There’s not a whole lot that I love more than my Cowboys. Music is one of them. And over the weekend I saw an interview with Billy Bob Thornton talking about his music band and Billy brought up an excellent point. Since 1980 you’ll be hard pressed to find artists that will withstand the test of time and 50 years later everyone will still remember their music. And since about 1995 there’s absolutely none.

Since 1980 you only have the likes of Metallica, Pantera, Nirvana, Tupac, Notorious Big, Eminem, Jay-Z, Madonna, and I’ll even give you U2 even though they were just getting discovered in 1979 (remember Michael Jackson got his start in the 70’s with the Jackson 5). And I’m sure you’ll notice that most of them will be remembered for getting killed or dying too soon. But before the 80’s you could go on for days and days: Elvis, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath & Ozzy Osbourne, Bob Dylan, The Doors, Pink Floyd, The Beach Boys, Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles,  AC/DC, James Brown, Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen,  The Eagles, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Willie Nelson, George Strait, and so many others.

Now it’s understandable that making a profit is the goal of making records. But it seems like the Big Labels don’t give a shit about the art anymore. The Big Labels are run by businessmen that don’t know what the hell makes good music. The Ahmet Ertegun’s of the music biz have all gone leaving us with a bunch of crappy ass bands and artists that only give us 1 decent song.

In case you don’t know about Ahmet you should. He was the co-founder of Atlantic and through his work he brought us the likes of Ray Charles, Ben E. King, Led Zeppelin, was the reason why Crosby Stills & Nash went to the next level with Niel Young, and gave the Rolling Stones what they needed to become the powerhouse rock band of the 70’s that they became.

But he was much more than just a savvy businessman and talent-finder. He was also a musician having written songs under the pseudonym A. Nugetre. Wrote such Rythm & Blues hits like “Chains of Love”, “Sweet Sixteen”, along with Ray Charles’ big hit “Mess Around”.

That’s what the Music Industry needs. They need musicians, or at the very least wannabe musicians, running the biz. But today it’s all about the dollars and it’s showing with the amount of total garbage that’s being released. The craziest thing is that the Music Industry hasn’t adapted to the online world yet. Is it no wonder that people aren’t willing to spend 20 bucks on a piece of shit CD that has only 1 halfway decent song on it?

Myspace has had the right idea. Lately you can purchase a new release before it drops for under 5 bucks. I’m sorry but the record labels have to cut their prices to try and compete with all of the Napster programs out there. They had a nice lil monopoly for a while but times have changed and it’s time for them to adapt. Cutting the prices of CDs in half (or even in 3/4ths for early release buyers) and actually doing some work to find great artists will save music.