America's Extinction of Music

I have read several articles posted on Facebook about the "death" of America's music industry.  First we must clarify what America's music industry was.  In short the answer is record labels.  A record label is a company that records, produces, markets, and sells music on either a vinyl album, a cassette tape, or a compact disc.  From a band members point of view, a musician who plays music professionally for live audiences, possibly this would be a new experience.  In America's short history there have been documented successes and catastrophes in the record industry.  A few of the latter would be Prince losing the rights to his own music, and Michael Jackson purchasing the Beetle's entire catalog.  Music like the rest of corporate America became a stock.  The stock market is what has ruined America's economy.  When buying and selling a product usurps the importance of that product and eventually undermines its production, a problem is created.  This is what has happened to America's music industry.  The savvy professionals who used to control the music industry such as Quincy Jones and Dave Grusin have aged out, and we have been left with a newer generation who have not experienced America's real music.  What do I mean by real music?  I mean a religion of music where real human bodies collaborate, perform, record, and sell music on an artistic level.  This product is far more than the faux music being presented today on the global level.  We could say mass marketing music is what has killed our music industry.  The temptation of the hedge fund has influenced all financial instruments, and owners of stock want only to see profits from their investments.  We are not taking the time to understand or appreciate our own products.  It is all about the money, and as I watch and listen to media today this is reinforced.  It has become fashionable to accrue wealth, and consequently we have a new generation of "Yuppies."  It is frightening to acknowledge this.  In the early l980's there was a similar movement in business, and a young upwardly mobile populace of savvy intellectuals took control.  We were presented with a generation of Stepford Wives of both genders.  Polished, slick, hipsters (if truly they were) went about their business of making money.  This was the first generation.  Now we are faced with a second generation of yuppies created from the technology industry.  Quickly they have passed the majority of America, and this new industry has fed itself.  With very little effort our traditional products have been replaced with nary an objection.  It is, because the generation that has created them is using them.  Other generations have become obsolete.  Personally I do not take kindly to this generation hijacking my music industry, because it was not captured honestly.  In the common ruse of the Republican party, instead they changed the system to meet their needs.  Music created on and sold by the computer replaced the real music industry.  The most infuriating ramification of this metamorphosis is the devaluation of music as a commodity.  Yesterday on Facebook I read of an author who predicted this change, and I digress.  The idea that there is too much recorded music to which to listen is absurd.  It is absurd, because what we have abandoned as a nation is quality control.  The movement to glorify "the folks" in media is the black hole.  Abandoning a PROFESSIONAL music industry in lieu of amateur contestants vying for popularity longevity for music will not produce.  Instead it has killed America's music industry.  I think a majority of Americans do not welcome this change.  It is the generation who created this nemesis who is consuming it.  The rest of us idly stand by and observe.  As a professional musician, I am sick and tired of music's professional vocation being represented by this facade.  Pop culture, and I mean the most shallow and insignificant pop culture, is no determinant of music.  Possibly this is why a schism has been created between real musicians and the public.  Real musicians are so far above the level of our pop culture, they are being cast as saints.  In the classical world this erroneously is being exploited.  I listen to WCPE, but I tune out the commentary because it does not do justice to the creators of the music.  Instead classical music has its own social structure, which like pop culture damages rather than reinforces the value of their music.  I am involved with neither of these groups, and I have adjusted.  The group to which I do belong is small, and it is jazz music.  Throughout my lifetime jazz music always has been the mediator of musical bullshit, because it is intellectual music.  Not only is it intellectual, it is spiritual.  Not only is it intellectual and spiritual, it acknowledges the blues, slavery, and other crucial aspects of America's history and soul.  Conspicuously this is absent in our society today.  The idea that a newer  generation of technologically savvy entrepreneurs has accrued the majority of wealth in America at the expense of their own soul  a devil makes.