Radio-Inactive

In recent years, the music industry has constantly bickered and complained about the lack of album sales, claiming digital sales have taken away from the distribution of compact discs. I read in an article on CNN.com last week that digital sales are in fact decreasing at a steady rate as well. To me, this all means that this lack of sales has nothing to do with how consumers are getting ahold of the music, but what kind of music they are being exposed to.

Lil Wayne, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga: These are all names we are all too familiar with. If not all three, we can usually count on at least one of these artists to be in the top ten in any given week, along with many other similar artist. Now, not to take away from these artists (I personally think Gaga is incredibly talented, but that's beside the point) but this shows me that record companies are constantly pumping out catchy songs from only the previously successful artists to fill up strictly monitored spots on the radio. This is why music sales have dropped. American's get bored! I think it is very important to step outside the realm of radio and top 40 to find music that fits you personally as a listener. (see: Macklemore, The Cool Kids, Yelawolf, Tinie Tempah)



Basically, the video above from an artist I listen to regularly, Blueprint, and he describes how hard it is to get songs played on the radio if they are not "mainstream" enough. He then proceeded to write a song about that, called "Radio-Inactive." It poses a very unique and interesting perspective on the culture of music today. The music video for that song is posted below.