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| From | Beth2459@aol.com |
| Subject | THE WAY THE MUSIC DIED |
| Date | Wed, 19 May 2004 08:28:56 EDT |
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Thought Auditeers would like a heads up on this program- sure looks
interesting!
As a side note, if anyone is able to videotape it for me I would gladly pay
postage etc- ironically enough, as the show is being aired about the demise of
the music industry, Cliff will be playing a gig.
beth
PRESS RELEASE:
PBS Airdate: Thursday, May 27, at 9 P.M.,
PBS 60 minutes
In the recording studios of Los Angeles and the boardrooms of New York,
they say the record business has been hit by a perfect storm: a
convergence of industry-wide consolidation, Internet theft, and artistic
drought.
The effect has been the loss of billions of dollars, thousands of jobs, and
that indefinable quality that once characterized American pop music.
"It's a classic example of art and commerce colliding and nobody wins," says
Nic Harcourt, music director at Los Angeles's KCRW-FM. "It's just a train
wreck." In "The Way the Music Died," airing Thursday, May 27, at 9 P.M.
on PBS (check local listings), FRONTLINER follows the trajectory of the
recording industry from its post-Woodstock heyday in the 1970s and 1980s
to what one observer describes as a "hysteria" of mass layoffs and
bankruptcy in 2004. "This is the story of how the pressures to perform
financially
have affected the ability of many pop musicians to make the art they
want," says FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk. "The starkness of the difference
between the environment that exists in the midst of this 'perfect storm'
and the way the business once operated is nothing short of astonishing."
The documentary tells its story through the aspirations and experiences
of four artists: veteran musician David Crosby, who has seen it all in a
career spanning 35 years; songwriter/producer Mark Hudson, a former
member of The Hudson Brothers band; Hudson's daughter, Sarah, who is about to
release her first single and album; and a new rock band, Velvet
Revolver, composed of former members of the rock groups Guns n' Roses and
Stone
Temple Pilots, whose first album will be released in June. But how will
these artists fare at a time when the record industry is clearly
hurting?
"It's a big moment," says Melinda Newman, West Coast bureau chief for
Billboard magazine. "There are about 30,000 albums released a year,
maybe a hundred are hits. Sales have fallen from $40 billion to $28 billion
in
just three years." FRONTLINE follows the trends in the record business that
led to unprecedented growth of more than 20 percent per year in the 25 years
following the industry watershed at Woodstock. Crosby, for example,
recalls how his new band's album made millions after Crosby, Stills, and Nash
performed at the legendary rock concert. "It was the moment when all
that generation of hippies looked at each other and said, 'Wait a minute!
We're not a fringe element. There's millions of us! We're what's happening
here,'" Crosby tells FRONTLINE. FRONTLINE follows the career of rocker
Mark Hudson, whose group The Hudson Brothers began as a 1970s rock band. "It
was post-Woodstock, pre-disco, pre-MTV. So it was a point when music still
had truckloads of integrity," Hudson tells FRONTLINE. "Somebody was getting
ready to exploit rock and roll." Hudson tells his story of how the
business changed him and how The Hudson Brothers ended up becoming TV stars
as
the summer replacement for the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour. In the early
1980s, MTV fueled a further explosion of interest and seemed to broaden the
appeal of rock music. But surprisingly, there are those who now argue MTV was
a
negative force. "What it did really is make the business a one trick
pony and everything became about the three minutes, the single, the hit
single," entertainment attorney Michael Guido tells FRONTLINE. "I think
the album died with MTV. The culture in the record companies in the last
twenty years has been to reward artists for three minutes of music, not for
forty minutes of music." Some critics fear that the industry's need for quick
hits has made it difficult for more adventurous artists to offer the
unique sounds and challenging themes that have long been the hallmark of the
best album artists. FRONTLINE also examines the effect of consolidation of
ownership on the music industry. "What you had were these people who had
been tremendous entrepreneurs bought up by a multi-conglomerate,"
Billboard's Newman says. "And it just changes the complexion. The whole
way you're having to make decisions is based on different models." Michael
"Blue" Williams, manager of the Grammy Award-winning OutKast, agrees.
"We're run by corporations now," he says. "We have accountants running
two of four majors now, and they don't get it. It's a numbers game. And
musichas always been a feelings game." The consolidation of the radio
industry also negatively impacted the recording industry, observers say.
"Thousands of radio stations changed hands, and companies that wanted to
really get
on radio were able to pull up some enormous multibillion dollar mergers,"
Los Angeles Times reporter Jeff Leeds tells FRONTLINE. "Suddenly a company
that once owned three dozen stations could suddenly own a thousand."
With programming decisions centralized at the corporate level, most
stations follow a mandated play list. In some cases, it's just fourteen
songs per week leaving little airtime for the introduction of new
artists.
FRONTLINE profiles Mark Hudson's daughter singer/songwriter Sarah Hudson
as she prepares to release her first album at a time when the music
industry is struggling. "For any new artist, the odds are almost
insurmountable.
I think if they knew the odds, they would never get in the first place.
You know, the vast, vast majority of records go absolutely no where," Newman
says. Vying with Hudson for a place on the Billboard charts is Velvet
Revolver, a "super band" backed by RCA Records, a label that is betting
heavily on the group. FRONTLINE follows the marketing of the band as its
members struggle to return to the spotlight. Velvet Revolver's manager
says success takes more than an expensive video and a marketing campaign.
"It's still all about the kids. If the kids want to request it, it gets
played
more and more. The more it gets played, the more people buy. The more
people buy, the more records they sell. The more records they sell,
shazam, you're a rock star," David Codikow says.
"The Way the Music Died" is a FRONTLINE co-production with the Kirk
Documentary Group. The producer, writer, and director is Michael Kirk.
FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS.
Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers.
Additional support is provided by U.S. News & World Report.
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