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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Something I'd like everybody to read.

Discussion in 'Archive: The Amphitheatre' started by GrandAdmiralPelleaon, Jun 25, 2002.

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  1. GrandAdmiralPelleaon

    GrandAdmiralPelleaon Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2000
    About the music industry, how capitalism affects the mainstream, here's a look on it.

    note-copied this from another board, but please read it.

    Under this post September 11th acceleration of hard-core corporate capitalism, we find ourselves being sacrficed to what are euphemistically called 'market forces'; the climate for original bands is considerably more commodified and therefore restricted than it was before we signed to Richard Branson's V2 Records five years ago. Due to the centralisation of music industry power, the market has coagulated into an almost entirely commodity-driven industry, deriving its more important revenues from advertising rather than acting as a conduit for new music; and with the domination of radio by corporate interests, the locus of power has shifted from the consumer to elite interest groups, and if you disagree with them, you are considered a pariah, and your future in this industry is in serious trouble.

    This is what's happening in the upper echelons of the music industry right now...

    A company called Clear Channel currently directly controls at least 60% and maybe up to 80% of rock radio in the USA - and due to their unprecedented market power, they have a clear monopoly on play-listing in terms of top 40 stations. This is because the market is designed so that the major players force smaller companies to play them on their home turf, which results in a transference of Clear Channel's practices and philosophy to the industry as a whole. The agenda of Clear Channel is clear - to make as much money from the music industry as possible and return ever increasing shareholder dividends to their real clients, the stockholders, and ultimately, to enrich the people at the top and to set a social agenda which facilitates the perpetuation of an economic climate in which the key players can thrive. We need not delude ourselves that the provision of quality entertainment is even a concern, let alone a priority.

    Show me the money shall be the whole of the law - here's a little history lesson...

    Clear Channel was set up in 1972, by a Texan called Lowry Mays. A buddy of his, Tom Hicks, ran a radio company called Chancellor Communications, and Tom's son Steve, was the boss of Capstar Communications. Between them, they absorbed several other radio groups, but were halted in their corporate aggression by the laws of the time.

    In 1996, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act, under which the Federal Communications Commission was charged with the responsibility of checking the tendency of corporations to merge and congeal. It stands to reason that control of the public means of expression should not be surrendered to corporate interests. However, the FCC was in reality performing a role which was the flipside of the task the public understood them to be undertaking. Witness the enormous anti-trust merger between AOL and TIme-Warner. This was overseen by Michael Powell, in his capacity as chairman of the FCC, but what the public were largely unaware of was a major conflict of interests. At the time, and unbeknownst to the majority, Powell's father, General Colin Powell, was on the board of directors at AOL, and had a small fortune invested in Time-Warner. I don't recall the media having a field day with this story, despite such outrageous mockery of democratic accountability.

    The Telecommunications Act paved the way for many more anti-trust mergers and corporate raids. Tom Hicks' Chancellor Communnications merged with his son Steve's Capstar Communications to become AM/FM Communications, which in turn merged with Clear Channel. Clear Channel then went on to absorb at least another 70 radio groups, and currently owns over 1200 radio stations in the United States alone, with a great many more across the rest of the world. They also bought up dozens of rock venues around the USA, as they sought to monopolise the entire field of popular music in America.

    As the battle between Pearl Jam and Ticketmaster proved, it is singularly impossible to route a tour through the USA
     
  2. DarthSikle

    DarthSikle Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 29, 2000
    Wow!!! I better go buy Clear Channel Stock!!

    ;)

    just kidding, this is awful
     
  3. Maveric

    Maveric Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 17, 1999
    Texas A&M's business school is named after Mays.
     
  4. B'omarr

    B'omarr Jedi Master star 6

    Registered:
    Apr 7, 2000
    Wow. Another reason to hate Tom Hicks. First he whores out the radio industry, then he whores out the Texas sports' franchises.
     
  5. Maveric

    Maveric Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 17, 1999
    Oh, by the way, Schelesinger is Jewish.
     
  6. AmadeusExMachina

    AmadeusExMachina Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    May 19, 2002
    This is why I hate stupid people.


    Nobody should listen to the radio. Ever.



    Still, I'm always amused by the small victories. When Tool scored a hit with Schism I laughed, because they had to play that in between all the awful formula music. The thing that proves is, sometimes the radio stations have to play a band because if they don't play it, they prove themselves out of touch, and they lose listeners and advertisers.

