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Lyric Sheets

Martin Newell
Friday 29 January 1999 01:02 GMT
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Last week A&M Records, along with Motown, Geffen, Mercury and Island, were bought up by Seagram. The ensuing shake-up will see 250 bands and solo artists lose their contracts as the corporate giants continue to swallow up the indie sector

The End of Indie

Own it, clone it, buy it, dye it

Pink as perfumed poodle turds

Captured, fractured, manufactured

Glossy tunes and drossy words

Eat those labels. Seats round tables.

Sales figures rise and rise

Gentlemen you see before you

Profits. Let's homogenise.

Number One... The Android Sisters

Number Two... The Boyband Clones

Number Three... The Relaunch Diva

Number Four... The Dancefloor Drones

Number Five... The Barking Songstress

Number Six... The Sad Old Git

Number Seven... Self-Important Whingeing Bookworms

Oh... that's it.

Radio shows and video promos

Global tours and interviews

This ain't rock'n'roll, it's Wall Street

Better ditch the blue suede shoes

Sack that low-life in the corner

Obviously we've few positions

In the modern music business

For such trinkets as musicians.

Bigger, better, blander, bigger

(That's two biggers - never mind)

Buy that programme. Bribe that DJ

Get that docu-soap star signed.

Hire the fakers, image-makers

Stardust-sprinklers, engineers

Talent-boosters, good producers

Anyone with pointy ears.

What emits from screens and speakers

Headphones or the Internet

Shouldn't have the power to challenge

Shock the senses or upset

Ten bland artists, two big labels

There's the future's grand remit

Finally, you'll beg for silence

And, of course, we'll sell you it.

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