This post’s headline is the name of an excellent, albeit US-centric & Western “pop”-centric, article by Ted Gioia.
As he notes:
The song catalogs in most demand are by musicians who are in their 70s or 80s (Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen) or already dead (David Bowie, James Brown).
This post’s photo is a reminder that in 2022 the “Music Biz” also resolutely ignores much of the world’s remarkable “old” music…
A telling paragraph from Ted Gioia’s article, published in The Atlantic on 23 January 2022:
In fact, nothing is less interesting to music executives than a completely radical new kind of music. Who can blame them for feeling this way? The radio stations will play only songs that fit the dominant formulas, which haven’t changed much in decades. The algorithms curating so much of our new music are even worse. Music algorithms are designed to be feedback loops, ensuring that the promoted new songs are virtually identical to your favorite old songs. Anything that genuinely breaks the mold is excluded from consideration almost as a rule. That’s actually how the current system has been designed to work.
Click here to read the full essay; if you do, you will understand why, despite evidence such as this:
Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market, according to the latest numbers from MRC Data, a music-analytics firm. Those who make a living from new music—especially that endangered species known as the working musician—should look at these figures with fear and trembling. But the news gets worse: The new-music market is actually shrinking. All the growth in the market is coming from old songs.
Ted Gioia’s essay concludes so “surprisingly”, on an optimistic note:
Musical revolutions come from the bottom up, not the top down. The CEOs are the last to know. That’s what gives me solace. New music always arises in the least expected place, and when the power brokers aren’t even paying attention. It will happen again. It certainly needs to. The decision makers controlling our music institutions have lost the thread. We’re lucky that the music is too powerful for them to kill.
Footnote:
The photo (copyright Doug Spencer) was taken on the night of 19 February 2020, in the Thar Desert, Rajahstan, India.
Happily, the owners of the Manvar Resort (which sits within the Manvar Reserve – a private desert & shrub land conservation project) have a genuine interest in keeping alive Rajasthan’s unique cultural life as well as the local flora and fauna.
The excellent, so-called “gypsy”, local musicians in my photo are Manganiyars, I think.