During a recent conversation with Jonathan Montenegro of My 3 Questions To, Sebastian Bach was asked what he misses the most from the music industry; specifically, what he misses from the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Bach ends up ultimately mentioning four things, the first two points involving how people used to go about listening/buying their music, and how music used to be made. Here is what Sebastian had to say when asked what he misses about the music industry of the late ’80s and early ’90s (as transcribed by Blabbermouth):
“I would say what I miss about the music industry is the music industry. There really isn’t one anymore. It’s more based on social media.
“What do I miss about then in music industry? Well, back then we used to have to go to a record store, spend a couple of hours choosing what music you wanted to buy. Nowadays you can just press a button and get every song recorded by man. So it was much more invested.
“Also, not just anybody was making records in the ’80s.
You had to get a record contract and you had to prove that you were worthy of making records. There was no such thing as Pro Tools to adjust your performance in the studio; it was a much more organic, realistic way of recording then, ’cause we just didn’t have the technology that we have now.”
The point about record stores is sort of surprising to hear, for while a tremendous amount of people use streaming services to listen to music, there are also lots of folks who still visit record stores and buy vinyl/CDs/tapes.
The ex-Skid Row singer continues, mentioning two other things he misses from the late ’80s and early ’90s of the music industry:
“Two other things that I miss is rock videos on television. MTV used to be so much fun, doing ‘Dial MTV’, everybody voting for their favorite videos of the day and then seeing who won at the end of the day on ‘Dial MTV’. That was so much fun.
“The other thing I miss is radio. Rock radio these days, to me, is just like one station. In the ’80s, each city had its own distinctive radio station with personalities and specific DJs. They played more of what they wanted instead of just a national playlist [of songs].”