Piecing The Puzzle

A few weeks ago I wrote about formula songs (Going Against The Grain). Surprisingly-and for the first time-I got no emails back from anyone. Hmm. Wonder what that meant? I know that a lot of you were in disagreement with that particular column. I knew it before I even decided to write it. The following week, time constraints did not permit me to write something of good quality, so Paul published a rerun. Then I went into the subject of vocabulary, purposefully avoiding the prior subject. Still, no replies from that previous column. So I attacked the hook, then the gimmick.

The hit song, the hook, the gimmick. Do you see the pattern?

In order to put everything in perspective, we have to go back to…

The History of Rock ‘n roll

Rock got it debut in the fifties from pioneers such as Bill Haley, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley. These people were looking for a new sound. New instruments existed. The electric guitar was now on the market. Organs and synthesizer were just a stone-throw away from seeing the light of day. As was the bass guitar.

These people turned to Black American traditional culture for new beats. What they liked was the raw energy from the patterns. Then came the British.

I’ve always found it odd how there are no great British Classical composers, yet the British have been the greatest influence in music in the second part of the 20th century.

As The Beatles, The Who and The Rolling Stones were using what was there to make it big, it soon became obvious that the style had a lot more to offer. The Beatles, oddly as they were not great musicians, played a major role. Just listen to Sergent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and remember that you’re in the mid-sixties. Impressive, to say the least.

Then new players came along. In 1967, The Moody Blues released their second album Days of Future Passed (nice word play). This was the first album with Justin Hayward on guitars and vocals and John Lodge on bass and vocals. It had Nights in White Satin and Tuesday Afternoon, their two biggest songs ever. It also featured the London Festival Orchestra. It was out of the ordinary. The Moody’s were also a band formed of not-so-great musicians.

Then Pink Floyd, Genesis and Yes entered the scene, experimenting with different sounds and approaches. Here’s an interesting anecdote: in 1968, Genesis recorded a song called The Silent Sun which they claim was written in the style of The Bee Gees in order to impress producer Jonathan King who, according to them, was into this style of music. According to King, The Bee Gees weren’t doing this kind of music at the time, but started only later, based on The Silent Sun.

1969 was the landmark year. Greg Lake left The Gods (who eventually, in a slightly different form, became Uriah Heep) in order to work with Robert Fripp who’s band, Giles, Giles and Fripp had lost, once again, its lead singer and one of the Giles brothers. Fripp was left with Peter Giles on drums and Ian MacDonald on keyboards and flutes (MacDonald later formed Foreigner). Lake dropped the guitar and picked up the bass so the band could work as a foursome.

Once in the studio, they were allotted The Moody Blues’ producer, Tony Clarke. After about an hour, he walked out. He had no idea what these guys were doing. So they produced the album themselves and changed their name to King Crimson. In the Court of the Crimson King was a major hit, making waves around the world. Progressive Rock was born through an ingenious combination of Classical and Rock, with a hint of Jazz.

This album influenced everything that has ever been made since. Even though most people making music today have no idea of it.

The North American tour tore the band apart. Lake met up with Keith Emerson and they went on to form Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd altered their musical styles to follow suite. Jethro Tull added Scottish Folk to the style to come out with their own brand of Rock. Tangerine Dream used the synthesizers to achieve similar results. Mike Oldfield and Jean-Michel Jarre also embarked on this grand tour.

David Bowie, who had always been experimenting, pushed his own brand further on down. Through the influence of In the Court of the Crimson King, it was now obvious that people around the world were ready for something new. So it was that Roxy Music, Joe Jackson only talented Jackson) and (the Brian Eno also experimented with styles. It’s all called Art Rock.

Entire record companies were created to follow this music. EG Records and Charisma. Atlantic embarked in a major way. Record sales could not be compared with what they are today. Artists rarely sold millions of copies of albums in those days. People just didn’t buy as many as they do now.

What’s important to note also is that during this period, the record companies actually let the bands produce their own albums and rarely vetoed anything.

Yes got pounded on by the critics of the time for recording songs that took a whole side on an album. Their answer to that was the album Tales from Topographic Oceans, a double album containing only four songs lasting about 20 minutes each. It was what the fans wanted and that’s what counted.

The Eighties

In 1982, Asia sold 9 million copies of their debut album. That’s the official figure, the real one is probably closer to 20 million. This was unprecedented for a debut album. Especially for a band and an album that weren’t particularly aiming for commercial success. Two years later, the record was broken by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Then it started becoming very common.

So what happened?

Thank You Sony

In 1983, Sony and Phillips released the Compact Disc. It’s first application was music. The moment it became public knowledge that this thing existed, everyone knew it would replace the vinyl album.

But back in those days, it cost about $5 to produce a CD. In terms of production of the medium and package: the disc itself, having it burnt, inserting it into a jewel case, printing the sleeve and traycard, and shrink-wrapping it.

Back then, a CD had to be burnt in a room with no air and the technique was difficult. So CDs sold for around $20 instead of the $10 of a vinyl album. So the record company executives got together and came up with a great idea. They would increase the price of vinyls! Over time, or so they told the public, CDs would become cheaper to produce and they would go down until, eventually, it would cost the same for a CD as it would for a vinyl.

Remember that there were no cost increases in making vinyls. The record companies just came up with a plan to make more money. Sony, either sensing a good opportunity, or perhaps having planned this all along, bought CBS records.

