Wes,
Welcome to the world of trying to figure out the music business. Let me give you a little tip. YOU CAN'T. If you remember I said "trends will usually be about three years. One to ramp up, one where it is everywhere, and one where it starts to diminish. Those are all loose interpretations, sometimes they take a little longer, sometimes a little slower. but here is one thing that you will never be able to figure out. What is going to happen next.
Now here is another thing that most people don't understand. Record companies throw HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of artists and songs at radio. They spend the same amount of money on the ones that fail, that succeed. My suggestion is wait and see where those artists are in the next two months, three months, how they do overall. Because you hear a lot of people out there, you think they are everywhere, and actually they are being manipulated by advertising, and you hear them but they have relatively little sales. And they are gone in a few months.
We just had the country radio seminar, which means you will see a lot of new things being tried. Same with movies. How many times do you see some movie commercial with some huge actor or actress, and it looks pretty stupid. you wonder "How did they even do that?" The thing is SOMEBODY green lighted it. Ever been to a movie store, netflix, etc. and seen all these things you either never heard of or seemingly were around about a week and then direct to video? Yep. there they are.
The record industry is hundreds of people all developing artists, putting things out there, and a lot of people LOSING JOBS. They sign terrible acts. They sign awful songs. That is a fact of life. And even when something SUCKS they still will throw things out. This town is PAVED with the corpses of "good ideas at the time."
And there are also a lot lf things you may hear in a region but may be totally unheard of in another region. I would be willing to bet (and I know this happens too), that some of the songs you might be hearing in Texas, might be totally unheard in Boston, New York, Michigan, etc. Labels "test market" stuff all over and might pick up a lot of spins in a certain area and not get anything in another. So they will flood that area with money, touring, publicity, and ignore the rest.
I have had a lot of people on this and other threads who see where some artist or writer got a number one award and they have never even heard the artist or song. The reason is they didn't focus attention on that market because it didn't test well in that market.
There have also been "radio hits vs. SALES hits. Did you know that songs like MARGARITAVILLE and AMERICAN PIE, never got beyond number TEN on the radio? Yet, you hear them almost every few days, on radio, television, in bars, done by classic cover bands. Conversely, have you ever heard some artist or song that was EVERYWHERE, one part of a year, you got SICK of hearing the song? Wonder where those people go? Well come to Nashville and you can find them. They are waitresing in resturants, working as dental assistants, two friends of mine who both had number one songs are UBER drivers. It is all very complicated and decieving.
Here is my deal. What I deal with on these types of threads is give the best information I can. I use a variety of sources, from industry trades, to people I know very high placed in the industry, to actual artists AND hit writers who are friends of mine who are actually on the charts, to people involved viewing and working with the artists I help provide, which are quite a few. And I read lyrics, listen to songs and listen to what people are saying.
For instance on you. You are here because I pulled you aside and told you some things. The same things I told you are part of the WALL most everyone I know are hitting when they are trying to bring songs in, And if you think about it, you are answering yourself. It is EVERYWHERE. That means it is overdone. If you are hearing it on the radio, and you have to remember what you are hearing was probably recorded two years ago on artists that were signed three-four years ago on songs that were sometimes written five-eight years ago. It takes about that long to work things through the pipeline. So why would they need YOUR songs about the same thing.
Another thing is LOOK at who wrote the song. Look at who are BEHIND the artist. Most of these are friends insiders, hit writers, producers with money to invest, are special tests to the labels. And there are a lot of "THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT WILL EVER WORK" people. you cannot explain it. It just happens.
But my contention is that you see and hear a LOT of people that you are never going to hear from again in a few months. Look on the lyric threads you are on on various sites. Look at the songs. They are for the most part all winey, bro country, basically the exact same song over and over and over. They sound like every song on writers nights here over and over and over again.
Are there some out there that defy descriptions? Yep. Sure are. A year ago, Megan Trainer was singing about "ALL ABOUT THE BASS." She and that song have been around for about four years. No one would touch it. It was considered stupid and no one would cut it. So she cut it herself and it went on to be a huge country and pop hit. It was a merchandisers dream and all worked well. You should have seen the industry pros who rolled their eyes over that one.
Point is that you don't know. You have to write what you can, and try to get it out there however you can. But I will say this to you. I don't know you. But I don't think you are a 23-25 year old with model looks, chiseled features, rock hard abs, that is the pet project of some producer who also has ten other male and female artists who are doing the same, all getting songs produced on them, being taken around to every industry functions, hanging around the other 200-500 people doing the exact same thing being treated the same way. And your songs are not in a publishing catelogue that has been written by former writers that the labels are trying to moneytize, and being thrown out there. You are probably not someone who has one and a half million dollars invested in you and SOMEBODY says they are going to "make you a star."
Or you are probably not a writer/producer/label person who has been in the business 20 years, had ten successive number ones on other artists, helped the label head get through their messy divorce and are one of their best friends. Most of the people you see out there have those kinds of stories behind the scenes.
