Thoughts on blogging, MP3s and commercial success
Many a music blog has been mentioning the Top 40 Bands in America Today list over on Information Leafblower. The list reads like something one would find in CMJ or possibly in Rolling Stone on a good month. It has just enough edgy bands to balance out the the insanely commercial bands. I qualify that with insanely because when applying the word “commercial” to a band these day, it is a big grey area. Sub Pop Records has mastered the use of product placement, just look at The Shins and The Postal Service. The Shins were not only used in a McDonald’s commercial, we witnessed the power of their music bringing two people together in Garden State. The Postal Service also played a key role in the above mentioned film (hearing “Such Great Heights” in the trailer is probably why I went to the movie) and can now be heard pouring out of windows of frat houses as you walk through frat row here in Madison. It also couldn’t hurt that uberhip TV show the O.C. has featured songs from both the Shins and Postal Service frontman Ben Gibbard‘s primary act, Death Cab for Cutie. Bands selling their songs for commercial use seems to have lost a lot of the “sell-out” stigma that it held just a few years ago.
When I was at UConn I wrote a story for the student paper about this very issue. At the time The Shins were just in that McDonald’s commercial, Ladybug Transistor had a song in a Citibank commercial, Looper was in a Intel commercial and the Cat Power cover of “Sea of Love” was in a MetLife commercial. It was a BIG issue back then. I had qualms with it until I spoke with Ladybug Transistor. The way they framed it was if they could make a chunk of change in one commercial, it would give them more time to spend in the studio fine tuning their next album. If I do my math right the commercial came out in early January, so the result of that studio time would be the critically acclaimed “The Long Goodbye.” So I guess if I spoke with them now they would say “the proof is in the pudding.” They might actually say something a bit less cliche, but who really knows…except them? I guess I could call. I digress.
Where I was going with all of this is that it’s interesting to see a band like Metallica on the list. If this was the 80s, I’m sure Metallica would belong right up there at the top. I can’t argue with albums like Ride the Lightning, Kill ‘em All or Master of Puppets, but I can certainly argue with anything released after the Black Album. I suppose that I could cut them some slack and say that when they were leading the charge against Napster they were important. It was a defining moment because agree with them or not, they were one of the few bands to take a stand on either side of the issue. Everyone else held their tongues and waited (and still are in many cases) for the whole thing to sort itself out.
It’s interesting though, because I think things are sorting out. We are coming upon an era of responsible downloading. MP3 blogs are a testament to that. I still stand on the side of the argument that downloading songs is only bad for the music industry as long as they fight it. It’s interesting how the country sliding into a recession and the explosion of p2p technology happened at the same time. The RIAA never once conceded that “yeah, maybe this whole lack of disposable income thing may be contributing to the decline in CD sales.” I have only found one case where former RIAA chair Hillary Rosen said that the slow reaction of the dinosaurs to understand the power of the Internet could be contributing to the decline. For years they chose to fight it instead of embracing it.
I buy tons of CDs each year and I used to use Kazaa like a crack fiend. My purchases never declined, in fact, they probably have increased. I stopped using Kazaa, because I was tired of having spyware put on my computer. Now my computer is clean and faster because I purged all of the junk that was placed on my property without my consent.
The great thing about MP3 blogs is I can share a song and tell people about the artist as well as point them in the direction of the full album. I have also noticed that it is rare for bloggers to post a song just for the purpose of badmouthing it. It seems like a positive win-win situation. I already mentioned that bands like the Shins and the Postal Service have boosted their sales because of commercial use of their songs, but my main point is they can also contribute a huge amount of their success to the Internet community. Gibbard has become a cultural phenomena and I see James Mercer (of the Shins) following suit. Even if their individual projects dissolve, they are sure to endure for years as solo artists.
With all of that said, I bring you the song of the day. This is a new song from Mercer that was played on October 10,2004 at the Moonshine Festival in Laguna Beach, California. Easytree has a torrent of his entire set in SHN format. As always right click, save target as…
James Mercer (of the Shins) :: Won One Too Many Fights
