At the halfway mark and a bit of a boring year. Everything is a little disappointment, dance has peaked, new albums by Madonna and Bruce were nothing great, fun. was not the breakthrough Madonna was, hip hop has been treading water… indie isn't doing much, metal, hardcore… Even technology, we are used to streaming now and the rest of the improvements are window dressing…
The music industry resembles the country: a steady decline with no money coming in and no way out. There is no center and there is no ideology. Instead it is a word of individuals struggling alone and every success is personal and not for the greater good.
That lack has allowed voices to be heard that might not have been heard otherwise, it means that not only is the field level, it is also ploughed. But it also means the regional heroes find it harder and harder to break through and the music is heard by fewer and fewer people.
While pro-tools and mp3s have given us many, many things, it has also homogenized the sound. Multi-tracking is out of hand and even the best albums have difficulty being LITERALLY heard, you can't tell what is happenning/ It's like everybody has hired a bastard marriage of Steve Albini and Steve Lillywhite.
And finally, if 2009 was a transitional year both technology and musically (and decade wise), 2010 was more exciting as dance fused with anything that moved, and the technology began to expand. 2011 was about streaming and 2012 is about… nothing so far.
2012 Mid Term Grades:
Singles: B
Albums: B-
Concerts: B+