In this day and age, famous is what most people aspire to become. Little talent or knowl- edge is required and money accelerates the level of fame.

Erykah Badu, a Grammy-award-win- ning singer, made an excellent point about female artists bypassing the music — selling the image alone.

“All you do is show up with your long hair, breasts and make sure your cleavage is down to here,” she said. “You also have to sell your super-deluxe tampons, Coca-Cola and then you have to figure out how to fit the music in. If it’s over four minutes long, [record label executives are] going to cut it.”

Badu’s candid saying made me stop and reflect on how horrible everything in music is these days.

The new breed of singers don’t have to do as much work compared to artists, such as Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan and so on.

Everything is created by technology — including the composition and vocals. You can go in the studio sounding like former American-Idol reject William Hung and be masqueraded as if you’re the next Michael Jackson.

As long as it sounds good to the masses and makes money for the recording company, no one ever questions the authenticity.

If you’re as much as an avid lover of music as I am, you would know the quality of an artist’s album has dwindled.

A prime example would be Christina Aguilera’s 2010 commercial disappointment “Not Myself Tonight.” We all saw her when she was “Dirty” and “Beautiful,” but when Lady Gaga dominated the scene the last year, she was all of a sudden “experimental.”

What I mean is, Gaga found success with a weird, experimental-like sexual phase.

To make a long story short, Aguilera’s attempt to use Gaga’s formula backfired. Instead, she should have focused on what she’s known for — her voice.

More recently R&B artist Keri Hilson talked to gossip-blogger Perez Hilton about how well she likes to be pleased by a man.

Granted, Hilson is a phenomenal songwriter, but, then again, she was trying to bamboozle the public into buying mediocre material.

Exposing the sexual nature hasn’t worked for many females in music since Madonna’s antics with “Erotica” and the infamous “Sex” book.

Why should people keep running to buy records just because of some random publicity created by a starving artist? We’re all hungry, but we don’t eat everything served to us.

For me, iTunes has been a godsend to the music industry. This gives many music lovers the ability to pick and choose what they want instead of wasting their hard-earned money.

Since the sales of music are on the decline and piracy is on the rise, maybe record companies will think about putting time and effort into their artists.

If we continue to see the same run-of-the-mill acts, then the public more than likely won’t support this industry.

By C.J. DANIELS

Senior Newscast
Editor
chdaniel@umail.iu.edu