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I recently finished reading the book, Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music. I’m a little angry with myself for waiting so long to read it. It’s been in the “to read” pile for a long time and I have started reading it. It’s a fantastic look at the evolution of music over the past 20 years or so. From the rise of indie bands like Death Cab for Cutie and Bright Eyes, to Prince’s label, to mp3s and the “pay what you want” model introduced by Radiohead and Trent Reznor of NineInch Nail.

I can’t honestly say I remember my grade 7 history class very much. I couldn’t even tell you the name of my teacher, let alone what we “learned” that year. The only thing I remember was that there was a banner hanging above the blackboard. He said: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

If you want to be a musician today, you have to understand how the music industry has changed so that you can try to figure out where it is going. Of course, it’s good to know the Tin Pan Alley writers from the late 1800s to early 1900s; it is important to understand the role of radio in the emergence of popular music and how the payola controlled it; It’s important to know that the first video to air on MTV was “Video Killed The Radio Star” by The Buggle (seriously think about that for a minute).

Over the past 20 years, the music industry has changed more than it has in most of its existence. Or, certainly in this century. The current music industry in which we operate is still evolving at a rapid pace. There is speculation that CDs will be extinct within 2-3 years, there has been a major vinyl resurgence (who saw this coming ?!), The majors as we knew them might go out of business to exist within 5 years, mp3s and file sharing are now a good thing and a major source of worldwide distribution (what ?!).

Greg Kott’s “Ripped” is one of the most fascinating books on the history of contemporary music I have ever read. It jumps right into the first chapter on major consolidation as all the big 5s (back then there were 5 big labels, as opposed to the 2 1/2 that there are now). It was a huge change in the recording industry at the time. It scared a lot of artists and put a lot of people out of work.

Greg does a great job detailing the consolidation of majors, the rise of independent bands, the fight against and for the sampling on hip-hip records and new records and mashup artists, Prince’s label and his DIY approach, the rise of mp3s and the fall of Napster and the “pay what you want” model that Radiohead started with “In Rainbows”, which Trent Renzor “improved”.

I don’t want to say too much, because I want you to be able to enjoy this book. he isa nice book. He discusses in detail the many things that have happened over the past two decades that have dramatically changed the face of the music industry.

You can read each chapter as a vignette on each group or person or aspect of the industry. But taken as a whole, “Ripped” reads more like an uplifting tale with a hopeful ending.

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

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Source by Nick J Peay