zemo.co.uk

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE FOR CHRISTMAS NO. 1

When this note was published the group had – 914,640 members

Well as a great follower of Music all my life I thought I would actually write something about the current campaign going on to inform people what it is about. One of the group members has written a brilliant open letter to Simon Cowell, UK Music Industry and the UK Media here.

I would like to add some more information to this from my point of view; first of all I would like to state a few things about myself before proceeding. I have been following the UK Live Music scene for the past 14 years, I have also been playing instruments since the age of 10 ranging from Keyboard through to my current instrument Electric Guitar – I have been playing Guitar for 14 years. I follow all types of music from Blues through to Industrial, but what I do not follow is POP or Manufactured Music.

Another point that needs to be clear here is we have raised over £53,000 for the charity shelter. RATM have also stated in an interview that money from extra single sales in the UK over December will be going to charity also.

My Input:

Ok well, going back into the history of the charts and the days of Top of The Pops (when it was a popular show) looking back to the 1960’s – 1980’s, I’d like you to think of who and what type of people were on the show, mainly musicians and bands? This whole campaign (believe it or not) is against the corporate music industry ‘using’ people like puppets and taking near enough all their profit for short term sales, in particular this protest is to show that the public want to see ‘Musicians’ where they should be. Think about how many great artists the UK has made. Long term sales (and that brings me to another point below) are far more than the people they are actually backing to be #1 through pop manufacturing.

The point this also brings me to is this; the whole music scene is NOT just about single sales, it’s about people going out and supporting the music they buy, bands and musicians go out to play in front of millions of people on a yearly basis, which they can do because they are musicians, not only did they spend years of their lives learning about music, they also have the experience of gigging to get to where they are. I would like to add a list of top selling UK bands (who have sold over 50million ‘albums’) below, who are ALL still going strong after 30+ years (also states how long they have been around in years):

This proves not only that longevity is the key to keeping fans, but it also proves that there is a bigger picture to what the public like.  Not only that, think of the sales those artists have made just in ticket sales every year since they started out. I would bet that all these artists made more money through ticket sales alone than any top selling POP Star has made through selling sell-out singles. The charts are no longer about music and musicianship (neither are they the view of actual music followers), they are about who can make the quickest amount through manufacturing a disposable karaoke singer, that brings me to another point… The industry knows they can use these people because they know they won’t go on themselves to learn music properly, or write their own songs, so either way they look at it people like Simon Cowell have the upper hand whatever the outcome. This is also why Simon is so against musicians that go on the X-Factor – they are competition, if he does sign them he knows he has no control over what they go on to do and create, and if he chooses to drop them after a year they will still have the knowledge to carry on in the industry.

Future of Music:

Well finally I thought I would add my view on the way in which the music industry is going, we all know that people download music now – sites are trying to cut each other’s prices just on MP3 downloads, so how much longer until music is freely available to download? I (and a lot of music professionals) see the music industry to be moving away from this ‘manufactured karaoke singer’ view, as in my mind the future of music is performing and ticket sales. Ask yourself how many people would buy tickets to see these people?, not only do they know nothing about music they also can’t even write their own songs, not to mention most go on other shows throughout the year and mime.

Thanks for reading my views