No short-term fix for record labels

THE music industry has been shooting itself in the foot repeatedly for years.

It has been interested only in instant mega-hits -- the next doll. It packages celebrities; it no longer nurtures and supports talent. It chews them up and spits them out. It “creates” music in the studio and builds big productions on stage to mask the lackluster (at best) singing of the Britneys of the world. It takes rap -- something real -- and turns it into foul garbage to make a buck. It charges $20 for a CD of 10 slipshod songs and wonders why people are not buying.

Still, they don’t get it -- because the industry is being run by a new generation who was raised on instant gratification [with] short-term goals; idolizing celebrity over talent; preferring airheads and sound bites in an ADD world.

STEPHANY YABLOW

North Hollywood