Freakishly Happy

Ranting:
Now it's 6:36am, I haven't slept yet under the guise of working on my paper that's due at the end of this month. I can't seem to get a good grasp on what I want to say, so here's some ramblings about my opinions that I hope to solidify and turn in to a real paper
I really feel strongly about the music industry, even though I hardly ever buy CDs and don’t listen to that much mainstream music. But I feel the need to take up the cause because I feel like there are great many injustices in the music industry that need to be fought against.
I remember a time when I was 14, and Des Moines had a lot of really great innovative radio stations. One day without warning the cool alternative station that so many of my fellow classmates listened to turned into an oooey-gooey love station, the adult contemporary station that played a wide spectrum of music suddenly narrowed its scope to a very specific sound. At the time I was confused and annoyed, now I am saddened and angry. What I didn’t know then was that these stations had been bought by Clear Channel Communications, a behemoth of a company, who were (and still are) buying up radio stations all across the country.
Before 1997, there weas a laws that limited the number of radio stations that cold be owned in a certain area. In ’97 these laws were lifted, under the pretense that larger media companies could potentially provide listeners with a wider variety of music, and listening opportunities. It was a good theory, but it didn’t work. Instead playlists and musical diversity shrunk, local DJs were fired, all in the name of corporate earnings.
My rant against radio does not stop with Clear Channel Communications and their other corporate competition. The record labels also contribute to the, well sucky state of the music industry today. To continue on the radio rant, payola (paying stations to play your music) a thing which created quite a scandal during the first half of the last century is now a common and widely accepted practice in the music industry today. Major labels have radio by the throat. They pay big bucks to get the artists that they want played and played and played. Ever wonder why that same annoying Ashlee Simpson song keeps playing? That’s why. New artists, independent artists have no chance in this environment. This hurts more than the local garage bands, it also hurts our society. Without innovation culture and creativity becomes stagnant.
To make matters even worse, the artists that do get airtime, or help from their large corporate labels are not getting paid. Now I know that we see Brittany and _insert name of famous musician here_ driving around in their expensive cars and lounging in one of the pools of one of their several mansions, and think “wow, they ain’t got it too bad,” but what we’re failing to realize is that those who don’t have it already made within the industry are not “making it.” They sign on with the promise of profitable tours, and huge salaries and all the groupies they can handle, but what most end up with is a lot of debt owed to the industry giants, and mere pennies on the dollar for their portion of their music’s earnings. …..To be continued