Music Industry Bullshit: Its All The Same

It all sounds the bloody same!!!

How many times have we heard people say that? Whether its indie kids complaining about hip-hop, metal kids criticizing dance music, junglists dissing techno or old people moaning about more or less any form of modern music, the "it all sounds the same" argument gets thrown around quite a lot. For the most part there's some truth in it.

Lets look at the pop charts, here we have an endless stream of "artists" manufactured to some extent to fit perfectly into a particular sound and sell as many records as possible. It may be middle of the road whiny alt-pop like Coldplay making sombre depressing music for people that have never really known true misery, gangsta-pop rappers like 50 Cent knocking out the same lyrics about girls, guns and money over identikit beats, obviously manufactured all-style-no-substance pop stars like Lady Ga-Ga singing generic auto-tuned hits about how sexy they are or any one of the hundreds of NME-favoured/Kerrang!-endorsed, rock/punk/indie/emo bands churning out teen-angst anthems for kids too young to remember Kurt Cobain yet treating him like some sort of saint.

Its always the same, find a formula that works and repeat until no-one cares any more then move onto the next big thing. Record company executives take no shame in their blatant destruction of music art in the name of big business.

Of course, we're all freethinking underground people, we can laugh at how rubbish the music industry is, but are we really any better? Take any genre and you will find the same thing happening on a smaller scale. Producers knocking out formulaic tunes, using the same sample packs and software synths as each other. The beats rarely deviate from the established template, the structure is generally the same. Maybe its that 4/4 techno kick with a few sequenced arps or acid loops, that current favourite that is sidechained bass or pads, the wobbly bassline and half-step beats in the occasionally original dubstep scene, reece and amen tearouts in drum n bass, i could go on.

With vinyl sales dwindling and digital downloads hardly showing much in the way of profits its not entirely surprising that record labels, both large and small, are reluctant to invest time and money into artists that deviate too far from the tried and tested. Major labels are finding that the only stuff that sells in large quantities are those indistinguishable, glossy manufactured pop acts, or those artists already well established in their own right. Similarly, independent labels are only really interested in finding acts that fit comfortably in their genre specific roster. Dance labels want tunes that will work well on a dancefloor and hopefully sell to enough DJs for it to be worth the investment, hence the focus on stuff that sounds like the stuff thats already being played. Even many of the most experimental of dance labels have found their own particular flavour of experimentation to stick to.

So, yeah... It does all sound the same. Why is this pissing me off so much?

Honestly, i have sent copies of the new EP out to all sorts of electronic/breakbeat labels, some well established, others less so. Not one of those fuckers has bothered to get back to me, no feedback at all. I spent hours listening to practically identical breaks tunes on trackitdown.net trying to find labels that might just be interested in the Infected Minds sound. Very few... And most of those were foreign. Its all just the same old shit, it really does all sound the fucking same! Actually its depressing to hear the amount of tunes being released with the same beat, the same "Brutal Electro" synth sounds, the same old Vengeance samples. Does no-one care about innovating anymore?

Well, fuck em! I thought for a while before that i wanted to release my own shit, retain full control over my music. Kinda got talked out of that mindset, but since none of the labels i've tried want to know, then i've got no choice.

And you know what, i quite like it this way. At least i can put Deadline out at a reasonable price now. Its a bit late for the summer but better late than never. I know its gonna involve a lot more work for me but thats the way it goes. I've got a few things on for the rest of the week, but if all goes to plan Deadline will be out to download very soon for a good price. I need some decent cover art if anyone cares to donate some, but aside from that its ready to go.

Ahhh, how to end a pretty angry post on a positive note.

Peace, all. Shaun. X

Boredom- The Great Pacifier

You ever get that feeling when you just want something to happen? Anything... You know you could go out and do something, make some excitement for yourself but you just can't be arsed.

That's boredom for you. I shouldn't complain really, i've had a couple of great weekends recently. Thjis year's Glade was probably the best yet, Secret Garden Party turned out to be another great festie aswell. Its not like i've been sat around twiddling my thumbs for the last month. Nevertheless there is a real feeling of boredom. I've even found it hard to muster up the energy to actually sit here and type.

I've said it before, misery breeds apathy. Its like i'm actually too bored to even complain about boredom. I could blame the weather, actually to a great extent i do blame the weather. Once again Britain is suffering another shit summer, its grey and wet outside just like yesterday and no doubt the same as tomorrow. A little bit of sunshine does wonders, no such luck here then.

