I think there are some very good points made above to which I would add the following.
1.PIRACY-Do not underestimate (here in the UK anyway)how much damage this does-ripped CD's of an artists entire career can be bought for £15 here in the UK,anybody in any job or on the street can get access to a new album for £2 with packaging that looks not too dissimilar to the original.
This is more down to new technology rather than the net.
2.MUSIC/RADIO whatever is too specific these days,you never really hear anything out of place so people just stick to what they know-which is part of the intial posters point.
3.ORIGINALITY-arguably popular music has reached a point where it may well be close to impossible to be truly groundbreaking-there are a lot of great new bands about but their refrence points are too well known.
There could be an argument too,weirdly that there is too much music available nowadays-
Also I think we lived through a golden age,the period into the 70's saw music developing and expanding it was a seperate entity.
Nowadays music has become part of movies,advertising,socialising etc.etc. it's been absorbed into the culture.
I'm not convinced it can be what it was.
4. OLDER MUSIC FANS -people of my generation and in the range thereabouts move on in their life-they really don't have time or inclination to search out new music and also because of much of what I've written above they tend to stick to established greats or actually mellow out.
My taste has broadened as I've got older into classical and jazz but also electronica and some avant garde stuff and sure I dismiss a lot of the new bands but I do buy a lot of new stuff too.
The evidence is here on this site-I read a lot about Lucinda Williams et al (whom I quite like)but not too much about The Strokes.
Ok we see the odd White Stripes/Wilco reference but how many Audiogoners read the music monthlies and search out truly new music-not many I would guess.
This is nothing new but my point below is I think...
5.YOUNGER GENERATIONS-to me this is key,we are seeing the first fall out of the post-rock generation,the younger generation is no longer buying music the way we did,they are also listening to a different types of music-rap,hip-hop,nu-metal.
Clearly these are the genres which are not in trouble.
They are approaching music in a completely different way,kids are using the net and new technology and there are not taking the traditional route that we did.
They may well buy a Korn CD but maybe with so many other alternative ways to access music these days I would doubt they are going to buy the amount of records their fathers and mothers did.
Truly the world has changed,business wise and marketing wise,the record companies are in a mess because they don't know what they are doing.
A lot of it is their fault but it's people who are causing the slump.
I think radio is one aspect but I would argue it's a pretty complex issue.
1.PIRACY-Do not underestimate (here in the UK anyway)how much damage this does-ripped CD's of an artists entire career can be bought for £15 here in the UK,anybody in any job or on the street can get access to a new album for £2 with packaging that looks not too dissimilar to the original.
This is more down to new technology rather than the net.
2.MUSIC/RADIO whatever is too specific these days,you never really hear anything out of place so people just stick to what they know-which is part of the intial posters point.
3.ORIGINALITY-arguably popular music has reached a point where it may well be close to impossible to be truly groundbreaking-there are a lot of great new bands about but their refrence points are too well known.
There could be an argument too,weirdly that there is too much music available nowadays-
Also I think we lived through a golden age,the period into the 70's saw music developing and expanding it was a seperate entity.
Nowadays music has become part of movies,advertising,socialising etc.etc. it's been absorbed into the culture.
I'm not convinced it can be what it was.
4. OLDER MUSIC FANS -people of my generation and in the range thereabouts move on in their life-they really don't have time or inclination to search out new music and also because of much of what I've written above they tend to stick to established greats or actually mellow out.
My taste has broadened as I've got older into classical and jazz but also electronica and some avant garde stuff and sure I dismiss a lot of the new bands but I do buy a lot of new stuff too.
The evidence is here on this site-I read a lot about Lucinda Williams et al (whom I quite like)but not too much about The Strokes.
Ok we see the odd White Stripes/Wilco reference but how many Audiogoners read the music monthlies and search out truly new music-not many I would guess.
This is nothing new but my point below is I think...
5.YOUNGER GENERATIONS-to me this is key,we are seeing the first fall out of the post-rock generation,the younger generation is no longer buying music the way we did,they are also listening to a different types of music-rap,hip-hop,nu-metal.
Clearly these are the genres which are not in trouble.
They are approaching music in a completely different way,kids are using the net and new technology and there are not taking the traditional route that we did.
They may well buy a Korn CD but maybe with so many other alternative ways to access music these days I would doubt they are going to buy the amount of records their fathers and mothers did.
Truly the world has changed,business wise and marketing wise,the record companies are in a mess because they don't know what they are doing.
A lot of it is their fault but it's people who are causing the slump.
I think radio is one aspect but I would argue it's a pretty complex issue.