Bloody Good News: Music Business Blues

Our Top Story: Drama and conflict is nothing new in the music business, but we might be seeing an uptick in those cases as the ongoing reality of our pandemic life has further strained an already tough scenario. With no tours on the road, musicians are struggling to make money, and some of that frustration is boiling over and coming out in the press. We have a couple cases of that recently.

Joe Lynn Turner expressed his anger at being replaced in Sunstorm, a project that has existed solely to give him a platform for melodic rock music. At first, the decision was announced by the label as being due to Turner's reluctance to make AOR again. Turner had released a statement respectfully stating his side of the story, but as the promotional press for the new Sunstorm record began, Turner spoke up again.

"I see a definite attempt to twist my words to justify the effort to promote this new release of SUNSTORM, show their autonomous power for any and all creative and business endeavours and prove the fact that no moral or ethical considerations exist as long as the corporation holds the legal trademark…"

The ugly side of the music business comes into play once again. If the label does indeed own the rights to the name Sunstorm, they are free to do whatever they want with the name, including replacing the only person who was ever associated with it. Artists rarely have the power to control their own careers, but it isn't merely his replacement Turner is upset about, understandable as that may be.

"I personally see absolutely no 'original musical style' about it.… No original: producer, vocalist, band members, song writers… Nothing. So, the main issue here is, why continue calling it SUNSTORM? Who do they think they are kidding?... After all, only fans can be the judge.

"To me it resembles the majority of releases on Frontiers Label as they often seem to be written, performed and produced by the same source. This being the exact reason why I was not going to continue…"

This gets us into a larger discussion of music as a product, and not just a form of art. Turner is right that there are many people in the business who are churning out songs and albums for no purpose other than to sell new records more often. If it seems like every musician these days is in more than one band, the same is true behind the scenes, where a handful of songwriters are producing a bigger chunk of what we hear than you might realize. In some cases, there is a conveyor belt of songs rolling along, with the only difference being who is chosen to sing each one of them.

To see a project you have worked on for two decades turned into one of those endeavors can be frustrating. It can be depressing. It can also be insulting, if you want to take the fans perspective.

I'm not going to get into the politics of Turner's replacement any more than I have, but here's what is most interesting: the man who replaced Turner has himself been intensely critical of the same music business recently. Ronnie Romero, who is in nearly a dozen bands/projects, said this:

"I just got a little bit bored of all the things around the work you are trying to do every day. When I started to make music professionally, let's say, you don't know how the business works, and you think everything is great. And you come with all your dreams and hopes and everything to try just to make music, and then you realize there's a lot of shit — and not just from the business itself. Then you get this feeling that the people, they don't care about your feelings either, which is very important, because when you're making music, you're putting your feelings on it."

I find this interesting for two reasons. First, obviously, is that Romero has not said anything about the 'feelings' involved in replacing Turner in his own project. I would think someone expressing that sensitivity about the business would have sympathy for someone being shown the door so he can have yet another gig. Second, Romero's experience in the business is just that; business. To my knowledge, Romero is a hired gun who doesn't write songs of his own. He gets paid to come in and sing what is put in front of him, which makes him a bit of a mercenary. There's nothing wrong with that, mind you.

However, it's hard to complain about being treated as what you are. Romero is not an artist pouring himself into the creation of songs, only to have them stifled by the industry. He is singing other people's songs, growing his profile on the work of others. What I'm seeing is a bit of a one-way street, and it's hard to engender any sympathy in me if that's how it is.

In Other News: Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian said the following about his band's status:

"For a band like us, with our catalog, we don't have to make records anymore."

He's right, and that is painful for me to say. We have seen it proven out time and time again, as bands like Tool and Guns N Roses continue to tour and rake in huge amounts of money while taking decades to release new music, if they ever get around to it. What used to be a system where new music was necessary to justify going out on tour has shifted into a system where a new tour is used to justify making a record.

Anthrax does indeed have enough of a catalog to never again need to make a new record. And we see from legacy bands how audiences often treat the 'new' song during a show as an excuse to get a beer or hit the bathroom. Between the decline in record sales, and the apathy of audiences, the incentive to make new music becomes more and more internal.

That leads to yet another question; if you stop making music, are you still a musician? Yes, pedantically you are, but I feel like something gets lost when you are no longer involved in the process of creating. Going through the motions and playing the old hits isn't the same as still searching for the mysteries of a new song. It feels less authentic, if I can use that term.

But it's not my decision to make.