Turn on the radio in just about any city in America and cruise through the stations. Sooner or later you'll hear at least half a dozen songs that are already tattooed onto your psyche. Walk into any Blues club in America and you'll hear the same renditions of the same standard numbers along with a host of Stevie Ray Vaughan clones. Pick up the free weekly in your town to see who's playing and inevitably you'll find a host of tribute bands. Why the redundancy? Isn't there anything fresh out there? Well, yes AND no. There are some fresh artists out there but they're not getting the exposure that could catapult them into the mainstream.

There are two culprits responsible for the current regurgitation of older music. The first is the major labels. To understand why we keep getting beat over the head with the same old stuff it's important to look at the business model of yesteryear and compare it with today. When the music industry as we recognize was still in its infancy, shortly after World War II, the people involved in the business aspects were a completely different breed than today. They were music lovers entrepreneurs who looked at the long term success of their artists. Atlantic Records is a prime example. Founded by the sons of a Turkish ambassador, the Ertegun brothers were die hard R&B fans who ventured into neighborhoods where kids of their privilege didn't normally go because they wanted to hear the music they loved firsthand. Keep in mind this was decades before the Civil Rights Movement, when segregation was still a fact of life. Eventually they translated their love of music into a business that was to influence the course of music from there on.

One of their most notable artists was none other than the legendary Ray Charles, but he wasn't legendary when they discovered him and he wasn't "Ray Charles" yet either. This is where the far sightedness of long term success and developing an artist come into play. Charles' early recordings were fairly derivative, sounding much like his heroes Nat King Cole and Charles Brown. This is not a crime, all artists are derivative in their infancy, learning by imitation just as each human being learns to speak by imitating his/her parents. But the Ertegun brothers recognized his potential, what he was capable of, and sought to nurture and develop it. And as anyone who saw the movie RAY knows, it was with MESS AROUND that Ray Charles was born, which led to WHAT'D I SAY, HIT THE ROAD JACK, I GOT A WOMAN, and so many other hits that defined American music in the 20th Century.

A more current example is Prince. Manager Owen Husney, who was instrumental in getting Prince signed to Warner Brothers in the 70's, insists that he could not get an artist like Prince signed to a major label today and it's easy to see why. When they were shopping him around in the mid 70's he was touted as the next Stevie Wonder, the wonder-kid who played all the instruments himself on his demo. And that's exactly what his first two albums FOR YOU and PRINCE sound like- a young kid with an abundance of talent who has yet to find his voice. The albums are typical late 70's R&B radio fare. A few good songs, but nothing really stand out. His third album DIRTY MIND is an underground classic revered by musicians and music fans in Rock, R&B, Punk and Techno alike. It has a sparse, dry sound that is intriguing but contains no radio hits. CONTROVERSY is the bridge to his 5th album 1999 which spawned two major radio hits, a couple dance club hits, and some 'fan faves'. Imagine that, breaking through with his 5th album! It simply wouldn't happen today. And finally his 6th album PURPLE RAIN puts him on the map forever. His 5th and 6th albums are the ones that made him a household name by defining the Pop music of the era and yet his first manager who helped get him signed insists it couldn't happen today. Why? Because major labels want an instant return on their investment from the first album. No way they're going to allow an artist four albums to develop his sound.

 So if the major labels won't develop an artist what will they do? Appeal to the lowest common denominator. The majors were taken over by corporate executives years ago and now their business model is "the blockbuster"- put everything into one act and explode it all over the place with the intention of large immediate returns. That's all fine and well if you're selling video games at Wal-mart but if you're selling music you're shortchanging artists and audiences alike. Just to rub salt in the wound, for years major labels have been gouging customers with over inflated prices while paying artists as little as possible. This is the real reason file sharing took off big time and made the majors shaky. People were taping records long before the digital medium came about. Sometimes you couldn't afford all the albums you wanted to buy, but if you really liked one you eventually bought it anyhow because you wanted the real thing, not just a copy. File sharing is the digital version of taping records, it's nothing new. It exploded because people got tired of being ripped off and that's exactly what happened; the middle man screwed both parties. No wonder the public didn't want to pay for music anymore, nobody likes to get ripped off.

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