Being skint sucks! I can't afford to do anything interesting, i can't afford a social life. All i can do is sit here and feel bad as my not-very-profitable business goes down the pan. Even that's a catch-22, working in a dead-end job for some faceless corporation is surely one of the most depressing, soul destroying, worthless ways to spend your time yet it seems the simplest way right now to relieve boredom and earn money.

What about my music then? Well, i'm still trying (albeit not hard enough) to get this last EP signed. I've got some ideas i'm working on for new stuff but nothing even close to finished. Oh well...

So what was the point of me posting all this, then? I'm not really too sure, to be honest. I just wanted to try and do something. Its all too easy to just sit here and follow the same routines as every other day. Its a vicious circle. The title sums it all too well, boredom is the great pacifier, a self-perpetuating sedative. Sometimes it feels like the only way to relieve the boredom is to do something else equally boring and uninspiring.

Anyway, thats enough for today. I reckon its time i got on and actually did something interesting! I promise to cheer up next time you hear from me.

Shaun

New track up for free download

Just a little freebie i want to share.

The track is untitled and is the result of some college coursework during the last year, a collaboration between myself and Danny Unkut under the name of Winalot.

The idea was to engineer and produce a track in the college studio featuring other musicians, the most notable of whom is the excellent vocalist Ruth Royall whose contribution holds this track together.

Myself and Danny did the synth parts, i did some piano and Danny did most of the scratching. Other guests are Mark Fairclough on drums, Paul Quinn on piano and Peter Richardson on the turntables. It was recorded last winter.

This is the Infected Minds mix, my own take on the recording with my own arrangement and FX. Danny Unkut has his own mix which is quite deifferent and should be up on his MySpace player at some point, if not already.

I hope you enjoy it, free download from either MySpace or ReverbNation. Feel free to share it or do whatever you want with it. This is in no way related to any forthcoming Infected Minds releases so don't expect a polished version of it to arrive later. It is what it is. Enjoy!

Is Michael Jackson really dead?

The news of Jacko's death is truly sad. He was a musical genius and a true legend, as such he will be greatly missed. He leaves behind some genuinely great music and a legacy as one of the most amazing performers that ever lived. He has earned his place in the history books and deserves to be remembered for the awesome talent that he was.

That said, and with all respect to Jackson and his loved ones, i'm not entirely sure i believe he is really dead. Call me a conspiracy theorist but it all seems a bit suspicious. I've thought for a while that if anyone was going to fake their own death, Jacko would be the ideal candidate. Like a lot of people i was doubtful that he'd be able to pull off 50 nights at the O2, and i suspect he knew it himself. If he really was as ill as we have been led to believe he could surely never have thought that he could perform anywhere near the standard he used to in his heyday. I've personally been very skeptical about whether he'd even play one night for several months now.

The public persona of Michael Jackson aka Jacko aka The King of Pop was very much a character, none of us truly knew what he was really like. We only ever saw him as either the singer/dancer or the media figure. Did he really sleep in that glass tank? Was his best friend really a monkey? The Wacko Jacko image certainly added to his mystery and intrigue throughout the 80s and early 90s. It didn't do his career any harm at the time either. Of course as Wacko Jacko transformed into the troubled artist searching for his lost youth, it all started to go wrong. People will forever question whether or not the allegations about his involvement with kids were true. No-one really knows but everyone has an opinion on it. Whatever, Jackson has consistently remained a superstar and has never been out of the spotlight for long.

But what about the real man, what do we actually know about him? Very little, it seems. In my opinion, Jackson has always been a shrewd man, he wouldn't have been as successful as he was if he didn't know what he was doing. He's made some very smart business moves in his time, the sort that just don't fit with the Jacko we've seen in the media.

Faking his own death could be hugely profitable, it seems that there are going to be some considerable problems with refunds. I don't know the figures but i'm sure that a significant proportion of those 750,000 tickets have been traded through or by resellers and touts effectively voiding their warranty. Regardless, it appears that these refunds are the responsibility of the promoters and their insurance companies, not Jackson who no doubt received a large advance. Every radio station is playing his music which will earn his estate a vast sum in broadcast and publishing royalties. No doubt we will see a wave of best of albums, tributes and collectors box sets over the next few years, maybe even a Hollywood movie of his life. I wouldn't be surprised if the Michael Jackson estate re-acquires Neverland and turns it into a Jacko shrine which will inevitably attract thousands of paying visitors every day. It could be one of the greatest scams ever pulled.

