“Her great initial success was with lover Lindsey Buckingham. In 1974, they joined Fleetwood Mac and by 1977 the ‘Rumours’ album had churned out four top 10 singles – including Nicks’ megahit ‘Dreams,’ the group’s only U.S. No. 1,” Roura reports. “By 1981, she began a solo career with the album “Bella Donna,” but she continued to record and tour with Fleetwood Mac; the band’s latest studio album is 2003’s “Say You Will,” for which Nicks wrote the title track.”
“Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Fleetwood Mac in 1998, the now 62-year-old rocker worries about the future of the industry she loves,” Roura reports. “‘The Internet has destroyed rock. Children no longer develop social graces. They don’t hang out anymore,’ she complains. ‘I’m financially stable. I’m okay. But what about the kids trying to make it in this business? If you’re not an established band, if you don’t have a hit single, they’re gonna drop you. There are a lot of people out there as talented as we were, but they can’t sustain being in a rock ‘n’ roll band for long without success. We were able to, but we’re going to die out.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: First John Cougar Melonhead, now Stevie Nicks. Proof that you can’t teach an old dog (no offense, Stevie) new tricks, but, trust us, the kids’ll be alright. Times change and new paths to success surely do emerge:
Imagine there’re no labels
It’s easy if you try
No need for greedy album bundles
A brotherhood of bands
Direct to the people
Buying iTunes tracks
You may say that we’re dreamers
But we’re not the only ones
We hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
The kids are alright.
iPad seems to have a broad adoption rate among folk over 30. I look forward to seeing how this new venue plays out over time.
Dear Stevie,
If you feel so strongly about it, why don’t you ask the jacks running the music industry the following:
Why haven’t they evolved with the times and the technology?
Why do they not develop talent for long term careers instead of flash in the pan singles?
Why are they clinging to the old business models and suing their fan base when they should be embracing new paradigms.
And why don’t YOU realize that the internet has the opportunity to be the most liberating thing for artists, ridding them of their shackles of the very leeches that suck the life (and money) out of the artists?
People on this board like to throw tomatoes at artists like mellencamp, nicks, and bands like U2, The Beatles and the Stones… saying they suck and are washed up…
But tell me which bands from the last 10 years will people actually fill stadiums to see 20 years from now. If there’s a list, it will be short.
With iTunes, new groups won’t need the labels to make it big
The whole concept of singles (single song releases) has been given a shot in the arm. It’s up to the creative types to take advantage of new-found opportunities. I wish them well.
Sorry MDN! But Stevie’s right! I’m a professional musician and it is now harder then ever to make a LIVING as an artist. why? You now are competing with millions of idiots who have “music” clogging the Internet waves with their myspace pages of CRAP! Sure the cream rises… But how do you make a buck when all the kids download your music, spend more of their money on cell phones, internet, video games, etc. not including their TIME with all the available options for entertainment. Sure you can tour… Now add in the costs. Gas prices are the highest ever, hotels ain’t cheap, venues want a cut of your merch, etc. No… Being a pro musician is harder then ever. Perhaps before you pass judgement, you could actually talk to those of us who are in the biz.
Uh Greg, what bands that are on iTunes have NO label associated with them? Every band I see has a copyright from a MUSIC LABEL.
Sadly the Internet hasn’t killed Justin Bieber yet
The price of excellence never changes.
@Macromancer: Agreed! How many current “rock stars” will have a facebook page with fans in the hundreds of thousands 40 years after they’ve died, like Janis Joplin? Who’s that dude that won American Idol this year? What’s his name? Can’t remember….
Jackass,
Just because you can’t manage to find them doesn’t mean they’re not there. Perhaps if you ventured out from the “Preteen Girl Bubblegum Pop” section, you’d have a better chance at discovering them.
If FunTwo had $1 for every time his videos have been played he could retire before graduating from high school.
Simple fact is that music delivery has moved from analog to digital. That opens a can of worms. CDs are/were pretty cool in their time. That time is over. It’s time maybe for the business of music to get its hands around the 21st century.
Actually what has really hurt rock has been the demise of the album as complete work ala Pink Floyd or even Rush. Used to be you’d get an album and listen to the whole thing (or at least a side of it) as it was meant to be heard. When CDs came along, all of a sudden you had room for 5 more songs. Those 5 songs ruined the album format. They’re in most cases filler. Now days artists pile in as many cuts as they can in the hopes that one will be a hit. And the record companies have no desire to develop a artist over 2 or 3 albums like they used to. If you don’t get that hit you’re done.
Sorry, Stevie, but the music business killed itself. The Internet just happened to be around at the time.
And to the pro musician who says “It’s tough to be a professional musician these days” — it was ALWAYS tough to be a professional musician. But synthesizers and tape recorders have done way more to destroy that profession than the Internet and iTunes. Pre-recorded music has taken away tens of thousands of jobs of working musicians, and synths have ended the need (for good for bad, mostly bad) for studio string players.
