Frank Zappa Drooling Midrange Accountants On Easter Hay
Once upon a time, a record company had A&R people in it
who would take a chance, make a decision, use their gut
reaction, sign a group, and see what they could do with
it. Okay? That was, whoa, a long time ago. It's not that
way anymore. All decisions about who get signed and what
happens to the record are made by these drooling little
midrange accountants. And everything is based on the
numbers games in there. And the taste of the accountants
is what is ruling the mass media. It's all just the
dollars and cents of exchange. And if you wanna make
music that you believe in, the chances of doing it on a
major label basis are nil, because they're all so
frightened. Everybody's there trying to protect their
job. And it's easy-- it's easier to look like a wise
executive by saying no to something if it's just the most
minutely fringe-oid in terms of content.
No.
The horrible part of it is the artists who are feeding
this ecological chain stop making songs they believe in
and start making product that they know will be airable.
And they change the style of what they're doing to fit
within the narrow framework that is the contemporary
accepted norm for suitable, radio-sounding music. And
anything that comes outside of that norm doesn't go on
the air, you don't hear about it, you don't know about
it. Right now there's probably hundreds of artists in the
United States making great sounds and great music. You'll
never hear it. You'll never find out about it