Towering Inferno

Rant on muzak!

Hey! Whose this "ditto" guy???

Amazing how much great stuff you find Mark. I loved today's show. Thanks again!

Cmon MArk! Id never bite ditto!
 ...again.

Ok.. on to finish the show...

Mark...speak it brother. The muzak industry is in flux...the soonerthey come to grips the better.

Labels suck. Thats one reason eclectic bands are on the rise.

Listening to the show as I type. I use to listen to a lot of radio at work, until I got my Ipod of course. How I survived the work day before I have no idea.

A couple of thoughts about today's show...

Would The Beatles be as succesful if they came out today rather than the 60s? That's a good question and you raised some interesting ideas that maybe they wouldn't make it as big since back in the day there were only a handful of record labels and they controlled the distribution for what you could hear. Also, as you mention, English rock 'n' roll was exotic to yanks as was blues to the Brits.

It's a hypothetical question which requires a hypothetical answer.

These days there are trends to what people will listen to. For a few years it was big hair metal, then grunge, then boy bands, etc. If The Beatles released a CD during, say, a boy band phase, they would most likely be ignored. On the other hand, The beatles were so good that maybe they might kick off a trend of their own.

You could say that trends existed and you would certainly be correct but I would contend that because that era of rock was so new that there really weren't any ground rules for how a band was supposed to sound or what their songs should be about and The Beatles always pushed the envelope of those nominal notions.

These days we have a fair idea what a punk or hip hop CD is going to sound like before we even listen to it. When Sgt. Pepper's and Pet Sounds came out noithing like that had ever been heard before and it blew people's minds.

Also, let's not forget that The Beatles consisted of four incredibly talented musicians where being in a band really brought their collective geniuses out. The White Album is just as fresh today as it was back then. Hell, I'm not really a fan of anything before Rubber Soul but that shit still rocks!

You also made some interesting comments about how sites like MySpace are rendering rock critics useless. I would have to disagree. There is a deluge of music and people still need critics, DJs and podcasters to act as filters. The old addage that 99% of anything is crap is very true and it's up to people like us to sift through the garbage to find that rare nugget of music that everyone gathers around and says "oooOOOooo!"

What MySpace has changes is that now everyone is a critic and that tastemaking can from the bottom up as well as from the top to the bottom. But even so, someone on MySpace has to be regarded as reliable or in the know for their observations to be taken seriously. For example, if some gal on the street said Billy Bob Banjo and his Blue Mountain Boys were the bee's knees you'd be dubious but if someone like, oh, I don't know, me, said it, you might be inclined to download their songs or purchase one of their CDs.

In closing, I would like to announce that I am four months of way from fulfilling my New Year's resolution for '06, which is that I refuse to buy any corporate music. Hell, I won't even illegally download it. The music industry is evil, evil, evil and I refuse to particpate. And I don't have to thanks to all the bands who are indie or on indie labels that are not subsidized by major corporations making great music available to the likes of you and me.

I urge you all to make this your resolution for '07!