“It’s good to be in something from the ground floor. I came too late for that. I know. But lately I’m getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over.”–Tony Soprano, The Sopranos, Episode 1

Nine years have passed since we first watched Dr. Melfi nod sagely as Tony Soprano lamented the glory days of a bygone era. You didn’t have to be a mobster to know how he felt. My generation grew up hearing that everything was better in the ‘60s: drugs were healthier, rock ‘n roll was louder, love was free. And we missed it. We’ve all heard that Granny Smith apples don’t taste the way they used to. I like to think that none of this is really true, and prefer to call it “nostalgic depression.” But, this notion pervades many aspects of our culture, including our professional lives.

Take the music industry. It’s pretty tough to talk to anyone who’s been in the business for a few years without coming ‘round to a story about the golden days. Which, of course, I missed. It seems the music industry actually has a lot more in common with our favorite mob boss than you might imagine.
No, Mr. Spitzer, I’m not talking about whacking programmers who don’t play our records. It’s just the buzz these days is that it’s over for us. You can’t pick up a trade anymore without reading that the dearth of new music technology is going to obliterate the traditional music industry structure. Labels and terrestrial radio are made to sound antiquated and tragically ridiculous, as though it might be okay to laugh if they were accidentally shot on a quail hunting trip. If you believe what you read anyway, the music industry might as well be a balding middle-aged man, standing barefoot in his robe as he watches his beloved flock of ducks flying away from him, wondering: “What the hell happened?”

I won’t deny that there are big changes afoot in our musical bubble. Tower Records is gone. Eliot Spitzer won’t go away. Satellite radio happened. iPods came into our lives. MySpace introduced a new way to check out music. It’s enough to make you go and lie on Dr Melfi’s couch. Or maybe even smash her glass coffee table.

Maybe it is the end of the industry as we know it, but as Michael Stipe once said, I feel fine. Mostly because I don’t believe that the best is ever past. Just as Tony is the glue that holds everything together in his world, music is our glue. With more music out there than ever before, and more ways to access it, we should be celebrating the ever-multiplying possibilities that lie before us. There are issues to tackle, but that’s only a real problem if we run out of ideas. Fortunately for us, ideas and innovations are all around us, if we’re willing to pay attention. And to change. So don’t tell your kids and your younger peers that things were better in the old days. Instead, ask them what would be better if their generations were in charge now. Then steal their ideas!

Of course, had Dr. Melfi told Tony all of this, we wouldn’t have had nine years of some of the best television in history. We have seven episodes left to look forward to. Clear your Sunday night schedule. Stock up on red wine and Havanas. Place your bets on who’ll sleep with the fishes, and whether Tony will sleep with Dr Melfi.

When it’s all over, we can sigh and shake our heads and say: “They don’t make television like that anymore.”

–Julia Clarke