Oh, RIAA, Up Yours

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http://www.riaa.com/news/marketingdata/hispanic.asp

Intellectually I've always known that the RIAA markets music like toothpaste, but I don't really think about it until I see something like this. I can't really come to terms with the thought of the music we are supposed to hear being decided by charts and graphs and what the majority of people of the same age/sex/ethnicity are expected to buy. It does not compute.

What are your thoughts?

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Friday, 5 December 2003 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it's called marketing, and it's part of being a business, and they do it because it works. Toothpaste, music, potato, potahto.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I take it you've never worked in a record store.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Idea - go around different parts of town, approach EVERYONE you see from as many differing 'circles' as possible and say "Hey I'm going to the record shop, you want anything?" Buy at least 150 records a week, all totally different, at the same store. When they check the inventory they'll go nuts, the sales patterns won't make any sense.

― dave q, Friday, 5 December 2003 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah Sarah, finally you Young Hipsters are learning what those of us who are Still Grooving have known for years. Besides, what's wrong with toothpaste?

― Keith Harris (kharris1128), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm completely thrilled that anyone 29 or under is automatically hip. Now I don't have to keep trying so hard!

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:24 (twenty-one years ago)

yes but if you fall out of practice you're screwed when you hit 29!

― vahid (vahid), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

still got three months to stay hip, then . . .

― M Matos (M Matos), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:27 (twenty-one years ago)

9 years here suckas

― Felcher (Felcher), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Besides, it's not that simple to be hip. You also have to buy an average of 43 CDs a year to add to your 164-disc collection and feel that music is better now, and newer artists are more appealing, than 5 years ago.

― Keith Harris (kharris1128), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't worry Matos, you'll still be grooving to Ballads and Tropical with us old folx.

― Keith Harris (kharris1128), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm 32 and have a slight cough today. Where do I fit in?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

― kephm, Friday, 5 December 2003 20:32 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.thewalldirect.com/images/blue/judge-500.jpg

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

that's the scariest thing ive seen in a long time

― Felcher (Felcher), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

14-29?? um i am 29 and in a completely other world compared to even 22 year old 'hipsters' (read: saw mbv, pixies, etc in small clubs , etc )
fuck the riaa

― kephm, Friday, 5 December 2003 20:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Their genre of choice, not surprisingly, is Spanish music ...

Them blackies be liking all that african drumming stuff, not surprisingly. And all you white boys are into polka.

― Xii (Xii), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not surprised at all that they listen to Spanish music, and I don't think it's stereotyping in any way to say so. If you've ever lived in a Hispanic neighborhood, you know. They'll drive you nuts with that shit.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Then again, aparently there's a lot of Morrissey listening going on behind closed doors, so I dunno...

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:55 (twenty-one years ago)

They'll drive you nuts with that shit.

Er? So the counterargument is that if you go live in a white neighborhood they'll drive you nuts with all that English-language music?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes! They absolutely will!

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

The fratty neighborhood is far worse, actually.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 5 December 2003 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

What I mean is, dividing people into demographics isn't just good business, it's not even much of a stretch.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorry Kenan, but most of the music I like is from the era before all this ubermarketing happened.

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:03 (twenty-one years ago)

"Ubermarketing," myabe, but marketing always happened. Elvis was meant for white kids, you know.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

and jesus was meant for sinners !
i have no idea what this means*

― kephm, Friday, 5 December 2003 21:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Kenan--Yea, but it's the "uber" that tends to bother me. Marketing has been around as long as pop music has. (Obviously trying to appeal to the masses can have both good and evil consequences.)

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:08 (twenty-one years ago)

(x-post)

I mean Sam Phillips sat down and said, there's money to be made packaging black music for white kids. And then he did just that, spectacularly.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Sarah -- it's the "uber" that bothers me, too.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:10 (twenty-one years ago)

the gathering of the data doesn't bother me nearly as much as whatever the fuck the A&R men are thinking when they scout out bands that have absolutely no business making CDs. plus, one of the CEO's of the big 5 (4 or 3?), i forget which one, previously held the position of CEO at Ritz, and the idea that the crackers he's gotta sell now are just a little bit bigger and plastic kind of bugs me. but fuck em all, they're on their way down.

― Felcher (Felcher), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, exactly. I don't think that Sam Phillips was making pie charts and doing focus groups and consulting demographic data. Some degree of marketing is unavoidable in a capitalistic society (don't get me started) but I feel that this complete overkill we're experiencing now in every area of saleable goods/services, not just music, is both a cause and a symptom of a lot of the major problems with "global" culture. It's no longer a question of free competition to let the "fittest" product survive, as capitalism is supposed to be, but of whatever gets the most marketing dollars pumped into it.

(steps off soapbox)

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Felcher's post brings another question to mind: if the majors do crumble, what happens next?

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:20 (twenty-one years ago)

the marketing isn't the problem though. marketing in music is a great thing. the way the data is utilized by major labels (and some indies) is what's so fucked up. instead of signing an artist, analyzing the data to figure out the best demographics to market the music to, and launching a good promotion campaign, they figure out what people already like, and either look for artists who sound just like what the people like or they just create their own arist to fit the mold. it's not a method that promotes human creativity at all.

― Felcher (Felcher), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)

ideally, sarah, artists will have access to a new unlimited distribution system (the internet) and will either be able to release their music on their own or via any number of the millions of small internet savvy labels that'll be popping up everywhere. fixed media (aside from vinyl) is quickly running its course and i wouldnt be surprised if noone used CDs at all anymore in 5-10 years. it's really a huge question that noone really knows the answer to. there are a lot of smart creative people coming up with the solutions as we speak though. it's pretty fucking exciting. (i think i curse too much, do i curse too much?)

― Felcher (Felcher), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I feel very lucky to be alive right now. For years I'd read reviews of tons and tons of records I could never afford to buy, and now I can hear pretty much any released recording ever as well as lots of unreleased ones. If that's not progress, I don't know what is. Music ownership has now been democratised.

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:39 (twenty-one years ago)

more like communized. even better.

― Felcher (Felcher), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Exactly.

― Sarah Pedal (call mr. lee), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:50 (twenty-one years ago)

yes but if you fall out of practice you're screwed when you hit 29!

Oh no! I'm screwed! Oh no! Maybe I should look into hip replacement surgery.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Friday, 5 December 2003 21:59 (twenty-one years ago)

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