Artist: Frank Zappa

Title: Drooling Midrange Accountants On Easter Hay

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Once upon a time, a record company had A&R people in it who would take a 

chance, make a decision, use their gut reaction, sign a group, and see what 

they could do with it. Okay? That was, whoa, a long time ago. It's not that 

way anymore. All decisions about who get signed and what happens to the 

record are made by these drooling little midrange accountants. And 

everything is based on the numbers games in there. And the taste of the 

accountants is what is ruling the mass media. It's all just the dollars and 

cents of exchange. And if you wanna make music that you believe in, the 

chances of doing it on a major label basis are nil, because they're all so 

frightened. Everybody's there trying to protect their job. And it's easy-- 

it's easier to look like a wise executive by saying no to something if it's just 

the most minutely fringe-oid in terms of content. 



No. 



The horrible part of it is the artists who are feeding this ecological chain stop 

making songs they believe in and start making product that they know will 

be airable. And they change the style of what they're doing to fit within the 

narrow framework that is the contemporary accepted norm for suitable, 

radio-sounding music. And anything that comes outside of that norm doesn't 

go on the air, you don't hear about it, you don't know about it. Right now 

there's probably hundreds of artists in the United States making great 

sounds and great music. You'll never hear it. You'll never find out about it