The Music Industry: An Overview

In 1964, a band by the name of The Beatles produced their first single, “Love Me Do” in Liverpool England. The song made its way onto the UK charts and after a few years and a few album releases, The Beatles had made millions of dollars and progressed to become one of the most popular musical groups of all time. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

Out of all the entertainment industries, I would argue that the music industry is by far the most influential. The average person most likely enjoys watching movies and TV, but what is that people able to listen to almost anywhere? What is often played in stores, restaurants and churches, is stored in MP3 players and CD’s, and has the knack of getting stuck in everyone’s head? It’s music. Don’t get me wrong, the movie and TV industries are very influential and for the most part, make a ton of money. However I think it can be argued that music is the most influential and largest aspect of entertainment. So what makes music, and bands in particular, such a huge phenomenon? The obvious first answer that most people would think of is the music itself, but it’s really the overall image of bands that make them popular. Sure, a band needs to have musical talent and the ability to create memorable songs to have any success, but in the mainstream music industry, it’s image that separates an extremely popular band, from just an ordinary one.

Let’s rewind back to the time of The Beatles. After the release of their first three albums, they had taken control of the rock and roll scene in Britain, and their influence was spreading overseas to the west. It may seem impossible, or at the very least odd, that an entire country was already completely infatuated by a handful of songs created by four free-spirited guys. It’s not possible, but if you consider the on-stage charisma of the entire band, add in their gifts of self-awareness and innovation through their music, and include the advertisement and promotion of their work, a handful of songs seem a little more significant.

The Beatles are just one example of a band that successfully created an image. As the years passed, the music image started to change, and so did the image of bands all over the world. In the glam-rock era of music, many different artists such as David Bowie and Brian Eno, used catchy, upbeat rhythms and outrageous theatricality to become popular. After the glam-rock era came the hair metal era. Poison, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, and various other bands in this era dressed up with heavy makeup, skin-tight pants, and flamboyant hair and combined it with repetitive pop-rock to draw in crowds. After hair metal, came grunge rock, and after grunge rock, alternative rock, and the mainstream music industry has been continuing to constantly change ever since. The change of the musical image from decade to decade is what causes different generations to enjoy different eras of music. It explains why most adults’ first choice in an album to listen to would be one by Bob Dylan, or Elvis Presley, and seniors would much rather listen to Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby for example. Guys like these had a huge fan base in their prime, and now all those crazy fans who were usually teenagers at the time, are still quietly listening to their same favorite bands, wondering why music nowadays isn’t the same.