A Take on the Music Industry
"You've got to accept that results take time. If you're not in it for the long
haul, you're going to be frustrated and give up.
"To open your heart to someone means exposing the scars of the past."
There's no sensation like having your heart warm up as you involuntarily start
singing a song.
The rest of the world falls away. It's just you, your best self, reveling in
how fucking great it is to be alive.
In this world with so many delights.In an era of loneliness, the musicians, the
players, they're there for each other. They might not be rich in dollars, but
in friendships, they're BILLIONAIRES!
Music is dope. Sell it that way. Get people hooked so they won't let go.
One hopes to make music that will last forever. Ironically, you can only do
this if you forget the future and do what feels right now.
If you're not testing the limits, life isn't worth living. Artistry is not
something that can be quantified. Nor is it something that can be learned.
Artists are born. And are developed outside the educational system.
Make music the hottest entertainment medium once again, not a national JOKE! It
was because of the SOUND! It soothed us, it opened doors in our mind, it
INSPIRED us. Then you hear a song and everything is right in the world.
Artistry. It's something innate, something that comes from within. It must be
NURTURED, not KILLED!
Test the limits, touch people's souls, then you're an artist. Music has been
around since the dawn of time, and will continue to exist, great records will be
made. It's just that today music is not where it's at.
Singing songs to stay alive. Nobody really leaves home anymore. Nobody takes a
risk. The concept of starting a new life on a whim, it doesn't even enter their
brain. But that's what the old rock stars did. In patched together automobiles
they made their way. Like a giant summer camp, musicians lived in different
houses and journeyed to their friends' cabins, to hang out, get high and sing.
There were no news crews. Not even any record companies at first. It was about
lifestyle, not fame. And with this genesis, with the sixties values as a
backdrop, the most enduring music of the rock era was created. Where's the music
scene today? Where's the community of like-minded musicians in it for the tunes
rather than the bucks? In an era where the buck is king. Everything's so sold
out/whored out that there's no belief involved. It's just endless product.
That is essentially meaningless. And without meaning, you've got no hooks,
nothing to stick to the audience. Connecting with other people.
That's the guts of MySpace too, People want to meet others, they want to flirt,
want to exchange information.
Where is the control in the music business? The music business is one way. We
concoct it, you buy it, FUCK YOU! It's like the entire business missed it, the
Internet revolution.
There's a community as strong as there was in Laurel Canyon, it's just virtual.
As for the acts exhibiting their wares on MySpace and other places on the Web,
they've been exposed to twenty five years of MTV, they're experts on
exploitation, but light on soul. The sale precedes the tune. Imaging is key.
Everybody's got a business plan, nobody is growing his talent.
'Completely let go of the past, depended on it,Be ready to reinvent yourself.
Live on absolutely nothing, knowing that all you've got is your experiences, and
that your physical assets don't really count'
Don't feel bad if you don't get today's music. It doesn't have what the old
tunes did. It doesn't have a sense of adventure, a sense of limit-testing, a
sense of JOY! Because it's coming from a different place. It's hard to create
a scene today. Because as soon as you've got a flame, the press fans it into a
conflagration, and then it burns out almost instantly. You'd think the record
companies would finally understand. Chasing the buck, they run acts up the
flagpole and overexpose them again and again and again. Nothing is allowed to
grow.
Acts are not allowed to percolate, growing their base a fan at a time.
And if you don't make the kind of music that's easily sold, if you're not
willing to play ball with the corporate behemoth, you don't get to play at all.
Unlike in the late sixties and the early seventies, the act is not king, but the
label. And the label likes this, feels entitled, for risk is anathema to these
corporate entities. And, as delineated above, risk is primary to great art.
We all want something to believe in, something to live for. I ask you, with
endless conventions, books about how to make it, institutionalized success
paths, who can get excited?
Not only not the talent, but the audience either. Isn't it funny that
everything kids get excited about is on the Web, built by their peers and
populated with content they've created? And isn't it fascinating that the
corporate behemoths have missed this every stop of the way, and can only get in
by buying sites that could die tomorrow? You'd think MTV would own music on the
Web, but with a corporate commercial viewpoint, the music video channel missed
it. It's clear that the old days, the old systems are done. The structures are
decaying, they're empty.
A new world is being built by young 'uns the same way young 'uns built the music
scene in the last century, stealing the whole business from old farts.
I can't tell you what's coming. But I can tell you what we've got now is dead.
Kaput."
Music Died. The thread in the music forum defined that in the lack of a movement other then niche cores and heartless corporate empires.
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