Payola is a load of Crapola
Gabe sent me an article today about the current standard of “payola” in the record industry, and having just read it I can’t even begin to express my anger and distaste at all of the corruption going on in music. The sheer volume of bribery and shady tactics going down is boggling. Maybe Gabe will post the article, but rest assured, there’s a plethora of crap going on behind the scenes that listeners aren’t aware of.
And it makes me Mad. Mad enough that I remembered this crazy idea of mine to become a disc jockey, an idea that sprouted in my mind shortly before I entered college. I wanted to become a DJ primarily so I could play the music I wanted hear. I remember riding around with Alex during the summer, picking up lunch, or shopping for video games or whatever, and listening to the radio, only to be put off by all of the repetitive music we heard. Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears, Blink-182, they all sounded the same. I wanted to become a DJ so I could play stuff like Braid or Hum, or whatever it was I currently liked, stuff that didn’t get played.
But this seedy business going on in the music industry rekindled my desire, with a completely different objective: smite Clear Channel and all of the money-grubbing middle-men bastards who are bullying radio stations into playing the latest 3 minute teeny bopper ballad.
It’ll never happen. The most I could ever hope for would be to work at a campus radio station for a semester or two. Besides, I can infuse my anger and disgust into my films, and possibly reach a much wider audience.
Enough rating, sorry you had to endure that. I should focus on something positive now. For one, Gabe is going to pick me up in 20 minutes so we can go film. I think we mentioned a while back that we planned on doing some music videos for some of our favorite groups, and tonight we’re seeing that vision realized. Gabe’s got his camera, and some new equipment, and we’ve both got ideas for a video for The Casket Lottery’s song “Leaving Town”. I don’t think the band would mind. After all, it’s not like Clear Channel would allow the video to be played without a little payola.
