This is it?

A dead person just signed the biggest record deal in history? Michael Jackson’s estate signed a $200 million US Dollar deal for 10 projects over 7 years.

This is probably the best commentary on the state of current music that I have seen.  A dead person that will not be making any more new music is kicking the shit out of living artists.  This appears to be a multimedia deal and not just records but that is still a lot of money.

I can’t say I have ever bought or even downloaded one Jackson song.  My brother had the Thriller cassette which I listened to,  but that is about it.  I have the Alien Ant Farm cover of Smooth Criminal, so I guess I do have some of his music, just not with him singing.  I was never a fan,  a lot of people are though and that is fine and dandy.

I will keep the upcoming rant focused on modern pop music, as that is what Jackson made.  Here is my statement;  Modern pop music is pure shit,  so poorly performed and written that a dead guy is more valuable to media companies than living breathing new artists.

The article says this:

The contract shows the value of legacy artists. It also comes at a time of decline for the music industry, with sales down about half from their peak in 2000 mainly due to free file-swapping.

I say that while file swapping probably does cause a decrease in revenue,  the reason for the decline is shitty music.  They produce singles now and not albums.  In his heyday Prince produced great albums where any song could be a single,  the same for Jackson,  Madonna,  and many other pop artists.  They had talented teams that made great music.

Now people will rip the CD and trade the good songs.  They will go to the online music services and download the hits they want and skip the filler.  There is no reason to buy an album anymore because chances are you will not like half of it.

The other night my fiance was checking her alarm clock and a song was on.  I said it was sung by someone (I forget what I said) and she said “No it’s not.”  I laughed and said “It is Rhianna,  I know that.”  I was wrong again,  it was some other name.  The autotuned processed audio sounded like Rhianna but it was someone else.  The music industry seems to be making the same song/sound with different artists, so that you can have the music delivered in whatever vessel makes your dick twitch (or vagina or both).

The problem there is that the artists all look the same.  The videos look the same.  There is nothing original about any of it.  If you put 10 modern pop stars of the same sex on a stage I might be able to name 2 of them.  This of course does not matter because chances are they are all on each others albums,  Bumblefuck featuring Puff Daddy, Ludacris and John Mayer is the norm.  They of course are performing over a sampled track of a 30 year old song.

I admit I am old and out of touch,  but the pop music of today really does suck.  When some blond autotuned girl is singing about brushing her teeth with Jack Daniels you know your industry has jumped the shark.

Then:

Now: