Here’s a question I’ve been thinking about in our present state of media evolution. Is the supergroup, as in musical supergroup, like U2, The Eagles, The Stones or even The Beatles possible these days?
I can’t be alone in feeling that music has lost something since the end of the century (god bless you, Joey Ramone). I used to think it was for a lack of talent, but I’ve been disabused of that hum-buggery. No, I think it has more to do with the collective weight of attention, or lack thereof. The cultural landscape is being acted on by the evolutionary force of atomization.
Consider The Killers, my favorite (new) band (meaning in the last 10 years). Unbelievably powerful, with a superlative debut album and a foll0w-up that I think puts the band in the pantheon of Springsteen and other American poets. I think it must have taken a Vegas-based band to put into a blender 80′s pop, hard rock and punk and turn it into something both eclectic and electric. But, of course, that’s just me.
Germany loves The Killers, too
And that’s the point. There is no barrier to anyone who wants to create a website or blog or Facebook page devoted to the music (or books or movies) they love best. A guy just out of high school starts a music review site and ends up being one of the most important tastemakers of the decade. The zeitgeitst has bounded over the riverbanks of radio and MTV and spilled all over the Internet. It ain’t going back.
It’s not just media. As a former English professor of mine once said, writers had to start looking over their shoulder as soon as Homer put an oral poem on parchment. At this stage in our cultural history, talented artists have taken the work of other talented artists and blended them up, just like The Killers. Beck is a veritable reference library, and so is just about any rapper. Nowadays, the sheer volume and variety of music — some of it really good — is staggering. And I wouldn’t have found a lot of it had my twentysomething brother not doggedly burned CD after CD to turn me on to bands like The Arcade Fire and The Decemberists.
Perhaps the question is really about collective musical taste. We can’t all be listening to the same thing at the same time. And we may now be so individually selective that the supergroup is obsolete, anyway.
Here’s the thing: I’m not any different from anyone else when they have a favorite band. I want everyone to love The Killers, and they have an undeniable following but, somehow, they feel a little… niche. The Killers are almost to that point in their careers when U2 started headlining arena shows. A friend told me earlier this year the band had an opportunity to play the Scottrade Center here in St. Louis but didn’t think they could fill it (they ended up playing a great show at the Fox). They still have time, but…
Can ANY post-grunge bands really be considered to have attained “super” status? The end of that era marks the beginning of this Web-created one. Coldplay seems to play best to college graduates who think they like philosophy and literature but don’t. Radiohead? Brilliant, but something of an acquired taste. No doubt there are superSTARS, Eminem, Kanye, Justin Timberlake et al that have undoubted cross-audience appeal, but groups? The kind that can take hold of a culture for years?
Will our generation be marked by what astrophysicists call “minor stars,” rather than supernovas?
“Coldplay seems to play best to college graduates who think they like philosophy and literature but don’t.” Priceless.
A Supergroup isn’t possible in the U.S. in 2009. This doesn’t mean that there is less talent in the music industry than there was a generation ago. In fact, a strong case could be made to the contrary. But because of how the music industry works today, there will never be another band that sells out five nights at Yankee Stadium one week, and five nights at Soldier Field the next. Here’s why:
Availability of music: Napster, Lala, Itunes, Pandora, etc., make it possible to hear individual songs for free (or at minimal cost). The consumer can hear what he wants whenever he wants it. Concept of purchasing an album in its entirety no longer makes sense. And because the web is a place for artists small and large to make their music available at little cost to the artist & little cost to the consumer, the variety of music available to the consumer is far greater than ever before.
Radio: Phones & MP3 players, internet/satellite radio, make terrestrial radio irrelevant. A generation ago, radio could create a superstar. The idea of listening to an hour of FM programming today is archaic. Too much talk, advertising, and genuinely unlikeable music. Today there are too many other opportunities for instant gratification. The relationships between record labels and the media conglomerates & radio stations do not help radio to be a channel for new music or anything outside the box. As part of the portfolio, radio has become nothing more than a formula driven piece of a larger entity’s profit equation.
Outdoor Venues: Within the last 20 years, every medium sized city in the U.S. has erected an outdoor amphitheatre-style music venue. With a music industry that makes it difficult for artists to make money from CD sales, the proposition of touring is financially attractive to the artist. As a result, it is no longer an important event when an artist comes to town. Most likely, they came through town last year & they will come through again next year. Even “festival” type shows like Ozzfest/Cruefest/Lollapalooza/Vans Warped Tour have become less interesting because supply of these types of shows greatly exceeds demand.
Pop Culture: American Idol is watched by more people than any other television show in the U.S. We also can’t seem to get enough of the “tween” music acts that Disney has manufactured for us over the last several years. This makes a statement that we (collectively, not you and me) have no interest in original, well written, well composed music. We are more interested in text messaging votes to elect our favorite singer to be the next pre-packaged commodity in the music industry than we are in finding music, new or old, that is unique. This also creates a new kind of one-hit-wonder whose flame burns far brighter than those of past generations because of the exaggerated media exposure, but who also burns out & is forgotten faster. We should be ashamed.
Sure, there are talented new artists that deserve the kind of recognition that came with Supergroup status… the kind of excitement that came with the Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, but those days are gone. Fortunately we have the motive and opportunity to find a wider variety of musical products in the market – and we can quickly & more easily find whatever it is that turns our cranks. And for the record, I am fortunate to have been listening to the same dozen or so albums from Willie Nelson over the last 6 weeks & can’t break the cycle.
“We also can’t seem to get enough of the “tween” music acts that Disney has manufactured for us over the last several years. This makes a statement that we (collectively, not you and me) have no interest in original, well written, well composed music.”
I don’t think this is entirely correct. What bands like, for example, The Jonas Brothers, have done or have had done for them is to find a common distribution channel. Because there are so many web options, an artist has to seek some sort of exposure that rings common with a group of people. This isn’t possible on web radio or myspace pages, etc. But, if a traditional media channel like Disney, which already has an audience, gets behind an artist, you have a following that gains traction because of the influence those people have on others.
The truth is: we’ll never know how many great bands we missed when the Beatles were discovered either. It just didn’t seem like we were because so much undivided attention was given to the bands the labels were pushing.
As another note – it’s also interesting that you used the term “supergroup”. I know the sense to which you refer, but to me, that term means a group of well-known or famous musicians that get together to form another group. There’s an influx of them coming out as well trying to find this commonalty – in this case, it’s familiarity. Bands like: Chickenfoot, Them Crooked Vultures, Tinted Windows, The Dead Weather.