Band breakups and the decline of American music
Last night, I was one of the lucky ones who witnessed the first Ben Folds Five show since the group disbanded, eight years ago. The show — and all the ’90s hits my friend was listening to as she drove us to the concert hall — made me nostalgic for a decade when the state of music wasn’t really that great, but it sure seemed to be at the time.Ben Folds Five were a piano-driven group best known for their mid-’90s hits, probably the best-known of which is “Brick.” They were touring to the point of exhaustion and riding high until around 1999, when they released their third album, “The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner,” which turned out to be their last.
Yet that was the album the band reunited to play in its entirety last night. Folds acknowledges it wasn’t an “instant gratification” album in any way, but it’s surely a fan favorite. Let it be known, however, that the five (actually a trio) returned with a set of songs from the first two albums (no “Brick,” but definitely “The Battle of Who Could Care Less,” “Jackson Cannery” and “Song for the Dumped”).
With the advent of Napster around the time “Reinhold Messner” was released, the bottom seemed to be falling out of the music industry, which is still flagging. And I noticed that around the time digital music and piracy became widespread, the big box electronics stores moved in and wiped out Florence’s only independent music retailer, Manifest. Only two Manifest stores remain — one in Charlotte and one in Columbia, which I hit every chance I get.
I have fond middle- and high-school memories of Ben Folds Five and Manifest. Where else in Florence was I supposed to find the Minutemen’s legendary 47-song album, “Double Nickels on the Dime”? Now, I’m pretty much relegated to mail order when buying any music that’s “obscure” (not really, just what’s immediately outside the mainstream).
Sometimes I can dig up surprising gems at the library or even Barnes & Noble. But it’s hit-and-miss. What I really miss are those days when, even though mainstream music was still spoon-fed to us through radio and TV, we still had the option to go to Manifest and buy about anything we could think of.
And at least the powers that be force-fed us some acts, such as Ben Folds Five, that were palatable.
Posted by
on 09/19 at 04:36 PM
I know what you mean, Chuck.
When I first came here for college, the only independent place I could find for music was Ray’s and that was more like a Flea Market than the classic music store of High Fidelity-lore.
I feel like the box stores will always be there, but their presence in Florence and, consquent pushing of Manifest to the margin, may be a testament to the Chamber of Commerce’s past slipshod embrace of the Florence independent/alternative business community.
Still, difficulties are not so much with the Chamber as with the way the business is moving.
What with the internet, it seems even more difficult to start an indie music store because more and more sharing sites are becoming specialized and putting mp3s out of some really weird and rare stuff.
Yet, I can’t say that I’m upset about the music industry being broken by technology. It’s the beauty of the free market created by the internet. Even with the rise of computer-generated bands and click-trackesque programs that can make the sloppiest band sound pristine, I’m seeing musicians resorting to the altruism of their fans and it paying off.
It works for big names like Radiohead as well as for small indie groups like Sleepy Horses.
I’m excited about what it may bring.
I’m hoping, that in ten years, MTV gets thrown out on its tuckus and, with the way things are going on in Florence, that there will be a resurrection of the underground music scene in here that was present several years, although fledging it was.
Anyway, good post, man.