my brilliant media studies assignment...

[weevil]

Here's a snippett of how "grossly over rated payola was/is in the usa",Weewill.

English rock group Pink Floyd was one of the hottest bands in 1980,
with an LP shooting up the charts and a concert tour that sold out
within hours. But the group was unable to get airplay for its latest single,
at least not without engaging the services of a nascent breed of
freelance promoters whose practices ushered in a new era of payola.

These promotors, dubbed "indies," used illegal methods.
That the recording industry not only
tolerated but embraced the indies is indicative of the questionable
tactics now employed in this high-stakes arena.
At its center is industry leader CBS records, whose president
Walter Yetnikoff is depicted as a bully of Machiavellian proportions
whose style set the tone throughout the business in the '80s.

I’m not saying it never happened. It did happen really, really badly for a while there. But that was a long time ago. Guaranteed it still happens to a degree today but at nothing like those sorts of levels. You are quoting something that happened 25 years ago. This is exactly the sort of stuff people go on and on and on about and blow out of all proportions as if it still a massive deal today.

Aside form all of that I’m really only talking about Australia. Don’t know enough about the states to really go into much detail.

You get offended when I say you talk in simplistic slogans and then you bring this sort of stuff up. It’s just so tabloid and sensationalist. Can’t you see that?

If you live in a world where the good guys wear white hats and the bad guys wear black hats then I don’t think there is any point it trying to discuss anything with you.

Going to keep calling me silly names like a child or do you want to have a reasonable discussion?

 

[weevil]

Payola

Payola - The paying of cash or gifts in exchange for airplay,
payment given in return for promotion of a product or service

​

"Payola" is a contraction of the words "pay" and"Victrola" (LP record player), and entered the English language via the record business. The first court case involving payola was in 1960. On May 9, Alan Freed was indicted for accepting $2,500 which he claimed was a token of gratitude and did not affect airplay. He paid a small fine and was released. His career faltered and in 1965 he drank himself to death.

Before Alan Freed's indictment, payola was not illegal, however, but commercial bribery was. After the trial, the anti-payola statute was passed under which payola became a misdemeanor, penalty by up to $10,000 in fines and one year in prison.
​

​

By the mid- fifties the independent record companies had broken the majors stranglehold on airplay and BMI licensed songs dominated the charts.

In the wake of the quiz show scandals ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) urged House Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Oren Harris to look into the recording industry's practice of payola.

ASCAP, with its head in the sand, believed BMI licensed songs were hits only because of payola. With the breakdown in morals, ASCAP believed these records were played so often by greedy deejays causing them to become imprinted on unsuspecting teenagers. ASCAP who had always looked at rock and roll as a passing fad. With these hearings they were trying to ensure that would be the case.

Prior to the beginning of the hearings the FTC filed complaints against a number of record manufacturers and distributors. Those that wished to escape prosecution agreed to a 30 days Consent Order. Many of the companies found themselves back where they had started and folded.

"The cancer of payola cannot be pinned on rock and roll." ....Billboard Magazine. Billboard stated payola was rampant during vaudeville of the 20s, and the big band era of the 1930s and 1940s

The committee decided to look into deejays who took gifts from record companies in return for playing their records on their shows. Fearing the worse the record companies began stepping forward and announcing that they had given money to specific deejays. Soon twenty five deejays and program directors were caught in the scandal. Among the more popular ones were Joe Niagara (WIBG, Philadelphia), Tom Clay (WJBK, Detroit), Murray "The K" Kaufman (WINS, New York) and Stan Richards (WILD, Boston) The probe quickly focused in on the two top deejays in the country, ******** Clark and Alan Freed. Freed's broadcast alliances quickly deserted him. In late November, Freed was fired from both ABC-radio and WNEW-TV.

Clark, with more to lose, quickly gave up all his musical interests when ordered to do so by ABC-TV. When asked to sign a statement denying involvement Freed refuse and was promptly fired from his job with WINS.

When Clark appeared to testify he brought Bernard Goldsmith a statistician. Goldsmith told the committee that Clark had a 27% interest in records played in the past 28 months and those records had a 23% popularity rating. The committee was stunned as they wondered what came first the chicken or the egg.

