Music Industry

Article for a UK Music Paper March 2010

Pain Control

It’s easy to push aside the emotive meanings and drives behind the creation of and connection to music when embroiled in the endless discourse and arguments over what’s happening within the business end of the industry – file-sharing, piracy, artists’ rights and so on. There’s no confusion that ‘Music’ is a business, which has been an active main player in global industries since 1950, when the first ever vinyl record was produced, riding that bold quiffy wave of rock ‘n’ roll.

60 years later and the format of producing, releasing and marketing music has changed completely, but not, as many would argue, in a completely negative way – music has entered a thrilling new stage in its commercial form, the way we consume music is different, and the way artists approach making music as a business has also altered hugely. Now it’s not just about cutting a record and getting it into the stores, if any good has come out of this industry crisis, it’s that the wobbly record shelves have forced the artists and their teams into a more forward-thinking creative mind-set. A diverse approach equals multiple income streams.

But what has been lost amongst the debates is music’s importance to people, regardless of the encircling commentary. Yes, we know music is like water, is all around us, but it is also inside us, in our blood, a pulse that keeps us feeling alive – as a relief from pain.

It’s a medical fact that music can reduce pain and depression. And on a more cultural level one only has to look at how genres have moved and shaped our society to such a powerful degree one can barely imagine what would have happened without them. Reggae, soul, punk and acid house – which one shaped you into the person you are today?

Young people – and all people – may not be shelling out as they should for the tunes that want to listen to – the tunes that are nurturing their identity – but this doesn’t, in any shape or form, mean that music has less value for them, emotionally. Music and its stars are helping them get through the tough times, celebrate the great times, and can literally save their lives in what is currently a challenging world to be in. When DJ and producer Ashley Beedle was going through a depressed period in his life as a young man, not knowing his direction, he was wandering through Kensington Market and from a small indie record store he heard Orange Juice’s ‘Simply Thrilled Honey’ blaring out through its doors: “I will never forget that moment” he recalls, “Hearing such an amazing record pulled me out of the darkness and gave me focus”.

So next time there is yet another debate around the economic and political issues surrounding how music is consumed, one needs to remember why we, as humans, are all consuming it in the first place.