Frank Zappa explains the decline of the music business

What people said

headShrinker · 2011-02 · Strong recommendation

This interview of Frank Zappa, 'explaining the eventual downfall of music quality and talent' is so poignant. [VIDEO] Currently, the musicians on the top of the charts don't right their own songs and aren't every good musicians. The label's shape them and prop them up. Frank Zappa saw our current condition very accurately. The techdirt interview/article shows how much he wanted and needed to subvert the labels.

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flohofwoe · 2026-07 · Reference

I'm not sure if AI slop will make a bad situation much worse tbh. The pop stars of the 60's to 90's always depended on a distribution platform/network (record labels, radio stations, MTV, ...). Those distribution platforms either don't exist anymore, or changed their 'business model' to f*ck the artists at least two decades ago. To find the really good stuff you already have to look elsewhere, and popular music was already 90% mass produced "slop" before AI entered the scene. E.g. this ancient Frank Zappa interview about the decline of the music industry is still as relevant as ever: [VIDEO]

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bcoates · 2025-04 · Reference

Oh, I vastly prefer people who don’t understand and know it. Reminds me of Frank Zappa comparing "cigar chomping old guys" to the "hip young types" that replaced them [VIDEO]

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