A couple of years later, a company in Toronto came up with a way to burn CDs at a fraction of the cost. It now cost $1 to make a CD instead of $5. What did Sony and the other companies do? They kept the price of CDs as high as it was. And eliminated the vinyl altogether. So Sony started buying out other record companies. Warner decided to do the same. As did BMG.

These are now the only major players in the game.

Note also that of the $4 profit increase, none of it goes to the artists. The band, if they have a good contract, will make $1 off every CD sold. Plus the royalties to the songwriters if they haven’t sold their rights to publishers (more on that in a future column).

For the future, they’ve come up with an even greater plan: You can now buy a CD, in MP3 format, from retailer websites, without the booklet, artwork, actual CD, for the same price it would cost you to buy it in a store.

Meaning that the record company doesn’t have to spend that extra dollar in production costs. Nor do they work with distributors. Their profit margin has just increased by about another $7.

Meaning that if you buy a $20 CD off HMV’s website, in MP3 format, your giving the artist about $1 and the record company about $12. HMV are making a bit more money than if you bought the real CD in their store, but not much more.

No wonder more and more people are downloading from the net or making their own copies from friend’s CDs. I don’t want to give the impression that I approve of this, but I think this should be permitted, as long as you sent $1 or $2 to the ARTIST. But what do I know?

A few years ago, some American guy decided to sue these major labels in a collective suit. If he had won his case, CD prices would have had to go down, and actually be sold at a loss for these companies for a while, until they got to the point where they would have lost as much as their last 15 years of profit.

There was no way the record companies could win this case. It would be impossible for them to prove that they never inflated their prices. So they bought the guy out. That simple. And we’re still paying highly exaggerated prices.

What It All Comes Down To

Anybody who believes that Rock ‘n Roll is not a business should quit the whole music thing. As we’ve seen, the rules have changed drastically.

Any major company will not sign someone who they believe will not sell 3 million copies of an album. Period. The way to sell 3 million copies is to have the album playing on the radio and getting a lot of visibility. We may enjoy our rare Classic Rock radio stations, but most people don’t. If they did, then that’s all you’d have on the airwaves. The majority of radio stations play pop music. Even the Classic Rock stations tend to refuse to play new albums by old bands.

Going to a record company with a set of songs that contain no hooks and are not formula-based is a sure recipe for rejection. Even with these elements, most people won’t get signed. You need more. Why is Celine Dion so popular? There must be 100 women in the US alone who can sing like her. Many people claim that it’s because she can sing on six octaves. Well, who has the best female voice of all? You know her. You’ve seen her a lot. You may not know that she’s a singer, though. She’s Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek‘s Lieutenant Uhura. She can sing through eight octaves! Yet she sings Gospel. Therefore, she’s never had a hit. But her voice is a treat for the ears!

The only reason Celine Dion is so popular is that she has a tremendous team doing all the work for her. Her manager/husband is from the music business himself. He was in a vocal trio back in the sixties. After that he went into the music business itself and established a lot of contacts. Dion’s ascension to stardom didn’t happen overnight either, she’d been singing for ten years before anyone outside of Québec ever heard of her. So count your blessings, we’ve had to suffer much longer than you have…

The only reason Celine Dion has the success she now has is because of marketing. The people at the record companies, let me correct: at the Major record companies, who make all the decision are marketing experts. Most of them don’t know a guitar from xylophone. All they know is that market studies show that this will sell and that won’t.

But Don’t Go Overboard

The perfect example of exaggeration is Bourgeois-Tagg’s album Yoyo. This album came out in the early nineties and featured a short acoustic piece called I Don’t Mind At All. In all honesty, it’s a beautiful song. And well done. But it has nothing to do with the rest of the album. The rest is all formula-written and hook-oriented. But too much so. It’s a great album to own and listen to, to remind you of what not to do.

As I’ve said in my column about the hook, don’t try to write one. Let it come out by itself. It will. Even instrumental pieces can have hooks that sound completely natural. The best known hook of all time is the intro bars to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Everybody, anywhere in the world will instantly recognize the piece. So let the hook come in by itself.

As for formula-writing, it’s good to know the formulas and to write songs which explicitly fall into these formulas. But these should not be the songs you’ll want to perform the most. Some may be, but once you get used to the formulas, you should try to expand and develop your own.

A gimmick is not a bad idea. As we’ve seen, it’s worked for others. Alice and Ozzy have been around so long it seems they’ve always been there. But who remembers Boy George? Or Twisted Sister?

Light at the End of the Tunnel

I’ve mentioned the Independent record labels before. These ones are beginning to take up more and more space.

Generally, they are started by people who know a thing or two about music. Mostly, they’re started because these people hate what they’re hearing on the radio. Rhino Records is a great example of the Independent Label.

These guys were able to sign Emerson, Lake & Palmer. And, to show how smart they are, they bought back-catalogs from artists of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. They got these original recordings for peanuts, as the Major labels wanted nothing to do with them, and they are now releasing them. Tons of songs that never made it to CD. And they are selling.

Hopefully, the Independent label is the way of the future. Once we get to the point where all the old guys are either suffering from Alzheimer’s or dead, all that will be left is garbage. Before that time, though, people will want more. Talented artists performing beautifully written songs. But for the time being, it might be wise to develop your style while using some proven concepts.

And there’s nothing wrong with making two or three bad albums that will rake in a lot of money with a Major label, then signing with an Independent and making the good stuff.