Dylan says why not steal music, 'worth nothing anyway'

From Reuters via the Houston Chronicle:

Noting the music industry's complaints that illegal downloading means people are getting their music for free, he said, "Well, why not? It ain't worth nothing anyway."

"You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them," he added. "There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like ... static."

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It's important to note that Bob Dylan isn't simply blasting contemporary pop music itself, like I often do: rather, he's blasting production style, and he'll get no complaint from me there. Certainly, there are numerous genres out there as the recording industry becomes ever more niche oriented in its marketing, but, at the same time, it's really tempting to say that everything sounds alike these days because on many levels that's the case. Of course, my thinking is that it all comes back to the talent. That is, MTV years ago ushered in an era where musicians are valued as much, or more, for their good looks as they are for their talent; ability has necessarily suffered. Furthermore, corporate ownership of the recording industry has resulted in the marketing of clone bands and performers who are usually a bad rip-off of other bands from bygone days, which also has weakened the talent pool. Producers have been forced to make up for that gap with studio tricks that bury the usually weak vocals and distract from sophomoric songwriting with baroque fills and grooves. There are still great new CDs out there, but, because they don't fit the narrow scope of what's deemed "marketable," you don't hear them unless you're part of the subculture that searches out such things.

Or maybe I'm just getting old and don't understand these damned kids today.

Naaaaaaah!


Dylan in the 60s

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