Money for Nothing: behind the business of pop music

music has been social movements and has been what creates and communicates ideas through song and and unifying people throughout history. but today, in out society, four or five companies own and control what kind of music gets played and distributed today controlling what used to be the peoples medium. now music is all about what these companies will sell, its all about money. music is just another product. that's what this documentary, narrated by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, is really about, how the pop music industry really works.

To start with they talk about why out of the countless musicians some of them become stars and have there music herd by millions and others are never herd by the public. what they say is that they have to go behind, "behind the music" to really get a view of why music is the way it is in out society. what does this mean? it mean looking at the music industry that control ls what gets played, what gets promoted, what gets distributed and sold, and ultimately what gets listened to and communicated to people all over. there are five companies that sell 80% of the music world wide, they are BMG, SONY, AOL TIME WARNER, VIVENDI UNIVERSAL, and EMI witch is the smallest of the five and will most likely be sold to one of the other four. so the music industry has pretty much become a monopoly status for this handful of companies, and these are the companies that control what music containing what messages gets to the public and what musicians become financially successful. the pop music industry is not about the music, the message, the artists, its about the money and these companies are not about the music they are about the money, its not musicians or music lovers controlling the business its accountants and guys in business suits.

they also talk how shady the industry's record companies are to the artists them selves. an artist can make a video and even though the record label will front the money for it but it will come out of the artist's royalties which means the artists end up owing the label allot of money, and if the artists try to not make a video with their label the label will say that they are not cooperating with them and wont promote them, so it kinda puts the artists in a double bind, the damned if you do, damned if you don't kinda thing.

the music that we hear on the radio is not being herd because of its content or quality, it is because someone has put enormous money behind the songs and this is viewed by many as death to culture and death to music. now everything is pre programmed and dj's have no control of what is played, they might have never herd the songs before.

to me this is more of an ethical issue, what kind of freedom is this? it's corrupt, talented meaning full music that people want to hear doesn't have a chance if the record labels don't think its profitable! that's crazy to me.

payola, is the practice where record companies would pay dj's under the table to play their music on the radio, this used to be illegal in the fifties, dj used to get fired, prosecuted and sent to jail. the government saw that listeners deserved to think that the music they herd on the radio was good music and people were hearing it because someone that knew about music and what good music is was selecting it and they were not hearing it because someone with more money that the other musicians was pushing the envelope to get it played in order to sell more copies of it. the government used to view the airways as property of the public and that it wasn't for people to buy. but now days the same thing is happening on a much larger scale and is completely legal. and now what we get is a fully commercialized system. the artists that we hear are pretty much not famous or rich because they are good at music or because they are original or innovated, we know they exist simply because someone with allot of money is backing it for personal interests.

Mtv is nothing but a huge marketing machine. Mtv is now brodcasted all over the world 24 hours a day and is promoting a specific culture and sending a message that is what the major companies want the public to believe and will be the best for their industry. its just a big infomercial.

the four biggest gate keepers of the music industry are live music or touring, retail chains,television, radio. many companies have there hands in all four of these and have major power in what we here and what is easy for us to buy. buying over the Internet is helping smaller artists get their music out there but there is still a long way to go.

throughout the movie they also interview certain artists such as Michael Franti from spear head and Chuck D from public Enemy, Kathleen Hanna from bikini kill/le tigre, Ani Difanco an independent musician, and many other references to others people within the music industry.
this is a great documentary for anyone who wants to be enlightened by what really goes on in the music industry and how it influences our culture through an aspect of communication.