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I would exercise a little humility and allow for the possibility that you don't understand what parent is saying, before slinging obscenities. You are absolute

I would exercise a little humility and allow for the possibility that you don't understand what parent is saying, before slinging obscenities. You are absolutely right about music being fundamental to the human experience, universally. But parent isn't denying that at all. Parent is talking about the BUSINESS of popular music -- not music full stop. The business of popular music absolutely _has_ co-opted music itself as a means of marketing other products. That's how the money is made and it's the only reason you are aware of any popular music artists at all. Yes people listen to popular artists because the music makes them feel certain ways. But from the business' perspective that only matters insofar as it enables the business to capture the attention of the listener, to sell things. Are you aware of how many product placements litter nearly all popular songs? Why do you think country music -- which is a massive market -- is hyper-focused on getting drunk, drinking beer all day, driving pickup trucks, etc.? Do you know how much money there is in that?

emptysongglass 5y ago
Honestly the grandparent comment reads like a bunch of learned wordbabble. It's easy to understand why parent got it wrong. I think the thrust of the violent reaction to GP is that it is clinically picking apart a thing which is fundamentally about human expression in music, which is primal and precedes capitalist notions of "selling yourself" or optimizing some crap "vertical" that could only be uttered by a business and economics graduate. My favorite band, Crystal Castles, didn't become a global success because some brand-guy figured out how to sell weed-pops emblazoned with "CC" logos. They were playing shitty dives in Toronto and smaller venues and almost suddenly became a global success because they made something that was really fresh and much needed by the disaffected youths of the time like me. My love for that band was never tied up in any kind of notion other than the one that spoke to my heart. Any attempt to dismantle that in verbiage is going to make me angry too.
- tessierashpool 5y ago
  yeah, the top comment in this thread is just utter nonsense and meaningless trash. try telling Skrillex that you can't make a living with music and all your revenue's going to come from your side hustles. side hustles are great, but revenue from live performance has gone up during the same era that revenue from recordings went down. Skrillex is a dated example, maybe, but that fits, because this happened a while ago. this whole discussion is just filled to the brim with people with no serious background in the topic, saying wildly inaccurate things. this is usually what happens when HN talks about any kind of show business, no offense.
CPLX 5y ago
I think I understand it fine. The comment said this: > The business of music essentially started as a way to sell preaching and alcohol That's nonsensical. The business of music essentially started as a way to sell music. Music is staggeringly popular and people have shown a willingness to pay vast sums for it. It's a core human need. It's like saying "the food business essentially started as a way to sell airline tickets" or something, it's just word salad.
- tenebrisalietum 5y ago
  It isn't. Churches and bars would comission people to perform in order to attract patrons/contribute to ambiance. This is before record stores.
  - tessierashpool 5y ago
    yeah, that's not when "the music business" started, though. that's one particular subcategory, thousands of years after it started. calling that the start of the music business was just ludicrous. it's an overly specific example for an overly general topic. it's incoherent.
    - renlo 5y ago
      “Music” has been around for a long time, likely from hundreds of thousands of years ago. The “music business”, where people can own music, the distribution and modern incarnation of “the music business”, has only been around for a a little over a century.
      - foldr 5y ago
        People have been buying sheet music for a lot longer than that. Of course it's true virtually by definition that the "modern" incarnation of the music business has not been around for very long.
        tessierashpool 5y ago

emptysongglass 5y ago

Honestly the grandparent comment reads like a bunch of learned wordbabble. It's easy to understand why parent got it wrong. I think the thrust of the violent reaction to GP is that it is clinically picking apart a thing which is fundamentally about human expression in music, which is primal and precedes capitalist notions of "selling yourself" or optimizing some crap "vertical" that could only be uttered by a business and economics graduate. My favorite band, Crystal Castles, didn't become a global success because some brand-guy figured out how to sell weed-pops emblazoned with "CC" logos. They were playing shitty dives in Toronto and smaller venues and almost suddenly became a global success because they made something that was really fresh and much needed by the disaffected youths of the time like me. My love for that band was never tied up in any kind of notion other than the one that spoke to my heart. Any attempt to dismantle that in verbiage is going to make me angry too.

tessierashpool 5y ago
yeah, the top comment in this thread is just utter nonsense and meaningless trash. try telling Skrillex that you can't make a living with music and all your revenue's going to come from your side hustles. side hustles are great, but revenue from live performance has gone up during the same era that revenue from recordings went down. Skrillex is a dated example, maybe, but that fits, because this happened a while ago. this whole discussion is just filled to the brim with people with no serious background in the topic, saying wildly inaccurate things. this is usually what happens when HN talks about any kind of show business, no offense.

CPLX 5y ago

I think I understand it fine. The comment said this: > The business of music essentially started as a way to sell preaching and alcohol That's nonsensical. The business of music essentially started as a way to sell music. Music is staggeringly popular and people have shown a willingness to pay vast sums for it. It's a core human need. It's like saying "the food business essentially started as a way to sell airline tickets" or something, it's just word salad.

tenebrisalietum 5y ago
It isn't. Churches and bars would comission people to perform in order to attract patrons/contribute to ambiance. This is before record stores.
- tessierashpool 5y ago
  yeah, that's not when "the music business" started, though. that's one particular subcategory, thousands of years after it started. calling that the start of the music business was just ludicrous. it's an overly specific example for an overly general topic. it's incoherent.
  - renlo 5y ago
    “Music” has been around for a long time, likely from hundreds of thousands of years ago. The “music business”, where people can own music, the distribution and modern incarnation of “the music business”, has only been around for a a little over a century.
    - foldr 5y ago
      People have been buying sheet music for a lot longer than that. Of course it's true virtually by definition that the "modern" incarnation of the music business has not been around for very long.
      - tessierashpool 5y ago