Clark's testimony began with telling the committee he had given up all outside interests connected with the recording industry. He also said the only reason he had gotten involved with those businesses were for the tax advantages. Clark admitted a $125 investment in Jamie Records returned a profit of $11,900 and of the 163 songs he had rights to143 were given to him.

When questioned about Jamie records it was discovered that Jamie paid out $15,000 in payola, but Clark denied ever accepting any. The committee clearly didn't believe Clark, but he received just a slap on the wrist. In fact, committee chairman Oren Harris called Clark "a fine young man."

Freed who refused to deny involvement wasn't so lucky. Though he would only receive a small fine and six months suspended sentence his career was in tatters. Freed would die penniless, a bitter broken man, Jan 20, 1965 in Palm Springs, California.. He was forty three

I’m sure in the 60’s some musician stole some money somewhere to supply his smack habit?

Right do I now rant and rave that all musicians are thieves and smack addicts?

That is what you are doing.

FFS grow up. It’s like trying to talk reasonably to a 5 year old.

There are problems everywhere. I have said time and time again that no industry is perfect. You are so rabid and bias I don’t think you even know what the ******** I am arguing.

 

[oxx]

I see what has happened in the music industry as simply as a microcosm of a trend that has been occurring all over society.

Everything in our culture has become way, way more heavily scrutinised, analysed and second guessed. To the point that all the spontaneity and originality seems to have been sucked out of everything.

Politicians, Footballers, Cricketers, TV personalities have all just look and sound like robots, all going through the same motions all reading from the same script.

A freak like Graham Kennedy used to be the king of TV but now it’s Rove McManus. Apparently people think someone as utterly one dimensional as Nathan Buckley is a football ‘personality’.

Coldplay used to sell loads of records now James Blake does. Does anyone buying the records realise that it’s exactly the same music template just with someone marginally different singing it?

Bands want a ‘retro’ sound. So they buy all this classic old gear, go into a studio full of classic old gear and then proceed to spend weeks or months playing the life out of every note until absolutely every performance is ‘perfect’. Or even more hideous they Tool the bejesus out of it until every beat on every track lines up perfectly to the tempo grid. Good old Beat Detective will sort it out. Classic records like classic performers were full of imperfections. All that gets smoothed over today.

Do I like the fact that our society is like this? No. Can I personally do anything about it? No. Can the MD of a major do anything about it? No.

We live in a capitalist society. One of the rules of that society is that businesses have to keep on making more money. Do I think that is a healthy environment to encourage diverse, edgy music? Nup.

There are a billion different factors that come into it. But quite simply if you run a label and you don’t push that label as hard as you freaking can to perform financially then you are throwing a massive amount of money down the toilet. There are a million others ready clamber over both your and your label’s bodies to get ahead.

Exactly like a football team: if you do not absolutely do everything in your power to maximise your output your opposition will crush you in a second.

Like it or not music exists in that environment. All of us can bitch, moan and complain about it as much as we like but that is cold hard reality and there is no getting away form it.

You yourself said that independent was the VFL, and in some ways I think it is a good analogy. If you don’t like the pressure of the big leagues then don’t bitch about it, just get out of it. If you wanna play with the big boys you gotta cop the ******** on the chin and learn to deal with it. That is the price you pay.

Ultimately those boys are playing for keeps, they have budgets to meet and they have entire rosters to deal with. Every single act on that roster has this huge fleet of different people behind them and every single one of those people has a different agenda.

An A&R guy has to cut through all that crap and make their call on what they think will make the act work the best it can. All within the parameters and context of who the act is and where they are at.

Just like footy coaches, some A&R guys ******** that up big time but some get it very right. Some A&R guys are clueless and should never have gotten into the position in the first place. Some are incredibly switched on and knowledgeable people who know more about music and the industry than any of us could ever hope to.

Guaranteed the footy player who doesn’t gets cut from the team is going to hate the coaches guts. No matter if it was the right call or not. Eventually almost every player gets cut from the team.


