The News Review:
- The Graying of the Record Store
- The good the bad and the ugly
- MUSIC; Recalling the Twang That Was Alt-Country
The Graying of the Record Store
New York Times – Jul 16, 2006
Six people? He would have had that many working in the store. “I used to make more in a day than I probably make in a week now” said the shaven-headed Mr. Isaacs 59 whose largely empty aisles brimming with punk jazz Latin music and lots and lots of classic rock have left him many afternoons looking like a rock ‘n’ roll version of the Maytag repairman. Just as troubling to Mr. Isaacs is the age of his clientele. “It’s much grayer” he said mournfully. The neighborhood record store was once a clubhouse for teenagers a place to escape parents burn allowances and absorb the latest trends in fashion as well as music… Purchases by shoppers between ages 15 and 19 represented 12 percent of recorded music in 2005 a decline from about 17 percent in 1996 according to the Recording Industry Association. Purchases by those 20 to 24 represented less than 13 percent in 2005 down from about 15 percent. ver the same period the share of recorded music bought by adults over 45 rose to 25. 5 percent from 15 percent. (The figures include CD’s and downloaded songs with CD’s still an overwhelming share of the market in recorded music 87 percent in 2005. )The dominance of older buyers is especially evident at smaller independent stores in metropolitan areas where younger consumers tend to be more tech-oriented and older music fans tend to be more esoteric in their tastes said Russ Crupnick an analyst with the NPD Group a market research firm. At Norman’s which is 15 years old and just around the corner from New York’s epicenter of punk St.
The good the bad and the ugly
The Age – Jul 16, 2006
GuyBlackman rounds up the best (and the rest) of the musicdocumentaries on offer at Backbeat the Melbourne InternationalFilm Festival’s rock doc section. The concert film is a slippery creature. Stripped of theimmediacy of a first-person experience live music on film can bedry and uninvolving. In a darkened theatre or at home on DVD apinch of narrative or pacing between songs can make all thedifference between a yawn and a gasp. This is definitely whatseparates the good from the merely average (and occasionally thewoeful) in Backbeat the music section of this year’sMelbourne International Film Festival… Showing the complex machinery behind a large-scale concertevent rather than just the finished product gives Rock TheBells a fresh perspective and the will-they won’t-theytension never lets up as the Wu-Tang Clan forever teeteragonisingly on the edge of a no-show. Compared to a muddle like Punk’s Not Dead these two movies aremasterpieces in storytelling. Even before it starts first-timedirector Susan Dynner’s rehash of punk history and itsmetamorphosis into a multimillion-dollar corporate industry seemsredundant previously visited with more finesse in films rangingfrom Julien Temple’s The Great Rock’n'Roll Swindle in 1980to Don Letts’ Punk: Attitude of last year. Despite thefact that Dynner was a teenager in early ’80s Washington DCwatching and photographing hardcore punk bands such as Minor Threatand the Circle Jerks her summation of the genre adds nothing to atired pantheon of tributes. Even worse Punk’s Not Dead isso lacking in narrative that it feels like a 45-minute MTV specialfollowed by an hour of DVD extras. ther films meanwhile succeed almost by accident. loudQUIETloud seems to have no other ambition than todocument the first reunion tour in 2004 of spiky ’90s alternativepop group the Pixies whose impact on popular culture only seems togrow with time.
MUSIC; Recalling the Twang That Was Alt-Country
New York Times – Jul 16, 2006
An abbreviation of alternative country it generally identifies music that draws on American folk and country traditions but stands apart from commercial Nashville. But it has been applied so widely — to punk-rockers playing Hank Williams songs bluegrass purists and all manner of singer-songwriters in between — that it has always been hard to tell whether it means much of anything… An abbreviation of alternative country it generally identifies music that draws on American folk and country traditions but stands apart from commercial Nashville. But it has been applied so widely — to punk-rockers playing Hank Williams songs bluegrass purists and all manner of singer-songwriters in between — that it has always been hard to tell whether it means much of anything.