h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As a musician I find it very fustrating that good music is almost completely lacking in the UK top 40 single charts. This is world wide phonominon (whatever) but it is also true on a local scale. People are not willing to even try to find new music and sounds and so people like me have to play "pop Music" to keep the audience happy. A soon as they hear a tune they know they are content, whereas whenever good music is played they switch off.

If Only a record company would take the risk and bring good music for the masses!

As a fellow musician I have to agree.

Where are the development deals under which a record company would nurture a band?

They have all but gone.

Today for a non-pop band/artist to be signed they need...

1) An albums worth of material, already recorded at near studio quality

2) A fan base of at least 2000 people (It may not sound much but it is!)

3) A manager prepared to sell you like you are his/her own children.

It is so hard to do/get any one of the above and it is testament to these factors that a band like Coldplay were signed after getting all the above and a top 10 indie chart single.

So all we have is more boring, same old guitar tunes, and never a new exciting form of guitar based music because bands know that after getting a deal their record company wont tolerate experimentation as it may lead to a drop in sales. So Travis releases another album of the same old same old.

The only artists in the guitar field who have been able to radically change their sound has been Radiohead and then only after their 3rd album were they able to have the clout within Parlaphone to do it.

Bring on the next recession, the kids wont have the pocket money to spend on Steps, Britney and Westlife and real music will break through again.

Look at the general state of the top 40 in any boom time and it is frankly pants.

Punk, Indie and Dance music all came at times of recession.

Bring on the down turn.

Though I sympathise with these frustrated musicians, I try not to let the standard of pop music bother me, because it always has been and always will be a realm for mediocre and derivative music.

I think that the subject gets far too much air time. There is very little that we can do about it, other than cause an economic recession like the one that has already been mentioned. The state of the music industry is just part of a bigger problem called "society" which is one of the most complex problems imaginable.

My point is, the only people who should be allowed to complain about this situation are struggling musicians who have created a fantastic new form of music but have no way of getting people to hear it. Let's be honest here - this is a fairly small segment of the population. Everyone else should either start a revolution or learn to live with the grim shadow of pop music hanging over them.