While listening to Sirius XM’s “The 80′s on 8″ I heard original MTV VJ Mark Goodman go on about John Mellencamp “speaking the truth” at the Grammy Museum.
Now Mr. Mellencamp is not just some aging rocker quietly collecting royalties from songs about “little pink houses” in order to pay for his daughter’s equestrian habit. No, Mr. Mellencamp is called an activist by the Huffington Post, which allowed him the space 18 months ago to vent his spleen about all that is wrong with the music business.
Mellencamp complains about the “culture of greed” and the “Wall Streeting” of the industry, “the artists were no longer the primary concern; only keeping their stockholders fat and happy and ‘making the quarterly numbers’ mattered; the music was an afterthought.”
The CD was “born out of greed,” he writes. He compares the music business to Reagan’s trickle-down economics. “The same holds for music. It doesn’t trickle down; it percolates up from the artists, from word of mouth, from the streets and rises up to the general populace.”
So, the internet should be great for artists, right? They can write songs, preform them, reach an audience, develop a following: controlling their own destiny on a shoe-string budget. No need to sell out and slave away for the corporate record company “Man”.
Well, no, says the guy who campaigned for Obama and helped Willie Nelson put on the Farm Aid concerts.
“I think the Internet is the most dangerous thing invented since the atomic bomb. [...] It’s destroyed the music business. It’s going to destroy the movie business,” said Mr. Mellencamp.
Free downloads to MP3s have destroyed sound quality, he complains, “the warmth and quality of what the artist intended for us to hear was so vastly different.”
And if all of that isn’t catastrophic enough, “some smart people, the China-Russians or something” may have already conquered America by hacking into the power grid and financial system, the rocker-philosopher speculates.
And there’s winners and there’s losers
But they ain’t no big deal
Bombs away.
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That’s pretty weird given that the internet is what allows anyone to buy, for example, a JCM mug or buy tickets to his concerts, and much more found http://www.mellencamp.com/
Ohh?! I gotta rush off and buy me some of that stuff! NOT!
Has John Mellencamp ever heard of FLAC or Lossless WMA?
That’s about par philosophy for most artists, in that business. Their screed is always chalked full of inconsistencies. Wanting to blame “The Man”, usually corporate, or something to that effect. Kinda goes with the landscape of artists. All the bands I enjoy musically have a Marxist bent for the most part. I wouldn’t look to any of them for Truth or Philosophy, that’s for sure.
Their is something wrong with Pop Music though. Pretty darn lazy now, IMHO. I think it’s just all been done to death, No barriers left. Nobody stands out at all. I suppose the IP talk on here, might have some bearing on it’s demise.
John Cougar sucks, he’ll never be as good as The Dave Brockie Experience.
Dear god, what a dinosaur. I’ve always keenly disliked him and his banal music. Fade away, old boring dinosaur, you don’t matter, nor your cliched, antiquated thoughts on the industry.
Here, here!
Is that you Casey? GWAR RULE! I mean really, what can top that stuff today? Same with the Plasmatics, Skinny Puppy, Iggy Pop, etc.!
Don’t forget the X-Cops.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Cops
He dropped the corporate “John Cougar” long ago. Just Mellencamp now. He ought drop the Mellencamp too. Change his name to a symbol like “Prince” and be forgotten about already.
Ick.
Maybe his music doesn’t sell because it’s awful.
I was unaware that the internet was capable of incinerating hundreds of thousands of people in a flash.
I am always amused by so-called “progressives” who actually hate progress. They despise it. If Mellencamp hated the direction in which the industry was going, why did he not start his own label? That is the entrepreneurial spirit. I mean, ain’t that America?
I am always amused by so-called “progressives” who actually hate progress.
Why would anyone expect anything different. The so-called “progressives” want to keep the entire world at the 7th century permanently.
So, his whole philosophy is boils down to the idea that record labels take too big of a share of an artist’s sales.
Not very philosophical, that.
It’s hard to take someone seriously that actually says “China-Russians”.
hah! die with the state, mellencamp! don’t you know it hurts so good
Nice!
Based on these comments, JCM probably thinks the reason his sales have gone down over the years is solely because of the internet. What’s worse, he just informed the handful of aging hicks that would actually buy an album of his that they’re able to download it off the internet.Music’s gone downhill because it’s all about the the money and greed now…but he’s complaining that he’s not getting more money. -What next? An obese millionaire producing movies bashing health care and capitalism?
nine-inch nails offers free download in hd wave, superior to cd. so quality depends only on the artist embracing the internet paradigm.
Sold any trucks lately?
I like some of Mellencamp’s songs. It’s a shame really. He’s like Prince, who I also like, but who is also a total lunatic on this subject. Of course, it could be worse. Prince sues his own fans who dare to make fan websites, whereas Mellencamp just whines.
Also, Mark Goodman is seriously old school in terms of MTV VJ’s. He’s like first generation, and they’re on something like generation 16 or 17. In terms of modern MTV, the man is a fossil. I like how he says Mellencamp is, “speaking the truth.” It really shows where he is on the scale of understanding and intelligence. He rates real low.
The fact that so many older media types hate the internet makes me love it even more.
In the comments to one of the articles you can find this link: Four Chords Song by Axis of Awesome. Next time someone tries to convince me how copy is “the same” as the original I’ll have just one more reason to laugh.
Thanks Peter, that was really good.
I had heard something similar to this, but this one was good, too. Pop music thrives on similarity, just not TOO similar.
And another thank you, as well. This is wonderful.
Genius in simplicity.
How I envy you young folks out there. The creativity, the innovation….
So much greatness ahead, decades and centuries to come.
Our lives are just too damn short.
Good for them; this is just marvelous.
i am so much glad to read that
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