He certainly went out well. Rather than fading as a broken man or fallen icon before ultimately passing away isolated and alone, Jackson's last days will be remembered as a genuine a-list star. The sort of superstar who can sell out 750,000 tickets for a residency in London. The star who pushed himself beyond his own limits because he wanted to put on the best show he could. He may not have actually performed but its easy now to remember what a great talent he really was, to remember him for his exceptional music. And that is exactly how we should, because it's the one thing we really do know about him.

If Michael Jackson, the man, is still alive then Jacko, the superstar is dead. We'll never hear from him again, he'll never record any more music, never appear infront of an audience again. If he is still alive maybe he really does just want to be left alone now, to grow old in peace. The only way he could ever achieve that would be to convince the world that he's dead. And surely, he deserves that right. Maybe its not a scam after all, maybe its Jacko's last word, his final exit, the only way he knew he could go out with any dignity.

A lot of people feel very sad today, and those grieving for the loss of their hero should grieve, this is the only way and the only time we can say goodbye to someone who has given so much pleasure to so many people, someone who has inspired and influenced many generations.

Regardless of anything i have suggested, this is the end of an era. My full respects go out to Jackson, his family, friends and fans. My apologies to anyone offended by my timing here, it truly is a sad day. Whether Jackson the man is alive or not, Jacko the superstar, the King of Pop passed away yesterday and he will be truly missed. May he rest in peace.

The legend may be dead but the legacy lives on.

Hey, Whats Been Happening?

I've been keeping a pretty low profile over the last few months, apart from an occasional blog and the odd tweet it probably looks like i've completely disappeared. Put simply i've been busy, you may know that i've been working on a new EP, that in itself has taken longer than i'd hoped but its more or less ready now. The main bulk of my time lately has been taken up with college coursework.

In case you didn't know i've spent the last two years studying music production at Access To Music in Bristol (CMP level 3), and its finally close to finished. For the record i should be on for a distinction. :) The whole course has been truly great, my production skills have improved significantly as has my own source of inspiration and sense of direction, next year i'm going to be taking the ADP level 4 course at Access To Music BANM in London which should be interesting and hopefully equally rewarding. For what its worth though i would highly recommend the CMP course for anyone interesting in making tunes, its government funded which means it costs next to nothing to do which is even better. Visit the website here.

Anyway, the last few months have been pretty hectic with a serious amount of coursework being due, the EP i have been promising has tied in with one particular unit at college, although thats done and dusted i felt like i needed to take a break for a couple of weeks before revisiting it and fixing a few fundamental problems with a couple of the tracks, i've also taken this as an opportunity to improve upon my mastering.

Honestly, i'm really quite pleased with how this new material sounds, its miles ahead from the demo-quality stuff i knocked out on Prelude (i'll talk more about that some other time) and a lot more dancefloor orientated. The beats are heavier and there's no pianos this time. I'm looking forward to getting it out there. I won't be releasing it as a freebie this time though, i wanna get it signed and out to a wider audience, we'll see how that goes.

I have got a free track i'll upload over the next few days though, its a collaboration i did at college with Danny Unkut featuring Ruth Royall on vocals and a few other guest players, its a bit slower than everything else but i hope you like it.

Aside from that, i'm working on a new website. If you've visited the current one, you'll notice that it hasn't changed much over the last 6 months. The new website is wordpress based and will become my main blog (i'll continue using the MySpace blog but i'll probably ditch the blogspot one). Aside from that, i will attempt to finish the Virtual Reality blog series i started and semi-abandoned over the next few weeks. Finally, i've also got a little bootleg project that i'll be unleashing this summer which i hope everyone will like.

Anyway, now i've got a bit more time to chill you will probably hear a lot more from me. The sun's out and summer's here at last, no more complaining about the weather. Take it easy.

The Drug Laws do not Work

(a copy of my reply to the discussion at myspace.com/commentuk)


We all know the drug laws don't work. But the harsh reality is that illegal drugs are big business, the second most profitable industry after weapons. If drugs were legal they would be a lot cheaper, they cost as much as they do simply because they are illegal. Big business rules this world and there are powerful influential "organisations" that make a LOT of money from illegal drugs and i'm not talking about street dealers.

The big businesses running the drugs trade don't want them to be legalised because that would seriously cut their profits. Instead we have a ridiculous system in the UK, and the rest of the world that criminalizes innocent people but is never actually effective in wiping out drugs.