I have also said that the music industry is about 10-15% you see, like an iceberg. It is 85% under the surface, behind the scenes. Most of it you simply can't explain.
As far as "what is happening in country?" I have no idea. It is a amalgamation of a lot of things. Number one, the people who are coming into country now have other influences. They have rap, hip hop, urban, influences because that is what they grew up with. The people behind the scenes, label people, producers, even musicians, are from different influences. Country is a pretty big tent. You have those, you also have traditional like Brad Paisley, chick country like Kacey Musgraves. and yeah, you have BRO COUNTRY. Most of these never quite go away. The public just tires of them. That is another thing you have to understand. Just because you are seeing or HEARING something all over the place, doesn't mean they are MAKING MONEY. It just means that they are the flavor of the moment, and are being thrown out there to see what happens. And with around 90-95% of them. Not a lot is going to happen.
I have a greeting in this town. "Hi. I'm Marc-Alan Barnette. Who did you USE to be with?" The reason is that the majority of people you meet, writers, artists, label people, publishers, song pluggers, etc. USED to be involved in the music industry. Till they promoted things that didn't go anywhere that everyone SWORE were going to be the NEXT BIG THING. If you drive down the four blocks wide and eight blocks long of MUSIC ROW, you will see "FOR LEASE, FOR SALE, FOR RENT" signs all over the place. Those are all people that USED to have jobs, have businesses, have songs and artists trying to get on the radio. They USED to be somebody.
I can't tell you what to do. I can't predict the future. My role is to tell people what I see all the time, what my instincts are and what kinds of adaptations they should make if they want to be taken seriously. I know some pretty high level people in this town. I know what I could take them and what I ABSOULTELY CANNOT TAKE THEM. I also hear the things they say in private. you should stand around in a industry packed bar at a showcase for some new artist and hear the big wigs, laughing about someone who is out there RIGHT NOW ON THE RADIO and how much they suck. But they are forced by corporate decisions to get behind that person. They talk about having to keep from "throwing up in their mouths" for having to promote some song or artist they really hate. One of my friends actually quit and walked out of his job at Warner Brothers as a Vice president because he hated the artists they were putting out. He predicted all of them would fail incredibly. They did. Every one that were put out by the label that year, AND got airplay, did big tours, had videos all over the place, failed and everyone involved in their signings lost their jobs.
This all started occurring to me early in this journey. I came into this town in 1988 and actually got a Shelby Lynne cut essentially my first night in town. I was able to write with a lot of high placed writers, be around a lot of movers and shakers. But even that it still took forever to gain a toehold. And I am a HELL OF A WRITER AND SINGER. But things just didn't quite work out for me, while a lot of my friends succeeded tremendously. That happens. For all those people you see out there, you should see the people that DON'T make it. For no reason at all. Amazing songs and writers and artists that you will never hear of. There are far more of those.
At any rate, one day in 1994 I was writing with a major hit writer at MCA music. That is the publishing company of MCA records, neither of which exist as they used to. In the writers room, there was this poster of 20 of the artists on MCA records from 1992. There were only TWO artists still recording for that label TWO YEARS LATER. The rest were DROPPED. Some got picked up on other labels, some still had careers, some were in Branson, etc. Most were just finding out they had had their moment in the sun.
Now we have people that come on the scene at 8:00 in the morning, get a million viral hits, go to the top of I Tunes, make the news programs as the "fastest rising star in the history of whatever..." by noon, are the TOP VIDEO ON YOU TUBE, by three ocklock have their biographies online, 35 MILLION STREAMS, and by 8 PM, are on TMZ with their video of them getting into a fistfight being drunk in a Wendy's, and the next day are in the "Whatever happened to...?" segment on CNN talking about "the artist with the biggest FALL from grace. And the cameras all following him around covering his face, with the video of him cursing out some counter worker, or the dash cam video of his DUI arrest from the day before.
Fifteen minutes of fame. That's what most people have.
I can't explain any of this to you. I can only say I have seen it over and over and over and over since I have been here. And I am a big student of music and cultural history. So I have seen where THAT has happened over and over and over and over again throughout history.
Wes, if you can figure all this out. The record companies would love to hire you as a prognosticator. Because you could save them a TON of money on wasted songs, trends, artists. Since they fail 8 times out of TEN with what they put out, they would love you.
But here is the deal with you and myself. If you continue to write that kind of stuff, there is NOTHING I could help you with. I couldn't introduce you to one experienced writer. One publisher. One artist trying to make their own way. Because I would lose my standing with those people. Same with all the artists and writers I work with as well as anyone on these or any other sites. When people are just doing the same things I see failing everywhere. I can't risk my own reputation on bringing someone to another level. They might find it with someone else. But not me. I can't put them on a show I am involved in. I can't suggest them to a writers night host. Just not anything I would do.
Others might. But not me. And that is the only person I am responsible for.
MAB
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