Name one way we can clean up the music industry.

Put a bullet in the heads of:
Gaga
Bieber
Taylor Swift
The jonas brothers
Tisdale

You know what i mean.

I don’t think cleaning it up is necessary. Music is a form of expression, who are we to censor what someone may want to say whether it be from the heart or for the money? And I enjoy some of those violent tunes, great for getting me pumped up for a match of some sort.

And don’t you dare harm a hair on my Taytay!

I don’t think we need to clean it up. Just because someone produces a song doesn’t mean you have to buy it or listen to it.

I will be happy with my old Johnny Cash, the Highwaymen, AC/DC and Gordon Lightfoot CDs and LPs.

@King_Pariah Agreed.

Okay, I agree with expression, and to look the other way/turn the head. But violent music, and music alllll about money is what is driving our society, do we want our kids to be influenced by this? Remember, the music industry is about dollar bills, and the head execs run the ship until it drives down to the sand. And at @King_Pariah you feel it’s appropriate to hear violent music, if you’re going to induce upon something violent but well controlled, like in sport?

My tone is neutral I’m not putting anyones idea down, just want good discussion. :)

@dreamwolf I agree that music is highly influencing, but I wouldn’t put it as number one for what drives society as a whole.
Thing is, people who learn how to distinct from reality and fantasy should have no problem not being led by music too seriously, at least in unhealthy ways. It’s our job as mature adults, and the parents’ job to educate their kids about the superficial aspects of music, the unrealistic elements of video games and movies, and whatnot. We can’t let that stuff do it for us.
This is the thing that bothers me about that. So many people always put the blame to some outer source and discard all responsibility. Not talking about you specifically, but that is what your post reminds me of.

If you look at ancient entertainment, it wasn’t much better, given the assumption of this scenario. Shakespeare was all about death and tragedy, opera and a lot of classical music was dark themed, stuff like that. I can’t think of any money related stuff, but past entertainment was quite violent, yes indeed. Today just has a different taste.

It sucks indeed that there are kids who are led too much by less productive music, but we should also remember that other genres of music have also mislead people. I wouldn’t blame music as a source of havoc, rather than a person’s sense of interpretation or gullibility. Or perhaps the environment around them.

All I ever listen to is music about death and murder, but I’d like to think I’m a perfectly fine citizen of this society, for whatever that’s worth. You’re right though, the music industry, or a great deal of it, is about making money. I’d hate to be someone like Britney Spears, it must be horrible. Point is though, a lot of stuff is just about profit, but that doesn’t mean we should phase out any genre, whether it’s superficial or not, or whatever it talks about. Doing that won’t fix the mentioned problems. And in all that, we always got artists who are true to their work, and it would suck to bar them.
And anyways, industries of all kinds have plenty of educated people working in them, and they still exist to make money…we’d have to eradicate the concept of money entirely. Until then though…we have to babysit our own kids too, and not leave it up to MTV. (does that station even play music anymore?)

Also, welcome to Fluther!

@Symbeline Okay agreeable in some places. I have tons of friends that listen to whatever music, and they are fine, non violent people and distinguish between reality and fantasy just fine. Now you’re statement about parents, I got you here… What about children who don’t have parents, or even more commonly amongst our ghetto’s in America, children who belong to single parents. They’re not going to be properly told how to distinguish reality and fantasy with all the music on these days about lets go to clubs, lets get drunk, this and that. I’m not really blaming the industry, I’m saying how can we clean it. Let’s not stray away from that question. Music, over the radio, like I had when I was a child, belonging to a single mom, super made a big impression on me. The government knows how music across America influences our society, lets not be naive about this. As a kid who grew up through 911 for example, government tried to halt certain music to be released because of the over all weather of our society during that week. The Strokes couldn’t release “New York City Cops” because of moral issues and it wouldn’t have been right to bash NY at that time, although that was a NY song about their own cops. Music does influence society as a whole, and it’ll always be stronger than what parents teach our kids because kids are always wondering. We can’t buy into the Baby Boomer mentality that “everyones doing it.” Thats when we become desensitized to what should and could be considered good music.

