A first hand account of the Music Industry from The Music's Rob Harvey

Taken from Rob Harvey's blog.  

A friend inspired me to write this. Recently i have had time to reflect on the 'industry' i've ended up in, and the way music is sold and listened to in so many different parts of the world. Its amazing how far things have come in one sense but how far things have fallen away in another. Its not just music though, its art in general. How something can go from being so personal and just an image or idea in someone's mind, to suddenly being in millions of homes and minds across the world. Mind blowing really. Makes me question why i do this.

And still the answer is that i'm trying to find some way to get something out, expression I suppose. Some people question what I do sometimes and dont understand that being a part of The Music or writing blogs on here are to me an attempt to show people that they are not alone. This is not for personal reasons or gain. Obviously I want to survive and be able to make music, but it is not to show "my talents", its for empathy. Because somehow i might feel alone like someone else and we might just find a way of helping each other. For a while things became focused on a "career" and "how do we get this thing bigger - how do we make it sell more". To be honest both those things are irrelevant to me. What really matters to me are people and making the most of my time i have here. I am not going to take my life for granted. I want to see the world and write music and talk about life through my eyes. It's simply in an attempt to understand it a little more. We cant help who we are...... After recently playing a festival, i can see that things have changed dramatically. Kids no longer sing the words to songs. They are singing melodies,bass lines and hooks that have been driven into the psyche. Suddenly the meaning and emotion invested in the song originally, becomes a by product of it. Well i guess this has happened for a while, thinking about it. It seems as if the art has gone into the selling of a song instead of being the song. These days we can sell anything. Tv and radio seem scared again of playing anything remotely thought provoking. The mainstream is now very conservative. Its almost as if some parts of history never happened. Where are the people with taste, pride and dignity? Whenever i talk about these things i get accused of taking myself and this expression too seriously. Maybe i do. The people who inspired me to start doing this like, Bob Marley, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and Bruce Lee, all took what they did very seriously. All died trying to find themselves in this world and open doors in peoples minds. All we do is take what they did and sell it....it seems so anyway, because where are those values and existing beliefs now? The 'industry' does not seem to be in a very good place now. My advice to anyone who can help change it would be to think beyond their own gain or get the fuck out! They attempted to do a lot for music and for "their" people. They worked hard and played harder. Even bands like Radiohead and Coldplay who i have the upmost respect for seem to be doing weird things like, giving their music away? Its sounds great and dead hippy but the reality of the situation is it is not so great for the smaller up and coming bands on labels who have no money to even tour. It seems easy to do that if you're already secure, and i suppose it's just people reacting to the reality of the way things are and that people get music for free anyway. But how are we going to keep producing art that's exciting and new if we are taking the value away to the point that people can't even survive to do it. It's a confusing time and it doesn't feel like a creative time in general, where's the heroes and the brave ones? The people to inspire the next generation..

I found myself sat on the bus yesterday reading and this kid about 13 or 14 playing this music out of his phone. I sound old and jaded when i say this but i could not understand what he was getting out of it? He was not tapping his foot, there were no words, it was as if it was a social status thing. Like he felt he had to listen to this to be cool.....it didn't mean anything to him beyond that. Surely there's more to it than that.

Come on for fucks sake. Lets try and make it matter.

written Monday, September 01, 2008

visit here for more blogs by Rob Harvey of Leeds band The Music

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Leeds ----> The Music

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