It seems to me that there have only ever been periods of great musical brilliance and innovation at times when the major record labels were not involved in producing ‘product’.
The Blues was all tiny home produced labels for the black population.
Rockabilly was small labels and then destroyed by the majors,
Beatles and Dylan – a law unto themselves.
British & American sixties Underground – so not understood that the majors left them to it.
Punk – a return to the minor labels.
Whenever ‘big business’ get their mitts on it they sanitise, overproduce, become formulaic, reduce to the lowest common denominator, try not to offend, dumb down and basically rip the balls out of it.
In the face of that you get the emergence of raw brilliance like The North Mississippi Allstars, White Stripes, Jake Bugg, or PJ Harvey who produce something raw and imaginative.
The great tunes have not all been written but they are getting very few and far between in this present age. I think the main thing is that the passion, idealism and political zeal are not there at the moment. We need a new cause for people to believe – something to unify and fight against. There’s plenty to choose from! There’s a whole planet out there needs saving; where’s the new Punk, the new Dylan?
The Major Record Labels are strangling Rock Music!