Well, if we wanna clean up the industry, and act on this on the assumption that music is stronger than most anything else, the industry would need a new target besides making money. An evening out of the balance, so to speak. (stuff is out there, but it’s hidden)
The problem is the mainstream which overshadows a lot of genres and artist. In the given scenario here, we’d have to find some way to allow for more diversity to be presented to the public. Some means better than say, what Industrial or anyone who isn’t Bjork but practices the genre currently has.
I’m not entirely sure of any specific means to achieve this though, besides ceasing to use superficial means to present music, as is often the case. I loved O Fortuna when I was 12, but that was due to my dad, not MuchMusic. I still say our closer entourage is also highly responsible, and could make a huge difference.
I don’t think phasing out specific genres or artists is the solution though.

As to what should or could, well as @King_Pariah said, it’s not up for me to judge that. I can dislike something, but I don’t have the right to take away someone’s means of expression, no matter how crap I think SouljaBoy is.

But you know, rap and hip hop first started out as a means for poor black kids to vent against racism and poverty. It is weird that the most presented parts of it today are about cash and all. Maybe we’d need to take a good luck at the evolution of some genres to come up with a good solution.

All this reminds me of a very insightful part of a song by Eminem though, called Sing for the Moment.

’‘It’s fucked up ain’t it, how we can come from practically nothin’
To bein’ able to have any fuckin’ thing that we wanted
It’s why we sing for these kids that don’t have a thing
Except for a dream and a fucking rap magazine’’

I find it highly presumptuous and elitist to assume that the music industry needs “cleaning up.” I suspect you are just looking for validation of your own point of view. You won’t find it here. The music industry doesn’t need cleaning. It’s the entrances to your mind that could use a good sweeping. Or maybe you should unnail the doors—try to understand where other people are coming from.

It’s one thing to dislike something. It’s quite another thing to say that because you don’t like it, it should be banned “cleaned up.”

@dreamwolf Okay, to reply to your earlier question/statement directed towards me, yes I’ll use violent music to pump me up for anything ranging from sports, debates, hard sex, etc. However, violent music does help open up an entire new world of creativity when I’m in artistic moods but am unsure what to create (normally poetry). Violent music also helps me feel like – though it be for a moment – that nothing is insurmountable. And when I do get really pissed off with nowhere to vent it, I listen to violent music which calms me down. It only makes me more physically aggressive if that is the reason I’m using it for.

@wundayatta damn well put it perfectly.

If you don’t like the music industry, support local and indie musicians. They are often much more awesome anyway. And your suggestion that producers should have a mandatory education so they’d be less likely to produce violent or “music that just talks about money” is just… 0_o It’s called free expression. Living in a free society isn’t always safe, and it isn’t always pretty, but you can’t be everyone’s damn babysitter. You’re walking on all kinds of slippery slopes if you want to eliminate certain types of music because some orphan is going to not be able to interpret it correctly. That’s just ridiculous.

What @Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard said… and if you think that demanding a degree in music will guarantee that producers et al. think the way that you do, you haven’t met many people with music degrees.

They keep playing that stupid song “Last Friday Night” by Katy Perry on all the radio stations where I live——I wish the music industry would stop “artists” from writing and putting out silly, repetitive, mindless songs. That’s my suggestion.

Only thing I would do is get rid of the auto tune mic. Then we wouldn’t have all these cookie cutter groups that sound and look the same.

Maybe then we could get some real talent like Mama Cass or Aretha Franklin.

Autotune? I love autotune! It is such a parody of itself! Is there anyone who takes it seriously? I think it is meant to be taken as a joke.

Pop music is pop music. It is not for the talented. It’s for the produced. You don’t find the likes of Aretha Franklin in the halls of pop. You got to go look where the home grown musicians work.

While I have enough qualms about popular ‘singers’ to write a few books, I don’t believe in censorship. If people want to listen to shitty music, I really shouldn’t be able to stop them and vice versa.

@wundayatta you know who the first person to use Autotune was? Cher, in her song “Believe.” Imogen Heap actually made extremely good use of autotune in her song Hide and Seek.

Point being: autotune isn’t always bad. Just when used in moderation and for a creative effect. And if T-pain does it, it sucks, as a rule of thumb.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Like I said. Is there anyone who takes it seriously? Cher? Enuf said!

I didn’t say I didn’t like it. Just that I think it’s funny. Plenty of room for fun in music. And Cher is high camp, too. Nothing wrong with that. It is what it is. I just think it’s amusing.

