On 'Frontline,' Playing the Same Old Song

[desdemona]

On 'Frontline,' Playing the Same Old Song

By Teresa Wiltz

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, May 27, 2004; Page C01

If you listen to the radio, own a remote control and a satellite dish, or have read a business page, the new Frontline documentary, "The Way the Music Died," won't be news to you. But if you stopped paying attention to pop music, oh, let's say, back in '77, have we got a primer for you.

Sure, "The Way the Music Died" -- playing off a line from the Don McLean classic "American Pie" -- does a credible job illustrating the demise of the industry, from the heyday of Woodstock to the Y2K apocalypse of mass firings and bankruptcy filings. As producer-director Michael Kirk sees it, there's plenty of blame to go around: Mega-record companies such as Universal and BMG gobbling up the little guys; Internet theft from digital downloads; controlling radio behemoths like Clear Channel playing the same five songs; and let us not forget MTV, which turned music into eye candy for the pimpled masses.

To bolster his case in the documentary (it airs at 9 tonight on Channel 22 and 10 p.m. on Channel 26), Kirk's got talking heads reciting scary numbers: Of the 30,000 records made in a year, only 100 or so are hits. Roughly 85 percent of all records fail. Sales in the industry have fallen from $40 billion to $28 billion in the last three years. And to keep the viewer from completely falling asleep, he's sprinkled in some actual music, with footage of artists past and present performing both in the studio and on the stage.

read the article here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2004May26.html

Edited May 29, 2004 by desdemona

[DudeAsInCool]

Hopefully, technology can change the industry and let a Phoenix rise out of the ashes. I love FRONTLINE - probably the best tv series going

[slum_goddess]

what DudeAIC said, especially the part about Frontline (which i'd dearly love to see again; it's one of the very very few TV programmes i miss).