Whats changed in the popular music business today? What is the situation now?
To some extent, the idea that rock ‘n roll used to have this sort of free antediluvian identity, frolicking in the 1950s with Elvis or something, is totally wrong. It’s insane. Elvis’ relationship with Colonel Parker, his manager, was one of the most possibly corrupt, certainly lucrative, and intense business partnerships ever in rock ‘n roll. So let’s just dismiss that idea. However, when rock started, and even through the 1960s, the counterculture era, the music industry didn’t exist as we know it now. There just weren’t these huge conglomerates; there were fewer labels. Initially, they were indie labels, or labels that were changing their identity when they hooked onto rock ‘n roll. You didn’t have this whole machine that you have now. Now you have this incredibly elaborate machine like any other business–marketing, research and development. It could be the drug companies. It’s basically a very similar thing. And intellectual property in a situation like that becomes highly contest
