Well, "before the internet" was 20 years ago—before the current generation of music consumers was even born. Certainly, file sharing killed the music industry, but it will be interesting to see how the newer crops of talent rise and fall via social media.
Many years ago, some big rock star (Jagger? Clapton?) pointed out that never before in history had it been possible for a musician to have the lifestyle that then-current pop stars could afford and that maybe it was an anomaly. That maybe the window of opportunity for music stardom would close again and that musicians would once again be forced down to traveling minstrels. I think that's happened already. If you don't tour, you don't survive. Music sales don't count for much anymore—it's ticket sales that pay the bills.
shantytown1212, I don't know how old you are, but unless you constantly trawl satellite radio, there is no way whatsoever for an American kid to hear Roxy Music except perhaps for Avalon in an elevator or mall (with no way to find out what you just heard.) Personally, I own ALL of Roxy's and Ferry's albums and it's painfully obvious to me why they weren't as big in the US as they were in Europe. I was in high school during there heyday, in a New York suburb and I didn't know a single kid in my entire school who even knew about Roxy Music besides me.
I'm amazed that they are remembered at all by anyone other than their original fans.
All that said, I'm watching this film for the first time right now. I find it exhausting in it's exposition. Completely boring and embarrassing. Since it deals with a music scene of the past, it makes me think of "Almost Famous," which was great IMO. "Almost Famous," as I recall, had some narration, but the film let the characters and the action tell the story. This film is just amateurish and the music is awful—I haven't even checked to see who wrote it, but it's not my thing.
For integrity's sake, I'll hang in 'til the end and if it turns around I post a retraction. Now at the 40 minute mark, I don't expect to retract anything.
God, this music is horrific.
(Just to be clear, I do know many of these songs. I'm complaining about the performances... yikes!)
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GravityCakes
10 years ago
I am younger than you obadtzxo, and I knew of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music through MTV in the early 1980s -- and they were played on KROQ in LA. I grew up on the west coast, and KROQ broke many of the English punk and new wave bands in the US (obviously Roxy was not "new wave" but they did have success with Avalon in the early 1980s and Bryan Ferry's solo work was played quite a bit on MTV) -- but I had many friends who were avid collectors of music and knew Roxy well. So yeah we west coast American kids had heard of Roxy Music.
"Hearts and kidneys are tinker toys! I am talking about the central nervous system!"
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