Lyrics or Music – What has the Industry Come to?
It’s safe to say that most people think that the music industry is dead. To most however, that is just a matter of perception. What most music lovers will tell you is that music is dead because there is no ‘feeling’ and decent lyrics in songs anymore. On the other hand, a 16-year old girl will probably tell you that new songs have a crazy beat to it. So what is the industry leaning towards? Music or lyrics?
Auto-Tune
With the introduction of Auto-Tune, the music industry has changed significantly. Auto-Tune is special software that was designed to make small changes to a song. In other words, it was made to fix small inaccuracies in the tone of a singer’s voice. Unfortunately, it is being overused in literally hundreds of songs. What’s interesting is that people love it.
This means that music is going more to the side of music with synthesized voices. This helps produce songs with a more in-depth feel.
It’s all about the Benjamins
Record companies have changed dramatically with time. Gone are the days when an album was heavily marketed (which cost millions). All that is required is a catchy tune, a nice music video and a social network update. Voila! Now you are making more money than ever before.
Previously, songs were truly inspiring. They had very meaningful lyrics with a brilliant backdrop. This helped connect music lovers with the songs they were listening to. This created a huge fan base that was used to drive sales. However, music was thus created slowly. The story and the lyrics themselves had to be great otherwise; a song or album wouldn’t sell.
Nowadays, pure lyrical songs get very little recognition. What most record companies are aiming for is catchy tunes that go viral. The song gets stuck in people’s head and they decide to buy the song. This generates the most sales and hence, the most profit. This can be easily seen in the hip-hop genre where most agree that sex (rather than connection, meaning full lyrics and a story) sells.
From good singers and meaningful lyrics to synthesized voices and a great beat, it seems that the music industry has truly changed. The interesting thing is that most people are evolving with the industry and love the new songs mainly due to the amazing music in the songs. Most songs have a beat that you just want to get up and dance to.…