@wundayatta I’m not an elitist, I’m striking good conversation. I don’t know where the need comes from you to attack me personally. That’s not good progress for anyone. @Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard I’d say 80% of the music I listen to, are bands that are from independent labels. Why is everyone answering a question that isn’t there? I’m asking people to name propositions that would help clean up the music industry as a whole. As in from music downloads, to production, to everything music. I’m a musician myself, and I don’t hate any musician or their work, or producers or anything like that. I merely set an example for the question. :D Oh and @wundayatta Trust me, I’ve talked to many producers, you know, people who work in the music business and stuff, and all they talk about is how crap the music business has grown. So that ends your presumptuous and elitist argument on me. You can’t tell me what to believe, therefore just because what you think isn’t what I think, example I think the industry needs some cleaning up, and you don’t, it doesn’t mean your opinion is greater than mine, and therefore becomes fact, and vice versa with me. I think we can all agree that this forum is for the sole purpose of the art of the question. Not to put anyone else down. I will be blocking you now because I feel anyone who personally attacks another has a prejudice against one. Not once have I said I didn’t like the music industry. Anything that is an entity, can use a little cleaning up, upgrading, brushing up on, tweaking, updating etc, and I think you get the point. My example for the question is merely a means of an answer. And I can back it up quite well, the whole collegiate system is derivative of the European philosophy to learn about many. And what makes it so wrong for someone who works in a studio to have a general education of their past, and current surroundings? Is that not, opening your mind? Anyhow, I would really hope people just answer the question instead of attacking people here.

@dreamwolf Sorry about that. I thought you were saying that the music industry should be cleaned up, not that you don’t like some things in the music industry. My mistake.

Your question makes a presumption that the music industry needs cleaning up. Excuse me for thinking that was your personal point of view. Usually when we ask hypothetical questions like that on fluther, we make it clear it is a hypothetical question, not one of personal opinion.

I’m sorry you felt like I was attacking you personally. I wasn’t. I was attacking the point of view expressed in your question. Since it was only a hypothetical question, I’m not sure why you are taking my answer personally.

You can’t have it both ways. Either it’s a hypothetical question, or it represents your point of view. If it represents your point of view, then it is an elitist position. I’m not sure why you think that is bad. If you believe something, I would think you would want to stand behind it and offer reasoned arguments explaining why you think the industry needs cleaning up. If you don’t offer those reason (you only offer the hearsay of anonymous people you claim to know in the business), I have no choice but to think you can’t back up your point of view.

My opinion is indeed not better than yours. But when you come out in a very aggressive way, acting as if you know better than anyone else, then I’m not going to let that stand. I don’t like questions that make unwarranted assumptions. To me, that’s inflammatory and dishonest. It suggests a person who only listens to their own point of view.

Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps you are more open-minded than it seems. Perhaps you have misstated yourself or given the wrong impression.

I don’t know much about the music industry, per se. I know a lot of musicians who have not gotten royalties they are entitled to. I know musicians who died poor, without access to health care because of the way the industry treated them. Most of the musicians I know have nothing to do with the industry. They do their own distribution over the internet.

But it’s business. Perhaps a dishonest business. But the dishonesty is not in the kind of music that gets distributed. The dishonesty is on the part of the business people within the industry who often don’t give a crap about musicians.

Finally, I love your threat to block me. If you succeed, please let me know how you did it. There have been people I’ve wanted to block, too. I guess you’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way. Just avert your eyes when you see my avatar. Good luck.

And welcome to fluther. I’m really not out to get you. You just pressed one of my buttons. I don’t know you. I have no reason to attack you. I’m sorry that what I said… or the way I said it bothered you. I just didn’t like your attitude. But I don’t hold that against you.

@wundayatta No hard feelings here, I forgive your sorry’s :D. I’m no longer going to post topics that strike conversation Fluther anymore however, because it seems like this is a forum for ganging up on people. Not just this question that was posted, for example, but on my other questions. Like, “why are you a socialist?” People are straying away from the question and putting others down and I thought Fluther was a community of open minded people. And I do take things directed at my very personal, I don’t know why but I do, I’m just that passionate about my thoughts, wrong or right, and am always willing to find out how I am wrong, and to never impose my beliefs on someone else. I will only ask the kinds of questions that require help now. Okay take care.

@dreamwolf oh come on now, don’t do that. Controversy and drama is part of the fun here. You just have to adapt a thick skin. That’s the only way to survive the internet. If you genuinely feel like you are being attacked personally, there is always the flag button. Which is doing us mods a favor.