    They had to play Tool because "the people" knew Tool was a good band, and were waiting for them when they made their return album. I've yet to hear a radio-friendly Tool song, but that didn't stop them from scoring a hit.
     
  7. DarthYama

    DarthYama Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 16, 2001
    A quick analysis of what Clear Channel blacklisted will show some redunancy: Anything involving: Fire, the Sky, War, Anti-War, Peace, Weapons, Bombs, Guns, The Government, New York, Jumping, Falling, Crashing, Transportation, Heaven, Evilness, September, Tuesday, Wind, Air, Conflict, Large Cities, and Destruction.
     
  8. AmadeusExMachina

    AmadeusExMachina Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    May 19, 2002
    Does that leave anything?
     
  9. klingklang

    klingklang Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 12, 1999
    Thanks for sharing that post. I enjoyed reading that.

    I didn't find out about Clear Channel until about 6 or 7 years ago. My best friend was in a radio market and CC came in and bought all of the FM stations in the area, save one. As a result, every on-air personality who also didn't work in the office was fired and emphasis was placed on sales rather than programming. And those people who stayed did pre-recorded shows. It's still that way. And on one local station right now, two of the shows are prerecorded from people who live in cities over 300 miles away. Since everything is done on computer, there's no need for anyone to ever be live on the air.

    As for the playlists, I don't think payola is ever going to go away. Clear Channel gets busted once in awhile, but it never makes a difference. And since the record companies are doing these deals indirectly (e.g. creating bank accounts for the sole purpose of shifting money to the station's programmers), they're only making it more easy for companies like Clear Channel to continue limiting the amount of artists who get heard on the air.

    And besides CC taking over the majority of the US radio stations, they've also taken over the majority of the concert promotion business in the US. And I saw where Clear Channel are now moving their concert promotion business in the UK, but I never knew they tried to buy the BBC. Scary...
     
  10. DarthYama

    DarthYama Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 16, 2001
    No, not really. ::Edit:: Found the list!
    Ok, let's all comment on it. I haven't heard most of these, or am unable to think of something to say for them, but I do comment on things I see as Pointless Censorship (PC, makes sense, neh?)

    Drowning Pool "Bodies"

    Mudvayne "Death Blooms"

    Megadeth "Dread and the Fugitive"

    Megadeth "Sweating Bullets"

    Saliva "Click Click Boom"

    P.O.D. "Boom"

    Metallica "Seek and Destroy"

    Metallica "Harvester or Sorrow"

    Metallica "Enter Sandman"
    Huh? This makes no sense whatsoever. I guess sleep is bad too.

    Metallica "Fade to Black"

    All Rage Against The Machine songs

    Nine Inch Nails "Head Like a Hole"

    Godsmack "Bad Religion"

    Tool "Intolerance"
    Again, it makes no sense. Were they confusing this with Aenima, which is about the destruction of Los Angeles by Nature.
    SARCASM AHEAD!!!!
    Or did they mean Intolerance? While we're at it, how about we blacklist Disposition, Reflection, and Triad, because they have an Indian sound, and at least one person who is Indian must of died.

    Soundgarden "Blow Up the Outside World"

    AC/DC "Shot Down in Flames"

    AC/DC "Shoot to Thrill"

    AC/DC "Dirty Deeds"

    AC/DC "Highway to Hell"

    AC/DC "Safe in New York City"
    Why doesn't CC nuke New York City, blame it on Bin Laden, and then deny its existence?

    AC/DC "TNT"

    AC/DC "Hell's Bells"

    Black Sabbath "War Pigs"

    Black Sabbath "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"

    Black Sabbath "Suicide Solution"

    Dio "Holy Diver"

    Steve Miller "Jet Airliner"

    Van Halen "Jump"

    Queen "Another One Bites the Dust"

    Queen "Killer Queen"

    Pat Benatar "Hit Me with Your Best Shot"

    Pat Benatar "Love is a Battlefield"

    Oingo Boingo "Dead Man's Party"

    REM "It's the End of the World as We Know It"

    Talking Heads "Burning Down the House"

    Judas Priest "Some Heads Are Gonna Roll"

    Pink Floyd "Run Like Hell"

    Pink Floyd "Mother"

    Savage Garden "Crash and Burn"

    Dave Matthews Band "Crash Into Me"

    Bangles "Walk Like an Egyptian"
    Anything remotely arabic, apparently. BAN RAVI SHANKAR! (That's sarcasm, and has only to do with the title of the song. The song itself I have only heard on Futurama when Bender is the pharaoh)

