Thoughts from a U.S. musician in the database

A sobering view of our nation's heritage
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Sometimes I really worry about where we are headed. This proud nation that once led the world in music productivity has fallen from grace.

Our heritage of a robust musical-industrial complex has dwindled to a sad shadow of its former self. Whereas once we held a lead against all other industrialized nations in music production with the likes of C+C Music Factory, Thievery Corporation, Love and Rockets, Bad Company and Murder Inc., we now find ourselves having to import music from abroad while the former manufacturing plants of these bands sit idle, shuttered and rusting away.

Look, I understand the broader market forces at play here, and true, with globalization, our domestic music manufacturing market clearly faced some strong headwinds. But I can't help feeling that if our government policies had been more business-friendly, we would still be pumping out music manufactured by Americans using American-sourced raw materials. To make matters worse, not only are we now reliant on imported musical goods, we are now facing crushing tariffs that are putting these things out of reach for most working-class Americans.

What do you think? Is there still hope? Do you see a future in which we can revive our musical legacy? I know there are some artisanal musical craftsmen and women building a small movement to restore our domestic musical production by repurposing the old manufacturing plants, but I wonder if it's too little too late.

October 20, 2025

I'm surprised that not all of these bands are in our database.

I'm surprised that not all of the bands listed are American, but maybe that's part of the comedy. Which musician in the database are these thoughts from?

I remember 15+ years ago here, people pushed for the industry to give more recognition to New Zealand heavy metal bands. A radio DJ said something about us having our version of Metallica, and our Megadeth etc. As a huge fan of those two bands, that irritated me... I'm avid listener of NZ bands but there was nothing remotely close at the time. Our metal scene was almost entirely death & black metal with everyone trying to out-extreme each other, until around mid-2008 when the stoner rock/doom metal craze really took off. Once I moved to Auckland I suppose I saw Just One Fix (in queue), who are kind of a B-grade accessible thrash that I was actually able to get CDs of. Everything else on the thrash front was either death/black/thrash, way more hardcore punk-leaning, or so obscure that I saw them once and then couldn't learn/hear another peep about them.

Things got better and better over time, but still, no amount of local industry ever seems enough to replace that one unique foreign band with a large discography you love. :) So if your country's making musicians pay exorbitant visa costs because "we have {band X} at home", that's silly.

Tell me about it, Larry, Europe has seen a similar decline despite Herculean efforts of acts such as 2 Unlimited, Milk Inc., Fun Factory and JT Company. What happened?