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I have FEELINGS about this. If you read the actual article, he makes a lot of good and true points about the state of music in Boston and nationally -- but the framing is atrocious, and racist. 1/ https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/08/14/opinion/aerosmith-cars-pixies-boston-used-be-rock-n-roll-capital-where-has-all-music-gone/?camp=bg%3Abrief%3Arss%3Afeedly&rss_id=feedly_rss_brief&s_campaign=bostonglobe%3Asocialflow%3Atwitter">https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/08/1...
It& #39;s true that you can no longer play a show at the Middle East and get a record deal when you step off the stage. But you can& #39;t do that anywhere -- it was part of a rush by record execs trying to find the next nirvana. It hurt a lot of musicians who later lost their deals. 2/
The death of college radio, alt weeklys and the tightening of belts at labels have hurt artists nationally, and have everything to do with streaming& #39;s impact on the industry. All of which the author astutely points out! He even says regionalism is LESS IMPORTANT as a result. 3/
We need to stop glorifying Boston& #39;s rock & #39;n roll "heyday." There& #39;s a reason that music doesn& #39;t hit the Top 40 anymore: it& #39;s not relevant. The dominant form of pop music is hip-hop -- a genre Boston is notoriously hostile to. I& #39;ve even reported on it! 4/ https://www.wbur.org/artery/2018/02/28/boston-hip-hop">https://www.wbur.org/artery/20...
The article nods to Bobby Brown and New Edition, but they& #39;re footnotes in a rock & #39;n roll story. If you& #39;re going to make an argument about Boston music grounded in history, Black music NEEDS to be a part of that story. R&B and rap both have deep histories here. 5/
What& #39;s more, hip-hop has a TON of energy in greater Boston right now. We also have a vibrant indie rock scene and an Americana/folk scene that consistently produces top talent. The author seems primarily concerned with popular music so I won& #39;t even mention jazz or classical... 6/
Boston has never been an industry town. That mattered less when rents were cheap. But now, artists can barely afford to live here -- making our small, but vibrant, regional music scene less appealing in the long term. Again -- this is something the article points out! 7/