    Pretenders "My City Was Gone"

    Alanis Morissette "Ironic"

    Barenaked Ladies "Falling for the First Time"

    Fuel "Bad Day"

    John Parr "St. Elmo's Fire"

    Peter Gabriel "When You're Falling"

    Kansas "Dust in the Wind"

    Led Zeppelin "Stairway to Heaven"

    The Beatles "A Day in the Life"

    The Beatles "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"

    The Beatles "Ticket To Ride"

    The Beatles "Obla Di, Obla Da"

    Bob Dylan/Guns N Roses "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"

    Arthur Brown "Fire"

    Blue Oyster Cult "Burnin' For You"

    Paul McCartney and Wings "Live and Let Die"

    Jimmy Hendrix "Hey Joe"

    Jackson Brown "Doctor My Eyes"

    John Mellencamp "Crumbling Down"

    John Mellencamp "I'm On Fire"

    U2 "Sunday Bloody Sunday"

    Boston "Smokin"

    Billy Joel "Only the Good Die Young"

    Barry McGuire "Eve of Destruction"

    Steam "Na Na Na Na Hey Hey"

    Drifters "On Broadway"

    Shelly Fabares "Johnny Angel"

    Los Bravos "Black is Black"

    Peter and Gordon "I Go To Pieces"

    Peter and Gordon "A World Without Love"

    Elvis "(You're the) Devil in Disguise"

    Zombies "She's Not There"

    Elton John "Benny & The Jets"

    Elton John "Daniel"

    Elton John "Rocket Man"

    Jerry Lee Lewis "Great Balls of Fire"

    Santana "Evil Ways"

    Louis Armstrong "What A Wonderful World"

    Youngbloods "Get Together"

    Ad Libs "The Boy from New York City"

    Peter Paul and Mary "Blowin' in the Wind"

    Peter Paul and Mary "Leavin' on a Jet Plane"

    Rolling Stones "Ruby Tuesday"

    Simon And Garfunkel "Bridge Over Troubled Water"

    Happenings "See You in Septemeber"

    Carole King "I Feel the Earth Move"

    Yager and Evans "In the Year 2525"

    Norman Greenbaum "Spirit in the Sky"

    Brooklyn Bridge "Worst That Could Happen"

    Three Degrees "When Will I See You Again"

    Cat
     
  11. AmadeusExMachina

    AmadeusExMachina Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    May 19, 2002
    Let's review......

    What a Wonderful World is banned.

    Obla di Obla da is banned.

    Peace train is banned.


    What the hell?!?!
     
  12. GrandAdmiralPelleaon

    GrandAdmiralPelleaon Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2000
    "Rage Against The Machine: All Songs"

    Even after 9 months , that still makes me laugh.
     
  13. Obi-Wan's Apparition

    Obi-Wan's Apparition Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 10, 2000
    I don't listen to the radio anymore because of Clear Channel. I mean, radio stations were bad enough before they invaded my city... :p If I listen to the radio anymore, I listen to the University's station. At least they play things that are interesting and not cookie-cutter acts. [face_plain]
     
  14. QueenLaniAmidala

    QueenLaniAmidala Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Jun 9, 2002
    ::looks around:: Did everybody else actually sit there and read all that? :)
     
  15. Coolguy4522

    Coolguy4522 Jedi Youngling star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 21, 2000
    That was very left wing biased, but it did bring up some good points. I have only to recently begin listening to the radio, but I often get bored with the rock stations because they play all the same stuff. All the bands sound the same. I personally think any song with the word "Superman" should be banned. From all the songs about superman, you would have thought a new movie had come out about it. I think these bands need to be a little orginal in their lyrics.
     
  16. DarthNut

    DarthNut Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 1, 1999
    Tom Hicks is a moron, he is the owner of the Texas Rangers, and he is the IDIOT who payed A-Rod 250 million for 10 years. That 100 millions more then the second highest offer. If you live in Texas, DO NOT go to Rangers games. He is one of the most hated owners in baseball.

    But, anyway, there are quite a few good radio stations here in NJ, and in Philly and NY. There is a big difference between the ones owned by CC, and those not. I remember I saw and article in the paper saying CC was gonna buy 4 more stations in NJ. [face_plain]

    All I have to say is, DOWN WITH THE RECORD INDUSTRY!
    *burns down LA* ;)


    :mad: DarthNut,
    the nuttiest guy around.
     
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