Kate Flood, a UK writer shares her views of the music industry with Rock Industry Magazine
For anybody that I’m unfamiliar with, my name is Kate Flood and I’m an 18 year old student from Essex.
I wouldn’t expect anyone to be surprised if I told them that I’ve loved music ever since I can remember, and it is common knowledge that music is no longer just ‘something to listen to’; but a tool used by some to distinguish themselves from other groups of people.
Music and fashion go hand in and hand, and if somebody adheres to the so-called fashion cliché of a movement then one is almost always able to take a fairly accurate guess at their listening preferences. By this I mean that drunk, tracksuit clad youths well below the legal drinking age that are found scattered around the entrances of McDonalds restaurants aren’t usually associated with Death Metal and Cold Wave, an assumption that is generally correct.
As with anything though, there are exceptions to this ’rule’, and I believe myself to be one of them. I have an extensive collection of music and I possess what I believe to be a broad taste. The bands I listen to stretch across the entire genre spectrum, ranging from post-punk bands such as Joy Division and Bauhaus, to more modern acts such as those that fit nicely into the dance genre, the likes of Eddie Halliwell and Oceania included. But, regardless of how people like to pigeon-hole others, there will always be a sense of unity within music. Take the British festival circuit for example – I’d be hard pushed think of any other time when people from all backgrounds, of all ages, will pay a substantial amount of money to sit in a field for several days with thousands of other people who they may or may not share anything in common with. This collection of strangers, the vast majority of which know nothing about each other, are all there because of one thing – music.
Just the other day, I was spending my morning browsing a video site to detract attention away from my ever mounting pile of work, and I made a discovery that has pissed me off something royal. If you are a British citizen, trying to watch British artists whilst in Britain – you can’t. For example, I tried to watch a Morrissey video, only to be faced with a message telling me that the video isn’t available in my country, or that the video I am trying to watch has been disabled due to copyright infringement. It is, however, available to citizens of the US. Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t it make little or no sense for an artist to be unable to distribute their work in the country of their choosing, let alone their country of residence?
I agree that downloads are slowly destroying the music (and film) industry, but I believe that everyone should be able to access music freely. I, not to mention thousands of other people that are either in full time education or just not as fortunate or well off, cannot afford music television, let alone afford to buy all the music that I want to listen to, so we have to get it by other means. If the greed of mass corporations has got to the point where people are restricted on what they can listen to then it really is a sad day for music. If there are going to be limitations on a universal language, something that is there to be shared and enjoyed, because of financial constraint, then what pleasures are left that are available to everyone ?
Music is one of the only things we have left that doesn’t go through the soul destroying process of being repackaged and made to fit within the confines of ‘political correctness’ before being made available for public consumption (and even then, that doesn’t count for all of it), and if that’s going to be taken away then I wouldn’t be surprised if each generation goes more and more to shit than the downward spiral people are already on. I don’t mind paying but can’t I watch the video for free without downloading it?
Words: Kate Flood