippage. In Economics one might call it leading indicator, in accounting management it could be called write offs…
No one could ever get to all the information straight at once. But I keep trying — as an artist I observed a phenomenon that I have yet to label: my son Vinnie spent ungodly amounts of effort to build systems in trunkd of his cars… [Town Car, Cavalier, 4 Runner, Grand Marquis, many others] and it was amazing. He has specific tastes — Rap, Screw, and more really hardcore Rap… including local Houston groups. Which of course I had almost no interpretation for, he would sit me in the optimum passenger position in his car and run through some Rap for me.
Vinnie has a remote, so he would change the track without any noticeable motion. I was astounded. [note: Vin kept blowing out his sub woofer, and I suggested vibration isolation, as he was probably getting resonant vibration from certain cruising speeds. And then we decided to provide a separate power source, extra DC battery recharged by a larger alternator... then an acid proof containment... so on]
His tweeter tweaked, his bass rattled neighbors’ roofs… alligators found his sub bass next to the red tail lights attractive — an enviable system. But — and you knew there was a but coming — he had developed an impatience with the whole thing, as he would change the tracks after about fifteen seconds. I was hearing these tracks for the first time, so I felt a need to hear at least entire good sounding rap through to an end. At first I thought “Wow, this is an attention deficit problem..”
“It’s all good, Vinnie, all good,” I’d say. But now, ten years later, I see where this had been leading… proving it is difficult to read leading indicators.
Monotone, singsong Rap has no peaks or troughs, sort of anti-music folk art… no? I now realize Vinnie wasn’t listening to voices, words or rhymes, he wanted to boost and tweak; and there in is his impatience.
He actually is looking for quality, like in the opulence of symphony orchestration, or full ranges of opera… or rhythm and blues… however I found it difficult to suggest these sources.
I asked him once to pop in ABB Ramblin’ Man, and he did, after thirty seconds, he grimaced, and changed the track, with his remote. I laughed right out. “That was good, Vinnie, thanks,” I said. It was then I realized the music Vinnie wanted had yet to be created. For Vin to be absolutely pleased, patient and purveying music on his “remarkable systems” it is crucial he receive “next generations of HiP-Hop.” Later, at various girlfriends’ suggestion, he listened to Black Eyed Pea, or FM95-like mixes…
God love him, Vinnie has made it through a cycle of outsider-insider, and goes on to his next adventure. He has his remote still not far from his shifting hand and his immoderate 100 watts per channel, now Plexiglas-encased lithium battery powered, trunk gear following him across the country.
More true than not true, Sasquatch summarizes:
My Conclusion?
The process proves this little jewel: “The mainstream hip-hop industry relies on a thriving underground, but isn’t the reverse also true?” (Sanneh)
I would say: “I Rap; therefore I Rap…” if I were Turf Talk, but I am not that one. I am Asphalt Angst, and this road is looking run down… time to put ear to the rail, sniff the air, determine where the Spanish Moss hangs, and create anew… Brutalism is now Post-Brutalism: so to agree –
Link | December 17th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Pribek wrote,
Analogue- thanks for stopping by. I checked out the Sean Price track and I agree with your comments about it. You know, it actually reminds of some of the first rap stuff I was exposed to (late 70s-early 80s), a personal statement, a down to earth story.
As I look at this post, nearly a year has gone by and the decline of industries that rely on creative content is happening at a rapid rate that leaves many people surprised. What eludes a lot of people is the fact that the local/underground/alternative/small timer scenes are in worse shape than the major entities that garner the focus. For instance, I read daily about major news organizations laying off, filing for bankruptcy, unable to borrow working capital. At the same time, every local newspaper guy that I know, they are looking for other work or missing paychecks. Dangerous territory because, if our few local papers bite the dust who is going to cover a story if something happens that has national or international consequences? There won’t be an AP stringer down here in Stone County. So “citizen journalists” I guess; some cat with a cell phone. In other words, there has to be a mainstream to allow stuff to bubble under the surface in any industry that is content driven.
Looking back, I feel that the argument that the major labels screwed it up is why the music business failed, doesn’t hold water. The huge changes going on are cultural and expose some ugly sides of human nature.
Even PD’s seemingly innocuous point about Vinnie: “He actually is looking for quality, like in the opulence of symphony orchestration, or full ranges of opera… or rhythm and blues… however I found it difficult to suggest these sources.’ points to this. Vinnie is looking for something that doesn’t occur in nature. He is seeking a digitally edited product that employs frequencies and dynamic range that are beyond what mere humans are capable of producing without the technology.
Creative people will continue to create. Like John Lee Hooker said; “It’s in him and it’s got to come out”. But, if there is no viable incentive, they will keep it to themselves. That’s human nature too. And that is part of the de-evolution I speak of.
Link | December 17th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Analogue wrote,
Pribek
Thanks for your further thoughts.
I’m actually quite hopeful that good music will continue to be made and will find its way to those who want to hear it. I’m very involved in my local scene and the feeling I get is still positive. There’s new opportunities as the cost of electronic production and distribution drops, even though the opportunities to make money are changing or disappearing.
Put it this way, the major label system of the last few decades was hardly set up to favour single-minded creaivity - far from it - and yet there has been an enormous amount of wonderful music put out because people love to create and want their message and talent out there regardless of whether there’s a million-dollar deal on the table.
I remember from reading Charles R Cross’ biography of Jimi Hendrix (”Roomful of Mirrors”) that at one point Hendrix returned to record with Curtis Knight despite the fact that it made him no money and the guy had fucked him over financially in the past. To me that points to something significant.
People need incentives to create and promote their work, sure, but I don’t know that money is necessarily the main driver.
I agree that journalism is facing a real problem because there is an essential need for good professional investigative work which with the best will in the world can’t be done entirely by enthusiastic amateurs. Not sure what the solution is there, although I’d like to think there is one.
Link | December 22nd, 2008 at 6:17 am
Pat Darnell and Friends wrote,
If I may present yet another non-musician angle, end-user, miserable anecdotal twist. I bought two hundred blank Read\Write -able CD’s last year about this time. I figured they would last… well.. last a long time.
I was digging around cleaning and “neat-a-fying” the “electronics” areas of my kids and self. I found the two hundred CD’s. All of them are burnt with music downloaded from LImeWire, and ripped and burned from friend’s CD’s.
Music is being captured and distributed in bulk, possibly more today than ever. Gone is the outdated distribution systems. When the supply chain is broken, you get a thing like the recent release of Chinese Democracy. 100,000 CD’s get past around a million times, ripped and burned, posted and viral-ed. It even has a name: Viral Marketing. I keep looking to see if anyone has an answer… some say WAN Optimization, others look to out-SPAMming the SPAMmers… musicians like Elton John have set up institutions probably to gather knowledge bases on my kids habits of rip\burn. Like you guys, I wish I could invent the warehouse with a new distribution tact, for this. Lo, not smart enough.
This is not new information. Maybe a confession. It seems everyone is willing to take risks to get free parking: don’t pay the meter, chance getting a boot, if the meter maid catches you.
Link | December 22nd, 2008 at 9:17 am