All you seem to have done is play in a band. Don’t try to make out by me saying that I am disrespecting playing in a band. Playing in a band gives you a bunch of insights that people on the outside will never fully understand. I played in a band for years. I always knew we would be way too out there for big time commercial success. We had artistic boundaries we were simply not prepared to cross. Don’t try to disrespect what I did. You simply have no idea what it was. You are only guessing and you are only guessing out of spite.

Just as playing in a band gives you insights, so does working at a major. It’s precisely why I took the opportunity when it came. There is no way in hell I would ever fit into some corporate position in the long term. I had already done a bunch of stuff in the industry but a major was a learning experience way too good to pass up.

First thing you learn when you work for a major. Doesn’t matter who you are, what you think, what you have done, or what your motivations are. Some people will bitch and scream hysterically about anything you do from that point on. Doesn’t matter in the slightest what you do. The day before you started you were a normal person. The next day you are apparently pure evil with noting but malicious intentions for the whole world.

...The A&R guy says, do you think that song might be in the wrong key for the singer: “No way, get ********ed man; you know absolutely nothing about our art. You are just trying to control us and change us from being who we really are. We have always said that all record company people are evil ********heads and this is just further confirmation of that.”

The producer says, do you think that song might be in the wrong key for the singer: “Wow, amazing dude, we tried it out and you are right. It has made the most incredible difference. This song now sounds like it should be the first single. Man, it’s going to be a huge hit...and we will be able to do the coolest T-shirt based on that song title. Holy ******** we are going to make bucket loads of cash. And all with out selling out tho the record companies wishes...how cool is that!!!”

Yes that is the simplistic version, but you get the idea. I and virtually every other A&R person has experienced the above sort of thing about a million times. Jesus it gets a little boring after you have heard it the first few hundred thousand. Funnily enough some A&R people get dismissive of artists who constantly pull those sorts of routines.

I’m not at all saying it always happens like that at all. All I am trying to do is point out that there is another side to the picture.

Like I have been saying from the stat, if you wanna have a reasonable conversation about it I am all ears. Man if you wanna hear someone slag off baboons like Kamber or Darth Handlin then I am your man. Don’t even get me started on a ********-knocker like Sanderlands. ******** me if this seems like a long post that one would be freaking massive.

So is there another side to the picture or not?

Good post Weevil.

I'll converse with you.

No doubt we'll have our differences as we have both clearly already shown.

I dont see me bringing up historical points as being sensationalist,especially when the point of this whole thread was to give TigerFan some kind of insight to the music biz.

I'd say he got just that.

I dont like the precision of digital domain either and personally think plug ins like beat doctor should stay in the doof doof sector of production.

In todays R&B,which is a skeleton of it's original format,It's really all about the vocal performance,the reason why so many of the backing tracks are simply decorated percussion canvases and in turn quantised to the s h i t h o u s e.
Getting the singer to find that pocket is,imo,the way to give yourself half a chance of being played 10 years from now.
Listen to vocal phrasing in all classic songs.
A little off the beat but still accessible by punters.
As much as i hate most R&B tracks,they majorly offer great vocals and a pocket to boot.

Bands.
I dont entirely agree with them buying expensive retro gear to sound retro.
The sound of a band really starts with the songs and then the vocals.
The rest is as easy as hiring the gear during the session.
It's here that the newer sound patches and modules can actually kick some serious ass.
Moog,Roland,B4 etc have all been put on offer as software and some are actually a great copy.

Here's an idea for new bands.
Play live in the studio and dont cut and paste.

I take it that a band who can buy all the gear u mentioned had received somekind of advance,be it publishing or whatever.
This is where the pressure of the record companies can influence the decisions of a young band

It could be argued that record companies themselves are demanding a more polished,tyter sounding product,their reasoning ? -to compete with everything that's out there.I've heard it said.

This is detrimental to the natural creative path of the artist.
The artists that choose this approach themselves have already folded.

The only problems i have with record companies,before u ask,are the ones that are there.

 

[oxx]

I’m sure in the 60’s some musician stole some money somewhere to supply his smack habit?

Right do I now rant and rave that all musicians are thieves and smack addicts?

That is what you are doing.

FFS grow up. It’s like trying to talk reasonably to a 5 year old.

There are problems everywhere. I have said time and time again that no industry is perfect. You are so rabid and bias I don’t think you even know what the ******** I am arguing.

