Pop music is not like pharmaceuticals

It’s Sammy here. I play the geetar with Bedtime for Toys. I have thought quite a bit about what my first post on the Bedtime for Toys blog should be about.

Luckily, there has been a lot of great online commentary recently about a music article that originally appeared in the magazine, The American. The original article explained how the lack of legitimate new pop stars will potentially affect the traditional music biz machinery once the baby boomer bands (The Rolling Stone, The Eagles, etc.) pass on to the great backstage party in the sky .

I love pop music. I care about pop music. I make pop music. I have dedicated my life to pop music. Bedtime for Toys aspires to live up to the expert craft of our pop heroes like Prince, The Clash, Run DMC, Madonna, Van Halen and The Talking Heads. We owe nothing less to our audience than to give them what we would expect from our favorite artists that challenged us to dream.

However, times have changed and pop stars are no longer only created by major labels, MTV, and mainstream radio to be accepted by a passive audience. Just as it will continue to be in the future, pop stars are now created by bloggers, file swappers, and Myspace friends.

In the fantastic PopMatters.com commentary that I have linked below, the author makes the point that “pop music is not like pharmaceuticals. It doesn’t take a whole lot of R&D and isn’t necessarily the high-fixed-cost industry…” that major labels have convinced themselves that they need to be to create a perceived value.

To the contrary, the people have spoken and the democratization of pop music has probably been the number one cause of the destruction of the music business as we have previously known it. The music business dictatorship is crumbling and as a member of Bedtime for Toys I can’t possibly imagine a more exciting time to be making music. Thank you for the opportunity.

Enjoy the read…

Here’s the PopMatters.com commentary:
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/blogs/marginalutility_post/57433/caring-about-the-music-business

Here’s the original article in The American:
http://www.american.com/archive/2008/march-april-magazine-contents/the-show-must-go-on