MUSIC

Who Killed the Radio Star?

By. Mario Scaglione

Music is a part of life and has been major part of our history as human beings. Whenever something happens in one's life, a song is usually playing on the radio and will forever be enriched in our minds. Now a day if you ever turn on the radio and listen to the music that is on the air it just is not the same. The music that I had when I was growing up is a thousand times better then what they are playing on the stations today. Between the years of 1985 to 1995 is one of the premier times for music. So we ask the question what happened to the music?

Who is to blame for the poor music that is being put out right now? Should the blame be put on the music labels or should we blame the radio executives who put this "music" on the air. Also why is the quality of the music industry seemingly going down hill?

In the late 80's / early 90's you had bands like U2, Bon Jovi, Metallica, Nirvana, Pearl Jam etc. Now a days the bands are the Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, B44 and of course "INSTINK". There used to be the king and queen of pop, Michael Jackson and Madonna. Now there is Ricky Martin and Britney Spears. Oh my Dad! Somebody needs to stop this.

U2 and Bon Jovi have come back strong this past year with there new blend of music but they can not get the respect they deserve because of this other crap that is on the radio. There should be no more radio or someone should make a radio station dedicated to the years 1985 - 1995. The actual term "artist" no longer exists. Do you think that television has played a role in the destruction in music? Of course they have.

MTV was starting to make waves in the 80's and it was key for an artist to have a good video so that the audience could see their favorite band. It was sort of like going to a concert but you did not have to leave your house or pay any money to see and hear your favorite artist. In the early 90's the video's got a little more dynamic. The videos were not just about the song that was sung but they started to have plots. The video's now, in the year 2001, are like short movies and can run anywhere from five to fifteen minutes long. Its not about the song anymore, its about the presentation. Presentation is important to musical artist but it is not more important than the music itself. The artist of the past used music videos to promote their music. What are the artists of today promoting now? Is Jennifer Lopez promoting her song or is she shooting for The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition? Come on!!

The Grammy awards have been another disappointment for the past six years. The artists do not even sing anymore. We are talking about an award show for musicians, who make music, they get paid to sing, and they lip sink at their own awards show. Who wants to watch a live show if it is not live? That is pretty sad. Michael Jackson used to come to these awards and sing. He would also be dancing until his shoes were on fire. The man would give it all he had because he loved his fans and would not want to disappoint them with an 80 % performance. That's the difference with the artist now. If they give 80%, they are happy with that. They will produce one good song and base a whole album around it. The album might produce two songs in the top 20 of the pop charts where as the artist of my time would have six or seven songs in the top twenty.

I hope that music is just in a slump and that it will pick itself up and become what it used to be. I hope that when the kids of today grow up and remember their special very first kiss, that the song in their head is not the "thong song". In closing, I believe that the reason why music today is so poor is because of these three contributing factors. Firstly, it is the artist just wanting their 15 minutes of fame and not caring what they put on the album. Secondly, record labels have dropped their standards and allowed the quality music to decline. In turn, this decline makes radio stations look bad. However, what else are the stations going to play? And finally, the way television has destroyed the music by making these short movies instead of concentrating on the music itself. Video did not just kill the radio star; it is on its way to killing music entirely.