U couldn't keep your disfunctional ego at bay could u.

Id just replied to your prior post with a view to converse and then i see this.

All these things u say,ranting,raving,feet stomping,must be the way u re-act cos i certainly dont.

Dont take it personally that u worked for a record company - I dont and never will.

It's hard to cop this from you after u tried to play the artist on page 2 and then claimed u had to "drop down to my level of artist" in a later post.
There are lots like you throughout the bizness and that does make me sick.

I said all i want to say to you on the last page.

U should have sold cars instead.

 

[weevil]

U couldn't keep your disfunctional ego at bay could u.

Id just replied to your prior post with a view to converse and then i see this.

Look mate, I’m sorry I saw one of your posts and reacted to it. That is pretty much all both of us have been doing.

Lets both chill out and bring this whole thing up a notch. I promise not to chuck anymore abuse your way if you don’t chuck any mine.

I’m sure we are both just headstrong and got off on the wrong foot. I like a good stoush as much as the next guy but I don’t have the energy to keep on going forever.

These sorts of places are a minefield of misinterpretations and baseless accusations. Usually it all comes down to silly arguments about semantics.

I’d love to have a real conversation with you about this stuff because it has taken up a hell of a lot of my life and I still find it endlessly fascinating.

I’ll defiantly reply to your other post when I get a sec to take it all in.

Really dude, I’m the most good natured guy in the world. I’m sure you have lots of interesting ******** to contribute. I hope you can see that I might have some too.

Cheers.

 

[weevil]

Good post Weevil.

I'll converse with you.

No doubt we'll have our differences as we have both clearly already shown.

If we actually talk about the issues I don’t know if we will have as many differences as you think.

the point of this whole thread was to give TigerFan some kind of insight to the music biz.

I'd say he got just that.

Totally. If one thing he will know how passionate people in the industry really are.

I always say the music industry is not a logical career choice (on either end of the artistic/business fence) it’s all about emotion. Relative to other big businesses record companies (like movie studios) perform very poorly. You would be way better off putting your money in a shopping mall or oil company.

You have to be incredibly passionate if you are going to stick with it.

I dont like the precision of digital domain either and personally think plug ins like beat doctor should stay in the doof doof sector of production.

I love using all the digital stuff for prepro. It’s awesome if you want to try taking the first pre-chorus out or you wanna hear what it sounds like with a different kick pattern or that kinda stuff.

But it is ******** sandwich when it comes to the real deal. For me that should be all about capturing a real living, breathing performance. Maybe you can use a little bit to fix up a glaring error in an otherwise brilliant performance but too much and you loose all the nuance and humanity.

In todays R&B,which is a skeleton of it's original format,It's really all about the vocal performance,the reason why so many of the backing tracks are simply decorated percussion canvases and in turn quantised to the s h i t h o u s e.
Getting the singer to find that pocket is,imo,the way to give yourself half a chance of being played 10 years from now.
Listen to vocal phrasing in all classic songs.
A little off the beat but still accessible by punters.
As much as i hate most R&B tracks,they majorly offer great vocals and a pocket to boot.

Yeah commercial R&B and me just don’t get on at all. On a detached level it is interesting where it is going. Rock/pop what ever you want to call it has always and will always be about the singer. But R&B is just taking it to the extreme. They don’t even know what hats are anymore. It’s just going to end up being a vocal and a metronome soon.

I can totally appreciate it on a performance level but the lack of substance just does my head in. And because it’s not a gig based genre I think R&B has pushed the MTV envelope even further.

Without live shows a great video is almost the be all and end all in promoting that genera. So they spend more and more dollars on them trying to get noticed. And that forces everyone else to spend more just to try to compete.

Video has become so ridiculously disproportionately important and is so expensive. But how do you put the genie back in the bottle? You can get mega, mega, mega unbelievable exposure on network TV, way more than you can on radio.

This was especially true in the states until the rise of Clear Channel...and ******** me that right there is THE most evil ******** in the entire universe. If you are going to do an assignment on the effects of MTV you absolutely must have a big footnote about clear channel!!!!

