TANGENT SUNSET

COMMON CREEPS by Alex Cosper

What do you think about Eliot Spitzer scaring the payola out of the music business? (11/28/05)

respondent quote
COOL LEE: I'm not sure what the problem is. I like all the music I hear on the radio and what goes on behind the scenes is really no one's business as to how music makes it on the air. If it's good music, then who cares? For the past five years the music industry has kept on putting out better and better music. It sounds so safe and predictable, which is what I like.
DJ YOYO JO-Z: I'll be glad when the playas with no talent get shut out. I at least play all the good jams at my gigs, so it's not like I gotta worry what's being played on the radio. I think more people are affected by the music I play in clubs than the mass random crowd that listens to radio.
MR. BIG BIZ: Spitzer appears to be interfering once again with the free marketplace. If a record corporation wants to put out a song that's backed by big money, why should someone else get a free ride? I strongly believe in pay for play. When a promoter gets paid for securing airplay, an extra dynamic is added to the marketplace that creates big income - for just about everyone but the artist - but it's the bigger company that matters in the big picture.
JENNIFER: I'm surprised the payola thing is still going on. Spitzer has already gotten Sony to pitch in with the investigation, and last week he got Warner to come aboard. That leaves two big labels who still have to acknowledge that bribery exists in the music biz and that they'll help clean it up. Something tells me a few people will take the fall and then when the smoke all clears - it will be back to the good ol' boy system as usual.
LEFT GUARD LARRY: If someone bribes a radio station to play a song, that affects thousands of people, more than the time I broke someone's nose and had to do time in jail. That's why I'm saying the payola dudes should go to jail, too. It'll teach those thugs not to play with people's heads.
SKULL MADISON: Let the youth be corrupted my mindless music that blows ego out of proportion and makes people sexually gyrate in public. It's all part of the dumbing of America project, in which youth has been stabilized - and deprogrammed from any earlier so-called political music. I say keep swingin, kids, and don't be sidetracked by songs with any kinda message other than the celebration of materialism and narcissism.
COLLEGE STUDENT: I think Spitzer has gotten to the heart of the matter as to why commercial corporate music has sucked so bad the past five years. It's just about marketing. The philosophy seems to be to play any piece of crap that offers stations some kind of kick back. Just think of how much more money the music biz could be saving and making if they just put out something good instead of all that cookie-cutter bullcrap.











© 2005 by Alex Cosper. All Rights Reserved.