Is the Music Industry Changing for the Better?

Is the Music Industry Changing for the Better?

Isabella C. 12, Island School

The music industry used to be dictated by music executives, but now with more singers taking their images and shows intotheir own hands, they can also have a voice and opinion on what they do.

Back before YouTube existed, the only possible ways of accessing music would be to listen to mix tapes and the radio. Thanks to the invention of YouTube, you can now find singers with talent just by clicking on a video. Of the many people who were discovered on YouTube, the most famous ones would be Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black. Not only does Justin Bieber have six million fans, he has also sold 15 million albums and has earned more than 55 million USD in the past year. Rebecca Black was an overnight success as she sang her song “Friday.” This song got over 157 million views onYouTube, and she now has an independent record label, “RB Records.”

With the development of the individuality of artists, you can now discover more styles of music that are different from what you would expect, but are still very popular. The most popular ‘recent’ genres of music are pop, pop rock, rock, contemporary R&B, Hip Hop, Electronic, Country, Soul, Folk and some Korean Pop and Japanese pop. The most popular song from an unusual genre is Gangnam Style (Korean Pop), which received over 1,000,000,000 views on YouTube. Gangnam Style also is a good example of how the music industry is improving. It is now welcoming much more unique songs. This song was popular not only because of its catchy music, but the dance and the music video.

Now with Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram and other social networking applications, you can follow your favorite artists anywhere they go, and if you are lucky, you can also communicate with your favorite artists. Using Twitter, you can send/read the text based messages of your favorite artists. Tumblr is a very blog based social networking website. You can see what pictures, videos and other news your favorite artists posts. With Facebook you can make fan pages for an artist/band, see what your favorite artists are up to, check for show dates and even see some moments of your artist which you may not have seen before. You can follow your artists on Twitter, so now you can feel closer to the artists that you like.

Although many people may think that the new development of the music industry exposes vulgarity and only cares about the looks of the artists, the ‘vulgar’ artists are just trying to show their individuality and there are certain settings in which you could block vulgar content. For some artists such as Adele and Kelly Clarkson, they don’t care if they aren’t a size 2, 5’11”, skinny singer, they have a powerful voice which they can showcase instead.

To conclude, the music industry is rapidly changing for the better. Now the music executives do not run the music industry. You can have a voice which will be heard. If you discover a great singer, you can post it somewhere and people will see the artist. The change in the music industry now helps a lot of people find good music and lets people with talent shine.