A friend of mine, saw previews of the Frontline show
"The Way the Music Died"
It will be on, Thursday, May 27, at 9pm, 60 minutes

Read below: got a clip from another group on this...

James

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/press/2214.html

The Way the Music Died

Thursday, May 27, at 9pm, 60 minutes

In the recording studios of Los Angeles and the boardrooms of New York, they
say the record business has been hit by a perfect storm: a convergence of
industry-wide consolidation, Internet theft, and artistic drought. The
effect has been the loss of billions of dollars, thousands of jobs, and that
indefinable quality that once characterized American pop music.

"It's a classic example of art and commerce colliding and nobody wins," says
Nic Harcourt, music director at Los Angeles's KCRW-FM. "It's just a train
wreck."

In "The Way the Music Died," airing Thursday, May 27, at 9 P.M. on PBS
(check local listings), FRONTLINE® follows the trajectory of the recording
industry from its post-Woodstock heyday in the 1970s and 1980s to what one
observer describes as a "hysteria" of mass layoffs and bankruptcy in 2004.

"This is the story of how the pressures to perform financially have affected
the ability of many pop musicians to make the art they want," says FRONTLINE
producer Michael Kirk. "The starkness of the difference between the
environment that exists in the midst of this 'perfect storm' and the way the
business once operated is nothing short of astonishing."

The documentary tells its story through the aspirations and experiences of
four artists: veteran musician David Crosby, who hopes his newest album will
cash in on the resurgence of baby boomers buying music; songwriter/producer
Mark Hudson, a former member of The Hudson Brothers band whose daughter,
Sarah, is about to release her first single and album; and a new rock band,
Velvet Revolver, composed of former members of the rock groups Guns n' Roses
and Stone Temple Pilots, whose first album will be released in June.

But how will these artists fare at a time when the record industry is
clearly hurting?

"It's a big moment," says Melinda Newman, West Coast bureau chief for
Billboard magazine. "There are about 30,000 albums released a year, maybe a
hundred are hits. Sales have fallen from $40 billion to $28 billion in just
three years."

FRONTLINE follows the trends in the record business that led to
unprecedented growth of more than 20 percent per year in the 25 years
following the industry watershed at Woodstock. Crosby, for example, recalls
how his new band's album made millions after Crosby, Stills, and Nash
performed at the legendary rock concert.

"It was the moment when all that generation of hippies looked at each other
and said, 'Wait a minute! We're not a fringe element. There's millions of
us! We're what's happening here,'" Crosby tells FRONTLINE.

FRONTLINE follows the career of rocker Mark Hudson, whose group The Hudson
Brothers began as a 1970s rock band. "It was post-Woodstock, pre-disco,
pre-MTV. So it was a point when music still had truckloads of integrity,"
Hudson tells FRONTLINE. "Somebody was getting ready to exploit rock and
roll."

Hudson tells his story of how the business changed him and how The Hudson
Brothers ended up becoming TV stars as the summer replacement for the Sonny
and Cher Comedy Hour.

In the early 1980s, MTV fueled a further explosion of interest and seemed to
broaden the appeal of rock music.

"I thank God for the music video channels because they're another way of
getting people to hear music," says music industry veteran Danny Goldberg,
now president of Artemis records.

But surprisingly, there are those who now argue MTV was a negative force.

"What it did really is make the business a one trick pony--and everything
became about the three minutes, the single, the hit single," entertainment
attorney Michael Guido tells FRONTLINE. "I think the album died with MTV.
The culture in the record companies in the last twenty years has been to
reward artists for three minutes of music, not for forty minutes of music."

Some critics fear that the industry's need for quick hits has made it
difficult for more adventurous artists to offer the unique sounds and
challenging themes that have long been the hallmark of the best album
artists.

FRONTLINE also examines the effect of consolidation of ownership on the
music industry. "What you had were these people who had been tremendous
entrepreneurs...bought up by a multi-conglomerate," Billboard's Newman says.
"And it just changes the complexion. The whole way you're having to make
decisions is based on different models."

Michael "Blue" Williams, manager of the Grammy Award-winning OutKast,
agrees. "We're run by corporations now," he says. "We have accountants
running two of four majors now, and they don't get it. It's a numbers game.
And music has always been a feelings game."

The consolidation of the radio industry also negatively impacted the
recording industry, observers say.

"Thousands of radio stations changed hands, and companies that wanted to
really get on radio were able to pull up some enormous multibillion dollar
mergers," Los Angeles Times reporter Jeff Leeds tells FRONTLINE. "Suddenly a
company that once owned three dozen stations could suddenly own a thousand."

With programming decisions centralized at the corporate level, most stations
follow a mandated play list. In some cases, it's just fourteen songs per
week--leaving little airtime for the introduction of new artists.

FRONTLINE profiles Mark Hudson's daughter singer/songwriter Sarah Hudson as
she prepares to release her first album at a time when the music industry is
struggling. "For any new artist, the odds are almost insurmountable. I think
if they knew the odds, they would never get in the first place. You know,
the vast, vast majority of records go absolutely nowhere," Newman says.

Vying with Hudson for a place on the Billboard charts is Velvet Revolver, a
"super band" backed by RCA Records, a label that is betting heavily on the
group. FRONTLINE follows the marketing of the band as its members struggle
to return to the spotlight. Velvet Revolver's manager says success takes
more than an expensive video and a marketing campaign. "It's still all about
the kids. If the kids want to request it, it gets played more and more. The
more it gets played, the more people buy. The more people buy, the more
records they sell. The more records they sell, shazam, you're a rock star,"
David Codikow says.


"The Way the Music Died" is a FRONTLINE co-production with the Kirk
Documentary Group. The producer, writer, and director is Michael Kirk.
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