by Derek Draven

Created on: March 17, 2009

I've always fostered a certain ironic glee at the way the music industry has risen and fallen within the space of the last 60 years. Without big name music labels, it is quite possible that we would never have been exposed to bands like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin or The Rolling Stones. In fact, in the prime, music labels and record companies served as a vital conduit between musician and music lover. The prosperity of that system is undeniable.

Times change however, and Empires always rise and fall in equal turn. The mid-1990s saw the social acceptance of the Internet and all of its wonderous technical opportunities. Almost immediately, two buzz words struck the music industry with the ferocity of an out of control cannonball: "MP3," and "Napster."

MP3 is, of course, a computer file format designed to compress audio into small, high-quality files for playback on computer or other MP3 device. The file format has remained relatively unchanged throughout the years, but its impact has been continuously devastating on big music companies. The RIAA has been unable to mask the sheer panic running rampant through its ranks, prompting them to launch a flurry of lawsuits against music downloaders. The results have proven entirely unsuccessful, and have alienated the common music fan from big corporate record companies all the more. Napster was the primary vehicle for this sudden shift in power. Musicians and bands were divided entirely down the middle as to the implications of this new file-sharing service. Metallica went on a personal vendetta, mimicking the RIAAs approach by going after specific civilians accused of downloading their music and albums. Other bands viewed the service as a positive way of bridging the gap between themselves, and their fans.

One thing is for certain: music labels and record companies face extinction. While the rise of the MP3 may have shaken the foundation of the music industry, it was more akin to the straw that broke the camel's back, rather than the catalyst. For years now, record companies have become increasingly aware that saturating the marketplace with a certain musical style can yield tremendous revenue. We saw it in the 1980s, when heavy metal climbed the charts, but ultimately succumbed to the weight of its own overblown offshoot: Hair Metal. We next saw it in the 1990s, when Nirvana dethroned Hair Metal and Grunge became the dominant musical genre. It soon gave way to alternative, which then gave way to bubblegum pop, and finally,

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