by Thomas Leatham, Far Out Magazine, April 16, 2023
In an interview with Loud and Quiet, frontman of Minor Threat and Fugazi and co-founder and owner of independent record label Dischord, Ian MacKaye once reflected on the way that music had changed since the glory days of hardcore punk, mostly for the worst. “Music is becoming content,” he said. “You can see it with these streaming services. You just sign up and subscribe to the service, and you get all this content.”
It’s that content, for MacKaye, that is damaging to the very conception of music itself. “It’s not music; it’s content,” he added. “They don’t care; the people that run those businesses do not give a fuck about music. What they care about is content; they want subscribers. I think even labels are moving in that direction too. It’s really depressing, but that’s the way it goes.”
(...) It’s not just streamed and recorded music that MacKaye is concerned about, though. As any mainstay of the punk scene, his bread and butter is the good old live show. But, he believes that live venues have their eyes on motives other than providing great live entertainment.
Read more of this article on Far Out's site, where it was initially published.
Photo credit : Far Out / thisisbossi
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