At 11:35 AM -0800 1/24/03, Mark G. Ryan wrote:
None these songs is likely to be mistaken for a McCartney, Baccharach, or Irving Berlin composition. Again: not a criticism--just trying to understand how the music works.
I think Philip's (and others') point is that even if they had more "melodic" songs, there are other facets of the industry working against them. If we're talking hummable melodies, then why aren't Big Star and Guided By Voices all over the radio? What about zillions of other "shoulda been hits"? (Now *there's* a thread.) In the first case, bad distribution had a lot to do with it. In the second, well, I don't know enough of the inside story, but distribution comes into play with the Matador stuff, and the consensus seems to be that Bob wasn't at his best or most comfortable on TVT. And even if he had been, would ClearChannel put it on the playlist?
Sadly, I suspect that most people listen to whatever's been marketed to them, and from the music industry's perspective, it's a better investment to market the hell out of someone young, good-looking in a particular mass-marketable way, and exploitable, criteria that aren't met by TV.
'Course, some people are of the opinion that this particular industry is facing imminent demise: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.02/dirge_pr.html
-- Maurice Rickard http://mauricerickard.com/ -------------- To post: Mail tv@obbard.com To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"