...Now we have mobile phones and this crazy frog ********. It’s the perfect format for all these tweenagers with all that disposable income...I don’t really have much hope for things to get better any time soon...

Bands.
I dont entirely agree with them buying expensive retro gear to sound retro.
The sound of a band really starts with the songs and then the vocals.
The rest is as easy as hiring the gear during the session.
It's here that the newer sound patches and modules can actually kick some serious ass.
Moog,Roland,B4 etc have all been put on offer as software and some are actually a great copy.

Here's an idea for new bands.
Play live in the studio and dont cut and paste.

Concentrate on making it sound ********ing awesome in the practice room. If you have great songs with great arrangements, great feels and can sing and play in the pocket then the recording will virtually take care of itself.

It’s that whole gear envy thing. They think that if they get the ‘cool’ gear they will be a ‘cool’ band. They end up paying thousands for maybe a 5% (and sometimes that’s very subjective) improvement.

If you have got the budget and it makes you feel good then go for the gear. Otherwise there are far smarter choices to make.

I take it that a band who can buy all the gear u mentioned had received somekind of advance,be it publishing or whatever.
This is where the pressure of the record companies can influence the decisions of a young band

It could be argued that record companies themselves are demanding a more polished,tyter sounding product,their reasoning ? -to compete with everything that's out there.I've heard it said.

I’m really against a young band taking a big advance (unless there are exceptional circumstances, like Jet or something like that). It just puts way, way too much pressure on them right from the start. There are countless examples of big money signings with massive egos on all sides going down in a great steaming heap in no time.

You are either going to gel with the public straight away or more likely your career is going to be a long hard struggle. If you are a blockbuster hit then you will make plenty of dollars anyway. If you are taking the long road and you have taken a big advance then your bottom line is going to be as ugly as hell and the label will be under pressure to cut their losses early.

All sides have just gotta be smart and sensible about the whole thing...

 

[IDGAF]

I’m really against a young band taking a big advance (unless there are exceptional circumstances, like Jet or something like that

Mantissa

LMAO

I heard after The Fauves were signed up after Future Spa , and after it went pear shaped and they were given the flick , that they owed thier record company 200k

Have heard this is a very common occurance

 

[weevil]

Mantissa

LMAO

Yeah, they were a total classic. What a train wreck.

 

[IDGAF]

Yeah, they were a total classic. What a train wreck.

I heard they were given a sum well into the 7 figures

 

[weevil]

I heard they were given a sum well into the 7 figures

I’m not sure of the exact numbers. But they are almost the perfect example of what not to do. You know the story about the guitarist and his hair? Oh look, these people are clearly insane, quick lets give him bucket loads of our money.

 

[TigerFan]

geez, maybe I should make my assignment about Payola

 

[weevil]

I heard after The Fauves were signed up after Future Spa , and after it went pear shaped and they were given the flick , that they owed thier record company 200k

Have heard this is a very common occurance

Yeah totally.

But the thing is they don’t actually owe the record company. The label gambled on the band and they lost. 9 out of 10 bands lose labels money.

 

[weevil]

they are almost the perfect example of what not to do.

...But that said there are so many classic ways to totally ******** up your career...Did someone say Shihad??? Did someone say George???

 

[Engimal v3]

"As a number of theorists are suggesting now… the interest in celebrities may be another symptom of the media’s gradual disarticulation from a model of media practice that foregrounds the dissemination of information, and its increasing alignment with a model that more directly participates in the process of disseminating, interrogating and constructing identities."

(Bonner, Farley, Marshall and Turner. ‘Celebrity and the media.’ Australian Journal of Communication 26 (1) 1999. 69)

in plain english - "the media is being dumbed down by its obsession with celebrity"


basically, I have to take that quotation and apply it to a media industry of my choosing - you may have worked out by now that I'm doing the music industry


rather than take the 'is the music industry identity-driven?' line, I'm just going to draw an instant conclusion and then focus on why.


what I want to know is, are you aware of any books/articles/websites/whatever that examine the link between television and its role in the 'dumbing down' of the music industry? because this is the line I'm going to take.


I'm basically saying that video killed the radio star


seriously though, help/comment would be greatly appreciated.

How'd this go? I'm thinking of submitting this for my own media studies class