Exceptional rabblerousing speech by Rob Light of Creative Artists Agency, delivered at 2004 Concert Industry Consortium:

TURBULENT TIMES:
Where are the answers?

....Every new technology since the beginning of the last century has caused that generation to scream "the sky is falling." The silent film business was a wonderful new technology that captured the hearts of America. The industry screamed when talkies were developed.

And for every piano player and high-pitched actor put out of work, 20 jobs were created in their wake for sound techs and those who score orchestras. The car destroyed the need for horse and buggy, trucking undermined the rail business and the airlines reinvented travel. In the 1920s, radio proclaimed the end of records. In the '50s, TV pronounced the death of radio and film.

Every change in technology was destined to ruin the business it evolved from while most of that original industry tried to cling to the status quo and avoid change.

....In the early '60s, rock 'n' roll was in its infancy and a new generation emerged — a generation that would never use the words "music" and "business" in the same sentence.

Back in the '40s and '50s there were touring swing bands, cabaret singers, even Sinatra and Crosby (Bing, not David). There were powerful personal appearance agents, local club owners and orchestra promoters. But, for the most part, those agents, promoters and most of the venues looked at the coming of rock 'n' roll as a passing fad. They didn't pay attention to what the youth of America was clamoring for. They didn't see an opportunity to do anything but make some quick money and denounce the art form.

And, as the '60s came upon us, they bitched about the technology (45s, 8-tracks, amplification, FM radio) and complained about a bunch of young, disrespectful executives who were biting at the bit.

On the promoter side were a bunch of young entrepreneurs and innovators who challenged the status quo and did something new and different. They were developing rooms in their home towns to give this new generation of bands a place to play. Bill Graham, Mike and Jules Belkin, Don Law, Jack Boyle and Sam L'Hommedieu, Larry Magid (who gave up a job as an agent in New York), Allen Spivak, Barry Fey and Cecil Corbett are but a few, as I could name so many more.

....FM radio created album rock. There would be no Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath were it not for FM. And with the blossoming of FM, the radio business decried the end of AM radio. Not so. The recordable cassette was going to be the end of records as we knew it. Not so. Some pundits even cried that a new music genre — disco — would be the end of contemporary music. Thankfully, not so.

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