Posts tagged music

…in early 1991, I was invited to attend a closed door meeting with a small group of music business insiders to discuss rap music’s new direction. Little did I know that we would be asked to participate in one of the most unethical and destructive business practice I’ve ever seen.

The meeting was held at a private residence on the outskirts of Los Angeles. I remember about 25 to 30 people being there, most of them familiar faces. Speaking to those I knew, we joked about the theme of the meeting as many of us did not care for rap music and failed to see the purpose of being invited to a private gathering to discuss its future. Among the attendees was a small group of unfamiliar faces who stayed to themselves and made no attempt to socialize beyond their circle. Based on their behavior and formal appearances, they didn’t seem to be in our industry. Our casual chatter was interrupted when we were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement preventing us from publicly discussing the information presented during the meeting. Needless to say, this intrigued and in some cases disturbed many of us. The agreement was only a page long but very clear on the matter and consequences which stated that violating the terms would result in job termination. We asked several people what this meeting was about and the reason for such secrecy but couldn’t find anyone who had answers for us. A few people refused to sign and walked out. No one stopped them. I was tempted to follow but curiosity got the best of me. A man who was part of the “unfamiliar” group collected the agreements from us.

Quickly after the meeting began, one of my industry colleagues (who shall remain nameless like everyone else) thanked us for attending. He then gave the floor to a man who only introduced himself by first name and gave no further details about his personal background. I think he was the owner of the residence but it was never confirmed. He briefly praised all of us for the success we had achieved in our industry and congratulated us for being selected as part of this small group of “decision makers”. At this point I begin to feel slightly uncomfortable at the strangeness of this gathering. The subject quickly changed as the speaker went on to tell us that the respective companies we represented had invested in a very profitable industry which could become even more rewarding with our active involvement. He explained that the companies we work for had invested millions into the building of privately owned prisons and that our positions of influence in the music industry would actually impact the profitability of these investments. I remember many of us in the group immediately looking at each other in confusion. At the time, I didn’t know what a private prison was but I wasn’t the only one. Sure enough, someone asked what these prisons were and what any of this had to do with us. We were told that these prisons were built by privately owned companies who received funding from the government based on the number of inmates. The more inmates, the more money the government would pay these prisons. It was also made clear to us that since these prisons are privately owned, as they become publicly traded, we’d be able to buy shares. Most of us were taken back by this. Again, a couple of people asked what this had to do with us. At this point, my industry colleague who had first opened the meeting took the floor again and answered our questions. He told us that since our employers had become silent investors in this prison business, it was now in their interest to make sure that these prisons remained filled. Our job would be to help make this happen by marketing music which promotes criminal behavior, rap being the music of choice. He assured us that this would be a great situation for us because rap music was becoming an increasingly profitable market for our companies, and as employee, we’d also be able to buy personal stocks in these prisons. Immediately, silence came over the room. You could have heard a pin drop. I remember looking around to make sure I wasn’t dreaming and saw half of the people with dropped jaws. My daze was interrupted when someone shouted, “Is this a f****** joke?” At this point things became chaotic. Two of the men who were part of the “unfamiliar” group grabbed the man who shouted out and attempted to remove him from the house. A few of us, myself included, tried to intervene. One of them pulled out a gun and we all backed off. They separated us from the crowd and all four of us were escorted outside. My industry colleague who had opened the meeting earlier hurried out to meet us and reminded us that we had signed agreement and would suffer the consequences of speaking about this publicly or even with those who attended the meeting. I asked him why he was involved with something this corrupt and he replied that it was bigger than the music business and nothing we’d want to challenge without risking consequences. We all protested and as he walked back into the house I remember word for word the last thing he said, “It’s out of my hands now. Remember you signed an agreement.” He then closed the door behind him. The men rushed us to our cars and actually watched until we drove off.

Most likely a hoax, but an interesting one. The growth of private prisons, now in the UK as well, means that increasing numbers of people benefit from the proceeds of crime. Full story here. Thank you, Fact Magazine.

The progress of humanity in the 20th century was astounding. Scientific discoveries laid the way for advances in technology which has improved the quality of life throughout the world. The power of technology was harnessed to move the focus of the arts away from painting with a brush towards novel media. Where once music was mostly bought in the form of score music, for the family to perform around the piano, it became mass produced and mass consumed.
 
In art, technology has to have heart. There is no point using it for the sake of using it. It became clear that higher and higher quality photographs could not compete artistically with images produced by a paintbrush. Similarly, although recorded music became higher and higher quality, it didn’t become any more fun to listen to. Can anyone really hear the difference between 320 kbps mp3s and a FLAC file?

Ariel Pink and his chill-dren (copyright Simon Reynolds) popularised the idea in the 2000s that perhaps something had been lost in the endless pursuit of higher and higher quality sounds at the turn of the millennium, when competing formats Super Audio CD and DVD Audio fought it out, yet failed to capture the imagination of anyone. The idea that expending greater amounts of memory for a greater number on the bitrate quality of music will necessarily provide a better experience has been thoroughly disparaged.

It’s not always possible to say which instrument is being played on ‘Psycho-Sonic’, a compendium of singles released by 60s rockers the Sonics. But it’s not about listening to which instrument is which. When I listen to this racket, I hear musicians playing and a vibe being conveyed.  When contemporary rock bands forgo modern digital tools in favour of 1960s analogue equipment, this is the sound they want to capture. It is raw, raucous and unpolished. The Sonics complain that they never satisfactorily converted their live sound into a recording which did it justice. If that is indeed the case, then they must have been sensational.

The compilation is accompanied by a thick booklet detailing the history of the Sonics, including their forebears and an interview with their official photograph. It serves as a comprehensive introduction to the group and their tracks. Covers of standards of the time like ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ and ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ are unsubtle and energising; they don’t sacrifice the momentum of the rest of the compilation in order to sound closer to the originals, they maintain the Sonics’ aesthetic of sonic overload. It’s no surprise that ‘The Witch’ has been covered by the Horrors, it its title and sound quite neatly fits the gothic angst of their first album.  If the NME’s ‘New Rock Revolution’ of The Strokes, The Hives and all the other ‘The’ bands caught you by surprise, and you wondered just where that sound came from, now you know.