Interesting article about the music industry called The History of Selling Out. Nice to see someone explore this.

I have my own theories on this. I’m sometimes accused of being “snobby” when it comes to music. I tend to not like much that’s played on the radio, or on video channels. I’ve been told that I stop liking music as soon as it gets played on the radio.

First of all, the argument is factually false because I do listen to music that is “popular.” Granted, it probably takes up less than 5% of my CD collection, but it shows I’m not consciously trying to stay away from it.

But I think that there is some truth to the argument – only by appearances. I really do believe that there is a difference in music that gets (or wants to be) played on a big radio station. This drives certain restrictions on songs. These are:
1. Can’t be too long
2. Try to have a memorable “catchy” part
3. A listener needs to be able to tune in at any point and still enjoy the song.

This is almost the exact opposite qualities of songs I tend to like. I like longer songs that don’t just have a “hook” to pull you in but build up to peaks, slow down, then do it all over again. I also like songs that you don’t enjoy as much without hearing the whole thing. This means the song structure itself is appealing, not just the notes that happen to be played at any one time.

Anyways, I’ll share a link I just found to a cool site containing news and reviews of everything Indie-related: Pitchfork. Is this helping my argument that I don’t just like Indie music? :)