Well, it’s the new year and I am home from Ireland. So, sadly, that means I have to retire “Live from Cork.” On the other hand, this means I get to return to writing “B-sides,” which I also wrote for two quarters last year. For those of you who are new to UCLA or new to the column, here’s how it works: I take an item of music news and analyze it, hopefully bringing up points of view or arguments that haven’t been heavily discussed.
In addition to analyzing the news item itself, I’ll try to discuss it in a wider context. For example, if someone has a lip-syncing incident on “Saturday Night Live,” I’ll look back at previous incidents like it and make a general argument about lip syncing (don’t do it).
With that, I hope you enjoy the column and I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts each week.
For this column, so close on the heels of New Year’s, I’m going to digress a little bit and talk about two music news items I hope to see in the coming year – think of them as two New Year’s resolutions I wish the music industry would make.
Irvine-chella
This summer, the L.A. Times reported that Goldenvoice, the company behind mega-festivals Coachella and Stagecoach, was working on planning yet another music extravaganza, this time in Irvine’s Great Park. Further details about it are hard to find regarding the type of music that would be featured at this festival, while the rumor seems to be circulating that the event may be alcohol-free. How that rule would be enforced is beyond me, but there you have it.
I think bringing a Goldenvoice mega-festival to Irvine would be an excellent decision on the part of Goldenvoice (more festivals, more money) and on the part of Irvine (one festival, lots of money). Irvine also has a lot of selling points. It’s roughly 20 minutes away from the following spots: South Coast Plaza, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Disneyland and a number of other popular vacation spots that could be marketed as festival side trips. The city is also roughly an hour south of Westwood on the 405 Freeway, considerably less than the trek to Indio for Coachella. It seems to be a win-win, with an extra win thrown in for UCLA students based on its proximity.
What type of music would this festival feature? That’s anybody’s guess, but I think a festival that leaned more toward folk and indie music (especially with Coachella’s recent move toward bigger-name acts and dance music in last year’s festival) would be a great fit. Think of it as a California edition of Sasquatch. I know I’d buy a pass.
A merger-free year
This resolution may be shooting for the stars, but it has to be said. This fall, the literary publishing world was rocked when Penguin and Random House merged together to form one massive publishing house.
This signaled an unfortunate move toward more big-name author releases, and an increasingly difficult time for first-time authors to find a publisher, as well as for smaller, niche publishing houses to get their books out there. I can only hope the music industry doesn’t follow suit more than it already has.
A little bit before the Penguin-Random House merger, Universal and EMI merged to create another mega-label. According to the Huffington Post, the Big Four of music labels (Universal, EMI, Sony, and Warner Music Group) control about 90 percent of the music market.
What? That’s just scary.
Although there may be exceptions, a primary concern of any large-scale company is profit. Here’s the problem with that principle when extended into the music world. Instead of taking a chance on the great indie folk group out of Oregon, it’s a much safer bet to spend money promoting a Taylor Swift arena tour.
Yes, bands can easily release their music on the Internet now, but the music world is so saturated with bands that it’s difficult to gain notice without the aid of a label’s checkbook. With any luck, music listeners will go the extra mile to find independent and undiscovered bands. And with a little more luck, record labels will hopefully notice the trend and start scouting for more indie bands.
Whether or not these two hypothetical news items will become actual headlines is difficult to predict, but I certainly hope so, both for the sake of UCLA students looking to branch out in new musical directions and those looking to spend less time and money on a Goldenvoice-caliber festival. Only time will tell. Here’s to a music-filled 2013.
What do you hope to see in the music world of 2013? Email Bain with your answers at
abain@media.ucla.edu. “B-sides” runs every Thursday.
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