So what's wrong with the music industry today? Money hungry record executives? Corporations owning too many radio stations? Yes. Those are the two things that're wrong with the music industry. At least according to this film.<br /><br />I was incredibly disappointed to find that a film with so many artists and executives working in and around the music industry, could offer so little insight in to it. After watching this I realized I really didn't learn anything, with the exception of being exposed to some artists I had never heard of.<br /><br />Before the Music Dies starts off as a narrative explaining how a death in the family led to the narrator's search to find what's wrong with today's music industry. That's where the narration ends, from that point on the movie becomes a series of clips and artist/executive/fan commentary.<br /><br />The film then proceeds to waste your time with a dozen commentators who all seem to agree on everything. Executives care about money, not art. Executives care about money, not art. Executives care about money, not art. Over and over and over they drill that in to your head, in case you didn't know already. Repeatedly telling us how bad record executives are is harmless enough, even if tedious, but the film becomes simply dishonest when it raves about the greatness of record executives in the past. When a commentator bluntly states that "When Stevie Wonder wants to make a record, he makes a record" it makes you wonder if he or the director do any research into Motown and their factory-like operation of churning out hits before butchering history.<br /><br />Besides the fact that the film barely scratches the surface of why we have such bad music today, it actually doesn't really discuss today's music. Hip Hop is barely mentioned, and never discussed. Instead of taking a serious look at today's music, the film takes cheap shots at Ashley Simpson to represent everything that's wrong with music today.<br /><br />The film tries to end with a positive outlook for the future, citing the rise of Napster and the internet as music's salvation. Though the fact that Napster was a good 5 years before Ashlee Simpson's time, this salvation doesn't appear to be well thought out.<br /><br />So what else are we to do? In one of the most cheesy endings to anything, ever, the narrator comes back to make a plea that we teach the children about Pink Floyd and The Who.<br /><br />On the positive side, Erykah Badu was pretty funny, and the performances were pretty fun.