Marcus Dowling is at war with culture.

It’s not just the economy, stupid. Maybe it’s time to blow up the entire record industry. Maybe it’s finally time to recognize what we all know the problems are, and solve them. It’s gotta be something major, because it’s necessary. The record industry is at an all time low for mainstream sales, and it’s not just the economy. I get downright angry when I see and hear people I respect, label executives, people with 30-40 year track records of making hits and creating hit artists not knowing what to do and lamenting their situation. The record industry is not salvageable, but, there are effective ways to solve the problems endemic to it. Keep reading…

How do I know the industry is in trouble? People were downright shocked and amazed that Sade, a world renowned and unmistakable industry veteran who hadn’t released a studio album in nearly a decade, sold 502,000 US units in her first week, a gold album in one week, a shock and surprise to record executives and A & R representatives everywhere. Shock as well surrounded Susan Boyle, the very antithesis of everything normal and expected in female pop stars, but who was pushed to the moon in an instantaneous media crazed generation as the supreme ugly duckling cause celebre on Britain’s Got Talent sold 701,000 US units in her first week singing completely recognizable cover tunes, to shock and amazement as well. Then, at the back end of the radar, DC’s Wale, pushed heavily as a new “savior” of hip hop and signed to Roc Nation sold 28,000 US units in week one, and the most beloved rapper with mainstream curiosity since Eminem, Drake? He dropped the most well received mixtape in the history of the medium, and doesn’t even have a physical album, his album instead due at a nebulous future date. Before you condemn my argument by stating that pop and hip hop are not comparable, Jay-Z, the most recognizable man in current music’s Blueprint 3 pushed 476,000 US units in its first week, Jay-Z’s second highest first week showing, even in a weakened economy. Again, this shouldn’t be shocking, but it is.

Let’s get the economy out of the way first. Unemployment and inflation have hamstrung the record business. There was once a time where a record buying culture allowed for individuals to purchase multiples of albums. There was enough money to go around for the public to fill the pockets of every worthy artist. However, when you have one dollar where you used to have ten, you’re likely not going to spend it on a record. Somebody has to lose, and why decide on an unproven commodity like a Wale, when Jay-Z has a proven track record of twelve solid and genre changing releases. While a young artist may be able to be a success on a critical level, due to an industry just not able to generate significant cash flow, monetary success just isn’t something that should be an obvious expectation out of the gate.

To succeed in our new paradigm requires finances, proper backing, and a mainstreamed mindset more than ever. Gone are the days of an indie artist getting over just because of dope live shows and serendipity and suddenly making it. Santigold and Matt and Kim, in licensing their material to anyone and everyone who cared ascended into the lower rungs of the mainstream, and even without a number one single or a sold out arena tour, have found a niche of success. M.I.A. rode “Paper Planes” until the wheels damn near fell off, finding placement in Pineapple Express and Kanye West sampling one bar as the road to becoming a bonafide star. There are routes to take, but the buy in must be wholesale, or there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

These are the days when the establishment is going to win. The underground is now mired in, choked and raped by blogs, downloads and torrents, artists previously established before this development able to rise above the fray, but for artists looking for Pitchfork to rate them a 8.3 instead of an 8.2, or for 100 more people to heart their track on the Hype Machine watching their ascension to any level of mainstream viability or financial liquidity from the business of making music waste away as the underground, seemingly daily, becomes flooded by 200 new bands with 200 new variations on one theme every six months.

To ascend out of the mess of music requires as always, presentation, gimmickry and high entertainment quotient. That hasn’t changed. People anointed Drake as the second coming because he’s a polished mainstream television actor who always appears meticulously presented in public. He’s also a beta male with bite, equally as able to cry as to laugh and fuck, and, well, he’s not Jay Electronica or anything, but he knows his way around sixteen bars credibly. In being able to be a little bit of everything to everyone, he succeeds. This isn’t the route of success for everyone, but it certainly helps. The polish and precise nature of presentation is key. Too black, too white, too hipster, too underground? No. But Ke$ha? A precise little bit of all of that. A Diddy cosign in “Tik Tok,” alongside a hipsteriffic electro track, lines about brushing your teeth with a bottle of Jack Daniels, and a knowing glance of “danger?” She’s on top. A little David Bowie and a whole lot of Prince and Madonna? Lady Gaga. Lil’ Kim’s filth with an “aw shucks,” blush riddled attitude? Nicki Minaj. And that’s just the women.

Why can’t Johnny sell records? Because the manic nature of the universe has conspired against him. I have four seconds between three job interviews to read two tweets and send one text. If it’s in a pretty package and sounds like something I can like for that nanosecond of time I have to enjoy much of anything, I’m in. Or, when I have six free minutes, I’ll download it on my laptop and listen to it once. Now my mother? Retired, pocket filled with money, nary a care in the world. Sade. Susan Boyle. Time and income to invest in the craft of something she knows, heard of, is intrigued by, and believes in. As great as Nneka or Phoenix are, they’ve got an uphill road to climb.

Hell. We’ve all got an uphill road to climb. This life, this industry, the music we love, is in trouble. I mean, if we don’t want to make money, we’re fine. Music is as expansive, wide open, fresh and wild as ever. However, if we’re all looking to get a cut of the pie, it’s just not happening. There needs to be a vast reduction in the underground, a vast reduction in the blogosphere, and a vast reduction of choices and options in general. Society just can’t hold everyone down right now. Let’s fix the economy, and watch evaporate into the ether so-called journalists (of which I may be one) pretending to be Lester Bangs or Ben Fong-Torres, or thinking that www.insertdopeassironicnamehere.com.net.org is going to shape music in your image in your tiny sector of what has become a too vast, too fragmented universe. Also, if you are a dope emcee, but don’t know jack or shit about marketing, styling, business or common sense, stay home. Kick freestyles with your friends, but hell. The record INDUSTRY is not for you. More making money, less making friends. This road is hard, and it may be fraught with obvious doom more than ever, but there’s still a road. Avoid potholes. Get up, get into it, get involved, get over. The answer is here. The time is now.