History Main / MusicIsPolitics

* In ''Manga/{{Nana}}'', BLAST and Trap Nest deal with their need to be profitable for the labels -- smoothing out their sound, changing their style, and dealing with the paparazzi in ways that help their bands along...

* In ''Manga/{{Nana}}'', BLAST and Trap Nest deal with their need to be profitable for the labels -- smoothing out their sound, changing their style, and dealing with the paparazzi in ways that help their bands along,

* Video game composer Music/FrankKlepacki (of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' fame) expressed his disdain for record companies in an interview. While he did admit in an interview to have initially dreamt to be part of a famous band, he has since declined to be signed up for a record label due to the red tape which he describes as a "horrible chain of steps to getting famous." In addition, he blames MTV—described as a "teenage reality show channel"—for putting a pretty face on music and destroying the independent valuation of actual sound, and has declared pop music as having become the "largest farce in music history—soul-less, mechanical, and only made for the sole purpose of making the fastest dollar possible, with more emphasis on imagery than the music." If anything, he is more than glad to have been in countless video games than having to contend with pop charts just to please executives.

* The message of ''VideoGame/NoStraightRoads'' is that the music industry is harsh and brutal to the unprepared, naive artist. While it doesn't ''have'' to become something evil or exploitative, it ''will'' become so if left unchecked, especially if it takes hold of people who don't have it in their minds that stardom isn't all it's cracked up to be. None of the game's bosses are truly evil people, but their respective reputations have become so large that it has corrupted and taken hold of their egos (like DJ Subatomic Supernova), their inner demons (Eve), their artistic integrity (Sayu's creative team) or even their familial bonds (Yinu and her mother);

[[folder:Film]]

** ''Toy'', which focused on remakes of his little-known work from TheSixties, pre-''Music/SpaceOddity'', was supposed to be his first album after ''Music/{{Hours|DavidBowieAlbum}}''. However, it was shelved by Creator/VirginRecords due to them seeing it as commercially unviable in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the rise of online file-sharing, and the massive failure of Music/MariahCarey's ''Film/{{Glitter}}'' and its soundtrack album[[note]]the album was completed and handed to Virgin in late 2000, but they sat on it for around a year before finally rejecting it[[/note]]. Bowie would jump ship to Creator/ColumbiaRecords, remaining there until his death in 2016, and ''Toy'' ultimately wouldn't see release until 2021.

** ''Toy'', which focused on remakes of his little-known work from TheSixties, pre-''Music/SpaceOddity'', was supposed to be his first album after ''Music/{{Hours}}''. However, it was shelved by Creator/VirginRecords due to them seeing it as commercially unviable in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the rise of online file-sharing, and the massive failure of Music/MariahCarey's ''Film/{{Glitter}}'' and its soundtrack album[[note]]the album was completed and handed to Virgin in late 2000, but they sat on it for around a year before finally rejecting it[[/note]]. Bowie would jump ship to Creator/ColumbiaRecords, remaining there until his death in 2016, and ''Toy'' ultimately wouldn't see release until 2021.

* Music/{{Prince}} was very bitter over this. So much so he once changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in order to defy Creator/WarnerBrosRecords, and disassociate himself from the "slave" artist that he claimed the label had turned him in to. He wouldn't change it back until his contract expired.

** Spendthrift manager Tony Defries helped him make his commercial breakthrough in TheSeventies, largely by presenting him as a star with limos, an entourage, etc. before he really was one. But as time passed Bowie saw little of the money his work was generating, and the litigation required to break away from this relationship lasted him the rest of the decade.
** As well, his label Creator/RCARecords wasn't happy with his choice to move into less-commercial artistic realms with ''[[Music/LowDavidBowieAlbum Low]]'' in 1977 (with Defries outright encouraging the label to block its release), the first step towards his choice to break away from that company in TheEighties.
** At his next label Creator/EMIAmericaRecords, he had the biggest commercial success of his career with 1983's ''Music/LetsDance'', but choosing to continue with that mainstream album's style on ''Music/{{Tonight}}'' and ''Music/NeverLetMeDown'' as the label pressured him for another blockbuster proved artistically unsatisfying for him; critics and fans regard that stretch of TheEighties as a DorkAge. He left the label when it had reservations about a second album he made with his HardRock group [[Music/TinMachineAlbum Tin Machine]].
** 1993's ''Music/BlackTieWhiteNoise'' went to #1 in the U.K. but was overlooked in the U.S. -- partially because the distributor there, Savage Records, went belly-up the month after its release.
** The MissingEpisode ''Toy'' (which focused on remakes of his little-known work from TheSixties, pre-''Music/SpaceOddity'') was supposed to be his first album after ''Music/{{Hours}}'' but wound up shelved by Creator/VirginRecords due to them seeing it as commercially unviable in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the rise of online file-sharing, and the massive failure of Music/MariahCarey's ''Film/{{Glitter}}'' and its soundtrack album[[note]]the album was completed and handed to Virgin in late 2000, but they sat on it for around a year before finally rejecting it[[/note]]. Bowie would jump ship to Creator/ColumbiaRecords, remaining there until his death in 2016, and ''Toy'' ultimately wouldn't see release until 2021.

* TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment: It's distressingly common for albums to go unreleased, due to label shakeups, executives being unhappy with the finished product, or even labels going out of business completely. Sometimes, another label might step in and release it, but often the only way these albums see the light of day is through bootlegs.