The first step should be to allow cultivation for personal consumption of cannabis in reasonable quantities. There is significant evidence that cannabis use can have positive medicinal use for a wide range of illnesses, both physical and mental. But of course, the big pharmaceutical companies don't want you growing your own medicines because that would ruin their profits.

Ultimately, all drugs should be legal. The current system does not work for the people. While drugs are illegal, drug related crime will continue to be a problem in society as heroin and crack addicts will still be driven to theft, violence and prostitution to fund their habits. All the while, recreational drug users, many of whom contribute much to society through work and art, are forced to continue buying drugs from street dealers and ultimately funding organised crime.

We all know the drug laws don't work, but those laws don't exist for our benefit.

Some More Thoughts on Piracy

Considering the recent verdict on the Pirate Bay trial, the subject of piracy is one of much debate currently. I'm taking a break from the Virtual Reality series to look more closely at piracy and how ridiculous this whole verdict is.

The first thing I think needs to be mentioned is that the “victory” for the music industry is not a victory for musicians, nor is it a victory for copyright protection as many of us perceive it. I seriously doubt that any artists will see a penny from this, even if the fine does get paid it will end up in the pockets of record labels and publishers, the businessmen who have been controlling the industry for too long. That's what the music industry is, a very big and until now hugely profitable business.

The whole case has been clouded in this idea of morality, that copyright needs to protected for the sake of the artists, piracy is theft and anyone who actively partakes in piracy is not only a criminal, but a hugely immoral person. No decent person wants to steal from their friends, or indeed anyone they respect, the industry has tried to convince us that we are stealing from the artists we respect and admire, and we should be ashamed of ourselves. As I demonstrated in the previous post here, piracy as a form of theft is very different to stealing a physical item from your mates.

I'm not saying that artists are not suffering as a result of file-sharing, they are. There is a lot of independent music on small labels (or even self-financed) that can be downloaded illegally. These aren't successful pop stars, or big corporate labels, these are skint people just like you or me, struggling to make a living out of something they love. But this verdict has done nothing for them, no-one has been defending their rights, or trying to seek compensation for their losses. Like I said, this is about the big corporate side of the music industry.

Artists have been getting shafted by record labels and the like for too long. You think when you go out and buy a CD you are supporting the musicians involved? The small percentage of royalties the artist is entitled to only goes toward paying off the debt that artist owes to the label who loaned them the money to record the album in the first place. That debt is re-coupable only from record sales, if no-one buys the album, the artist doesn't have to pay it back. Axl Rose's Chinese Democracy cost Geffen $13m to record, it will never sell enough to pay back that debt. But Axl has lost nothing whether you buy it or copy it. That money could have been spent on better things (although I actually do like the album), but nevertheless I have to admire Axl for turning the tables on his label like that.

Rarely do successful artists “own” their music, the label owns the recordings, the publisher owns the copyright of the songs. Artists are tied to contracts forcing them to compromise their own artistic integrity just to meet deadlines and help the big boys make money. If you ask me, its about time for the whole system to change. Radiohead and NIN have recently proved that giving away music can be good for both artist and fans. If and when this greedy capitalistic music industry does collapse I for one will shed no tears.

Its time for the artists to regain their power, advancements in technology have made it possible for high quality professional studios to be set up in bedrooms and garages, the internet has opened up many new methods for inexpensive distribution and promotion. Music is art, not business. The need for major record labels is not so great any more. Fat-Cats getting rich off the talents of others should start to worry. Nothing could liberate music and musicians more than the death of this industry.

So, was this really a victory? I don't think so. Its just Napster all over again. Nothing changes, people will continue to share information freely just like we always have done. Artists will have to think differently if they want to be successful, embrace the future and learn from the past.

Music fans should support the artists by going to more gigs, buying merchandise, donating money if they can. Request your favourite Radio Djs to play your favourite up n coming artists, not the same old manufactured rubbish. Try to pay for underground music on independent labels via their own websites when you can (digital shops often take a large cut). But most importantly love the music you download, whether you have paid for it or not. Ultimately, any genuine artist does this because they enjoy it and they want other people to enjoy it too.

Pirate Bay may be the latest scapegoat for an industry that values its shareholders pockets over its artists livelihoods, but this industry's days are numbered. Don't fall victim to these capitalist lies and dubious claims of morality. The Pirate Bay are not the villains here, record labels were ripping off artists and stealing music long before file-sharing came about, and they'll continue to if we let them.