Squeeze: “Whatever Worked”

The saying used to be “whatever works,” but in the 21st century music industry it is more like, “whatever worked.”

Squeeze, a band that you probably don’t realize you know, played Radio City Music Hall on Tuesday as part of a big comeback tour of 2010. To refresh you memory on who the heck Squeeze is, here’s a Youtube of their classic, “Tempted” from 1980.

Pretty cool stuff huh? Yes, there is certainly nothing wrong with Squeeze. They have style, talent, and creative songs. But buried below the headline there’s a story that gives major insight into the state of the music industry today.

You’d think that with a big new tour in 2010 Squeeze would have a big new album to go with it right? Well…sort of. Actually, they have been spending their time in the studio re-recording their hits from the early 80s. Universal owns the originals of these recordings and won’t give them up, forcing Squeeze to re-record them if they want to sell them on tour. So you have a 30 year old band selling 30 year old music in NYC this week. It’s as if the whole industry is just stuck.

When Mp3s took over, and the industry tanked, the money for record deals and development of artists tanked with it. Apparently it is more profitable for Universal to engage in legal battles over the fate of 30 year old recordings than it is for them to help develop and promote a new album for Squeeze. And the flip side is, Squeeze knew that if they wanted to make any money this tour they were better off re-recording the hits than pushing something new. Without big record contracts and marketing budgets, its very hard to make new trends for listeners. So for the time being, I guess the mantra will be “whatever worked” for musicians and labels.

I hope we can one day get back to “whatever works!”


Squeeze Tempted

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