* Music/{{Paparazzi}} is a sterling example of a great group ''imploding from within'' due to the [[PointyHairedBoss ridiculous whims and demands]] of [[WereStillRelevantDammit trend-chasing]] [[ExecutiveMeddling execs]], to the point that you could have a whole documentary made about the politics of the music industry of the era failing them.

* TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment: It's distressingly common for albums to go unreleased, due to label shakeups, executives being unhappy with the finished product, or even labels going out of business completely. Sometimes, another label might step in and release, but often the only way these albums see the light of day is through bootlegs.

* TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment: It's distressingly common for albums to go unreleased, due to label shakeups, executivesw being unhappy with the finished product, or even labels going out of business completely. Sometimes, another label might step in and release, but often the only way these albums see the light of day is through bootlegs.

* TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment: It's distressingly common for albums to go unreleased, due to label shakeups, executivesw being unhappy with the finished product, or even labels going out of business completely.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: If an exec doesn't like you, the label just doesn't think you're a priority, or just has disorganized management, good luck getting promoted or even having your album in stores.

* The documentary ''Electric Purgatory'' uses this trope to explain why modern black rock musicians have such a hard time breaking into the mainstream during the last 30 years or so. Long story short -- the record labels didn't know how to market them to mainstream white listeners since most of them weren't interested in listening to "black music". So the labels found their white counterparts. T'was done before that as well during the '60s with white counterparts like Music/TheBeatles and Music/TheRollingStones.

* UsefulNotes/HollywoodAccounting: Labels and managers are notorious for trying to cheat artists out of their royalties. The label will end up with the lion's share of the profits, even on an album that sells a lot of copies. Streaming revenues are even more opaque.

** To add insult to injury, some of the latter artists were either writers or backup singers for the former to help them sound good. They were basically languishing in the background helping arguably lesser artists, and the only reason they even got a deal was probably that they were ''promised'' one by the company for their work with the former R&B/pop artists. The former, artists get the most attention and their albums are fast-tracked (That's if they don't fall victim to this trope themselves), while the latter artists sometimes see their albums get shelved, or under-promoted.

* Video game composer Music/FrankKlepacki (of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' fame) expressed his disdain for record companies in an interview. While he did admit in an interview to have initially dreamt to be part of a famous band, he has since declined to be signed up for a record label due to the red tape which he describes as a "horrible chain of steps to getting famous." In addition, he blames MTV—described as a "teenage reality show channel"—for putting a pretty face on music and destroying the independent valuation of actual sound, and has declared pop music as having become the "largest farce in music history—soul-less, mechanical, and only made for the sole purpose of making the fastest dollar possible, with more emphasis on imagery than the music." If anything, he was more than glad to have been in countless video games than having to contend with pop charts just to please executives.

So, you're an up-and-coming music star, and you're probably thinking that all you really need to make it in the music industry is to be an exceptional singer/rapper, songwriter, and a very good, technically skilled musician, right?... '''[[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome WRONG!]]''' [[ThisIsReality It's not that simple at all]].

You see, the promotion of music is politics, and [[ExecutiveMeddling a lot more goes on behind the scenes]]. It's way more complicated than walking into the studio and recording a hit album. You (or more accurately the record company) have to worry about image, artistic directions, {{demographic|s}} considerations, marketing, [[MoralGuardians censorship]], courting radio and music networks through legal or, um... [[BribingYourWayToVictory non-legal]] means, music critics' opinions, and paying close attention to trends. It's never ''just'' about music, for better or for worse. In the end, you could end up with [[ArtistDisillusionment disillusioned artists]] ''and'' [[FanDisillusionment fans]].

* BribingYourWayToVictory: While payola is less of an issue than it used to be due to the declining importance of radio, sponsored tracks on streaming services have taken on a very similar role. Inverted in the case of things like tour and label buy-ons: tour buy-ons are often sold to up-and-coming artists as an investment for necessary exposure, but seldom work out that way, as buy-on bands always play at the bottom of the bill (meaning that the crowds will be sparse, especially if doors are regularly late), are often treated poorly by headliners, and are regularly looked down upon by their peers, and the "exposure" often leads to overexposure, as regularly buying on to bills will quickly cause audiences to grow tired of you and will give you a reputation for being "that band" that is on every tour, but has no fanbase and never gets bigger. If a headliner regularly solicits buy-ons, then they are almost certainly over the hill and their guarantees have gone down, and they use buy-ons to subsidize the tour. Label buy-ons, meanwhile, are strictly scams - no decent label is going to request money up front in order to get signed.

* TroubledProduction
* WeAreStrugglingTogether: The bigger the act and the more money that is involved, the more likely it will be that few, if any members get along or like each other, up to the point where they will travel on different buses, sleep at different hotels, and occupy different dressing rooms, only seeing each other at rehearsals, live performances, and sometimes recording or press conferences (and even then, it's completely possible for everyone to write on their own and send files to the others and then track them at separate studios, or to just use session musicians to do the album). If things are ''really'' contentious, they may have zero direct correspondence, instead communicating entirely through their management and legal staff.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: If an exec doesn't like you, or the label just doesn't think you're a priority, or just has disorganized management, good luck getting promoted or even having your album in stores.

* Music/ThirtySecondsToMars was engaged in a legal battle with their label EMI for not delivering the number of albums that was stipulated in their contract. The band members claimed they did not receive their share of the profits from album sales. The film ''Artifact'' documents the band's struggle to record their third album and critiques [[MoneyDearBoy unfair business practices]] in the music industry.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: If an exec doesn't like you, or the label just doesn't think you're a priority, good luck getting promoted or even having your album in stores.