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Recordings In The UK: Prices Fall, Sales Rise

Unlike in the US, sales of recorded music have been growing in the UK. Why? Maybe it’s price cuts. “Average prices have continued to fall and reached a new low of £10.40 for the year ending in September, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said. It said prices of new albums had fallen by 7.6% since it began providing detailed records at the start of 2000.”

A Tale Of Two Clubs

In New York City, famous performance spots abound, and countless bars, clubs, and watering holes can lay claim to having “launched” the career of a superstar or two. But few clubs have the lineage of the Bottom Line, which was recently ordered to close after falling behind in its rent payments to New York University, and few have the social cache of CBGB, which has played host to the cutting edge of the American punk movement for three decades. There are lessons in the contrast between the current fortunes of these two clubs, and the hardest one may be that, all too often, it isn’t enough to be legendary, or even good at what you do. You’ve got to be lucky, too.

Why Does Everyone Hate Martin Amis?

Martin Amis on the acid reception his latest book has attracted: “Questions I don’t mind. Then there’s commentary. I seem to attract this heat. I, the book, took a weird corrosive jolt this time. It just got established you could say whatever the hell you liked. In England, I couldn’t avoid reviews. I’d be walking down the street and on the newsstand it would say, up by the publication title, MARTIN AMIS IS S–T. It’s like watching your child being ragged in the schoolyard. What’s truly galling is when you wake up and it is in your head, when what should be in your head is what you’re writing next. But if you answer back, you’re accused of whining. You can’t win.”

Golden Globe Noms Announced

A historical drama which isn’t even in theaters yet is the runaway leader in the nominations for the Golden Globes, Hollywood’s bizarre and inexplicably important awards show. Cold Mountain earned nominations in every major category, and a few minor ones as well. Other films nominated for top awards are Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Seabiscuit, Mystic River, and the animated feature, Finding Nemo.

Everybody Congo!

“In smart discos, sweat-box bars and market-places across Africa, Congolese music is rampant. Local musicians can rarely compete. Even in Lagos, the proud home of high-life jazz, clubs echo with Congo’s trademark throbbing bass, tinging guitars and racing falsettos. And in Europe Congolese music has become almost synonymous with African music. Europeans call it soukous, after secousse, the French for “jolt” or “shake”. In Paris and Brussels, Congolese stars draw crowds of 20,000.” At home, though…

Waiting For A Revolution That’s Already Here

At a recent music industry conference in Aspen, “the divisiveness and panic in the room were evident” whenever conversation turned to the state of recorded music. The problem seems to be that, while most in the industry recognize that a major sea change in the way the public consumes recorded music is upon them, few are willing to hitch their wagon to a particular horse before knowing what the new industry standard will be. In the meantime, the CD market continues to tank, and the people for whom that particular piece of turf is sacred continue to fight like cornered rats to forestall the digital revolution.

Game Boy Symphony

Some avid players of Game Boys, are using the little electronic game consoles to compose and play music. The music is “surprisingly complex.” “The gizmos serve as musical notepads, the modern-day equivalents of Beethoven’s pen on paper. The group then sets up in smoky bars and other modest local concert venues to treat — or subject — their audiences to beeps, buzzes, clicks, recorded-speech snippets and other computer-age sounds, all strung together into assaults on the senses.”