I need your opinion...
 

I'm writing a paper for my junior english class about the music industry and the current state of mainstream music. Just wondering what your thoughts were on these two subjects.

I have to do that same thing in french at the mo, it sucks :( I think Im just gonna write about a few of the mainstream groups, and say about the top 40. I think theres a variety in the top 40 stuff, its never all the same genre really.. Oh yeah, and Im writin about the other genres of course, and sayin that there can be alot of controversy between 'em.
Ok so Im fairly sure that wont have helped you at all, but hey, I tried.

The mainstream music industry is in the worst state ever at the moment. But then it`s never really been great ever.

The problem lies in that most people seem to be under the impression they are listening to something else especially in rock music, let me explain.

We`re forever being told that Nirvana were the breakthrough band , the band that bought the underground mainstream. But that didn`t happen. What happened was what happened every other time a new fad came along.They just ditched all the bands they had that were out of date & signed up endless Nirvana clones with no musical value whatsoever.

Now, this is the bit that I hate the most.
During the 90s when this so called underground 'breakout' was supposed to have happened , the music industry were buying each other out so we got to a point were there were only 5 companies owned virtually everything.

You can see for yourself here ...
http://www.bl.uk/collections/sound-archive/record.html

These record companies seeing there was something in this 'alternative' movement played along with it, forming new subsiduary labels , playing off the anti-mainstreamism & basically conning people that they were listening to independant music.
And people were stupid enough to fall for it.
I have to be honest & say i`ve never seen the independant music scene in such a state , yet people are still under the illusion that they are listening to fresh new music . In reality the record industry are just doing what they have always done. When they come across a band that sells records they just find hundreds of clone acts.

When Nirvana kicked off we were still getting grunge bands forced down our throats for the next few years.
Then when bands like & Green Day & Limp Bizkit made it big , suddenly we were drowning in crap nu metal & pop punk bands.
As soon as the White Stripes sold a few albums , every 2 bit garage band were being offered major label deals
When Coldplay made it big , now we are still being inundated with soundalike bands even today.

The music industry has manipulated people into thinking that they are listening to an alternative , when in reality all thats happening is they are forcing the same soundalike crap onto us & dressing it up as an 'alternative'.

I think the biggest shame in all this was that the internet could have done something about this , but it hasn`t. Everytime I walk into a record store I see less & less music not put out by 'The big 5' companies.

Personally, I like all the bands that Urban Hatemonger mentioned abouve, however you also need to mention in your paper that the mainstream music industry IS the music industry in general. that's what it has become...clones...clones and more clones...however, the underground is all music that true MUSIC fans will pick up on first, so we really determine who these ass hole managers pick up...what they do to them through processing is another matter.

"True music fans"?? So basically what youre saying is that if you dont listen to the underground music, youre not a real fan of music?? What a load of bull****. All music is music, you cant just say that because its mainstream its not music. Thats one of the stupidest things Ive heard.

also, i think its safe to say that rock is the new pop. a lot more rock acts are in the charts nowadays, it seems RnB and rock are the two main genres of preferance, its "uncool" to like pop.

Actually rock music is selling less now than it ever has.

That isn't actually true. Album sales across the board have been rising for the past five years, consistently. The only place where album sales are down is for bubblegum pop bands and talent contest/pop idol winner rubbish.

Hence why HMV share prices doubled last year.

I wasn`t talking about overall sales. I meant in terms of genre. Rap & R&B is selling far more than rock bands these days. Rock music is no longer the biggest selling genre.

But you said rock isn't selling as well as it was, when in fact is it selling higher than it was in absolute and relative terms, simply because more people are buying albums than they were five years ago, and outside of the top mainstream rap acts (50 cent, Eminem etc), the sales in that genre are fairly poor.