If Eleanor Rigby were written today, George Martin wouldn’t have hired a string quartet — he’d have laid down some tracks on a synth that cost one-tenth as much as a decent violin.
But if professional musicians are having a tough time due to technology, they’re not alone. I work in publishing, and worked my way through college as a typesetter, a job title that all but disappeared. Desktop publishing has eliminated dozens of pre-press jobs (paste-up artists, keyliners, photolithographers, etc). For that matter, freelance authors get paid a fraction of what they used to get, and you can’t even blame technology for that.
So what’s responsible? Beat’s me, but it seems the only people getting more money are the people who were rich to begin with. And you can’t blame the Internet for that…
That’s a good one because Stevie Nicks destroyed one of the greatest British Blues bands ever. The Fleetwood Mac of Peter Green was genius, the Fleetwood Mac of Stevie Nicks was pop fluff.
Who cares what Stevie Nickerless thinks, she like Melon head are way, way, past their prime.
I remember Day on the Green in ’77 the ‘mac with the doobie brothers.
I disagree. It’s easier than ever to find good music via the web and iTunes. Good of course is in the ear of the beholder as personal tastes vary. My personal taste is gothic metal, stuff I would have never found during the era of brick & mortar stores. Thank you Internet, thank you iTunes.
@eyerhyme
Be so good they can’t ignore you.
Is it about the Music or the money? Does a true artist do it for the love and passion. I understand needing to feed yourself but I believe Picasso sold paintings for food and I think some of those painting are worth millions. Granted he never got those millions but do you think it would have changed his passion or would he demanded more food?
A great musician I will pay to go see, I will buy their music, I will listen to it for a lifetime but, if I never hear them in the first place then how will I know. That’s where they (labels) have some clout. They control what we hear to some extent or the musicians need to travel and be heard or give us a way to hear their music. At least iTunes can give them that chance without labels.
If musicians want to promote themselves as well then there is also YouTube. But then they are promoters and not musicians or are they?
No, the internet hasn’t killed Rock and Roll. The spoils of fame and fortune in the music business has killed the true artist.
Seems like it is easier to get noticed as an amateur today. A lot of the grumbling sounds the same as pro photographers- now that the “entry” cost (and time) to having a nice camera and being able to instantly edit digital photos is negligible, it’s harder to make a living in the field. Whaaaa. Hard to have a lot of sympathy.
@Jackass
Yes, there are not currently many artists on iTunes that are not affiliated with a label, but they do exist and it is quite possible that they will fluorish
@everhyme
While it may be true that Nicks and you are correct about it being more difficult to make a living, your actually seem to be arguing that she is not correct that the INTERNET is responsible. You argue that there are multiple causes contributing to this problem.
While I wish that were not true, MDN is pointing out that the internet itself is not the really the one of the problems, but rather that music labels and the current system have not appropriately used the internet to help their business.
Sure piracy and competition make it more difficult, but there are also many advantages. It is possible for an individual with a laptop and an internet connection to:
1. produce music
2. have people across the globe hear their music
3. to distribute their music worldwide.
4. easily communicate with a following via a number of means: Twitter, email, facebook, blogs, etc
Thanks to the internet and technology, I spend more money on artists not on major labels than I ever. Not only is it easier for me to learn about them, but I can actually get their music easily. Instead of having to troll through the bins of a music store (a romantic notion, but very inefficient), I can now go to online stores and actually sample tracks, which ultimately leads to more money flowing out of my wallet. I can also get music from small labels that, in the past, only produced small runs of CDs. So, sure there are negatives, but there are also plenty of advantages.
This is a pretty good thread.
It will be tough for awhile for new groups/musicians to get their music out to the masses while at the same time bypassing the record labels. In the old days, agents/radio/DJs/payola filled that niche. Things are different. My take is that a bunch of 20-somethings are waiting in the weeds to fill this vacuum.
We’ll see.
@eyerhyme
Every industry goes through changes. You sound like the newspaper guys who complain about Craigslist or eBay. Or the older software developer who rants about open source. Sure it’s hard, but so is writing a book and getting published and other creative endeavors. The tools to get out there — recording, PR, etc. — are cheaper than ever. You don’t need to blow money on CD production like before, and you can find cheap merchandise producers easier than ever. Most musicians who get it point to live music and merchandise as the way to make a living, not selling tunes. Try and download a $20 logo shirt … won’t happen.
And don’t just blame the Net. I’ve talked to musicians who say they get paid the same at a bar they did 25 years ago. Might as well blame karaoke, DJs, and trivia night, too. I deal with this everyday, and the possibilities outweigh the negatives. It’s not for the feint of heart, certainly, but success is more in your hands than ever. The cream will rise with enough musical talent, persistence, and business skills (not counting the pop scene, where the crap often rises).
Record companies killed music plain and simple the internet is reviving it into the performance art form it should be