We thank Nat Trimarchi for this interesting video on a corrupt radio and music industry in the United States. No big surprise there. I am not sure that we can extrapolate this critique to local Australian music. No doubt corporate games described in the video are carried on here in Australia. However, unlike the United States, Australia has extensive community and public broadcasting financed by the taxpayer (for the most part). The United States does have public broadcasting that is locally produced through a network of community and volunteer organisations. The critique focuses on North America. The video ignores larger audiences of popular music in Latin America.
As someone who had worked as an announcer on community radio for 10 years and has been a podcaster for 13 years I can relate to Nat Trimarchi’s comment: “The same homigenisation (sic) and ‘selective breeding’ has indeed occurred in Australian music”.
I claim no special expertise in music broadcasting.
My shows are about social and political movements. However it always amazed me how shallow the music shows were; for example they did not embrace significant social movements. For example DJs here in Australia were unaware of the rich tradition of popular music that came out of Latin America. For example there was not one announcer at the community radio station where I worked who even knew about Nueva trova in Cuban music or Nueva canción chilena let alone traditions in contemporary Brazilian music.
I do have a streaming podcast channel with over 6,000 shows, 4PR – Voice of the People if people are interested in the music or interviews that I play. – Ian Curr, 16 Jan 2024.
Music and radio industry corrupt
These guys in How corruption and greed led to the downfall of rock music are just talking about one segment of ‘the music industry’… but you can extrapolate to others to understand why it is a completely corrupt business.
And has been for at least half a century (though the seeds for this were planted in early Jazz recording and distribution). Why its completely narrow focus and insane, inane homogenisation, appalling repetition and banal narrow-minded content today… was inevitable (being founded on a corrupt idea of ‘the marketplace’ and ‘community’). Diversity is merely an illusion here, as you can see. And ultimately this is why what most people stream and listen to now is often just a load of the same old crap. I call it ‘millennial muzak’ (me, me, me, infantile, sensational, hedonistic nonsense… which bleeds across the nonsense genres and sub-genres).
Despite this wanton corporatism, and dearth of real imagination it creates, and despite many artists protesting it, there has certainly still very occasionally been good music made and heard since the 60’s and 70’s (when it was still more about the music than the money, at least for a short while). But just listen to what’s out there today! It’s mostly unlistenable. I ran a music venue a few years back, but now there’s absolutely nothing programmed that I am the target market for… the market narrows daily.
So, this youtube conversation explains better than one of my boring rants why – despite some of your encouragement over the years, friends – anyone like me would not seriously want to be at all involved in such an corrupt industry. This was clear to me already in the 70s, but the love of making music kept me skirting its edges. And this is why I think those of you like me who are making it only for the simple pleasure of making and sharing it are at least not living under the delusion of what Johann Herder three centuries ago would have regarded as fake populism…
We can only hope one day soon it will all come crashing down and there will be a revival of genuine music. A renaissance…
Nat Trimachi
16 Jan 2024