JWR Articles: Film/DVD - Before the Music Dies (Director: Andrew
Shapter) - May 22, 2008  Before the Music Dies  4.5 4.5 124 min.
Music without the suits  There are two kinds of music: good and
bad. In times past, the artists and their audience would decide
what was liked and what was not. Sure, it could take months,
weeks or occasionally years before the value of a style or song
was realized, but somehow—like Felix Mendelssohn putting J.S.
Bach back on the hit parade—excellence and genius would always
find their place in the hallowed halls of human artistic
greatness.  With the advent of recorded music, the ability to
capture a particular performance and share it with anyone who
had the playback equipment radically changed how music was both
heard and appreciated. Once 45s and LPs found mass appeal, the
music business was established in earnest. In the early days,
record executives (notably the Artists and Repertoire positions)
became the all important go-betweens for singers and
songwriters. It was not unu