playing for "them"
I was talking to a friend -- this was maybe three years ago -- about why he had invested in a radio campaign for his latest record. This fellow had a pretty good radio hit back in 1979, and since then, he's bounced around and toughed it out like the rest of us. But his records through the years have always born the stamp of some premeditated marketing muscle-grinding, as evidenced by their release on brand-name labels, credits to producers and managers and publicists on the back, and a certain polish to the musical settings that to me shows respect for mainstream listeners of a certain age -- people, not coincidentally, who would have bought and enjoyed his hit tune back in the 1970s. He's a smart fellow and immediately understood the jist of my radio question as, Why all the old-school baggage? The honesty of his answer startled me: "I really believe it's going to happen again, as it did for me in 1979, so I invest accordingly."
And then I was talking to another friend just the other night, who (though he's old enough to have) never had a hit record, now or thirtysome years ago. He wouldn't have, because he's a player first and foremost, not a singer/writer/"act"; but he's a real fine player and did well for himself in and around Chicago through the 1980s and into the 1990s. The last 15 or so years he's been doing other stuff, but lately he's been putting his foot back in the Lourdes-like waters of performance again. He was saying that this time around, he wasn't going to play so much of what They wanted to hear, out in the aforementioned stream, but was mainly going to chart his own course.
I'm grateful that some higher power puts remarks like these before my ears, if only so that I may steel myself against the demons of my own artistic worst nature. Even though those two men are willing themselves in different directions with regard to an imagined commercial listenership, I take these as two close variations on a theme I hear a lot of from musicians, the theme of Them. I hear it, I have to say, mostly from obscure, not-hugely-successful musicians (could be just who I happen to know). Which is where it gets interesting to me -- why should you be concerned in the least with Them, when you've never even met Them?
And even on the near-miraculous chance that you did connect with Them and strike it rich, why wouldn't you be just as inclined to use your newfound leverage to do what most interests you (like, for instance, Kid Rock, Norah Jones, Bob Dylan, the Dixie Chicks, and so on) as to put yourself on auto-kowtow?
It seems clear that, though I've never met them via my own art, They do exist. On my itunes homepage are snazzy-looking new products by acts with names like Adele H., We The Kings, J. Cole, Pop Evil, and the Joy Formidable. On my TV, a fat brunette with a husky voice chatters stupidly about the secret wonders of lemons while sauteeing shallots briskly; "this takes at most 20 minutes!" and "it's super-easy!" are characteristic ejaculations.
They like their garbage good and hard, and there's plenty of contestants lined up to sate Them, but why we the obscure and arguably talented should be so eager to cater to and oblige Them stumps me. If the Wehrmacht were marching across your land, would you offer them your first-born? I think the better strategy would be to protect yourself prudently from them while doing anything possible, personally or politically, to mitigate their advance. We the OAAT should be meeting this juggernaut of junk not by making our own work junkier, but by offering up our best selves in the form of small sincere works of beauty, and, if we ever happen to find ourselves alone in a room with Adele H.'s publicity team, by slaughtering them all.
I'm not encouraging (not that anyone ever listens to me) musicians to follow their muse toward every ugly noise and offensive lyric and double-digit track running-time. But I'd like to remind all my friends in their 40s, 50s, and beyond, that, even if They were once into you and your weird (though maybe, at that time, widely resonant) aesthetic, They've moved on. They're just not that into you, anymore. They are young, by and large; they are stupid, mainly; and they eat garbage. Now, back to making music, you lonely, despised soul.
7 comments
Ian Gomm WILL have his second hit!
I've found that to be the same with some things I do, not musical. If I set it up the way I think people will want it to be set up, it doesn't do as well as when I set it up the way I like it. And I am trying to make it attractive to people, but my way. And if something doesn't work I change it around sometimes, to see if it would work better, but still try to keep it fun for me. My theory is that if I do it what I like the best, the money will follow.
We're getting back to the "Why People Like What THEY Like" theme, which my 30 year-distant Latin resolved as 'de gustibus non argumentum"--there is no accounting for taste. I don't mean to make this all about Robbie, but it isn't a matter of OAAT, pearls before swine, or any other justification of why some people (me included) love his music and others never will. Have Robbie's songs ever been played by Vin Scelsa? I doubt it. Does that make Vin a purveyor of garbage? No. Stupid? No. Just not into Robbie. His loss. Maybe.
The only problem with "small sincere works of beauty" is that they're still expensive to make (even with pro-tools etc.) and promote.
And they often don't even allow you to break even.
I was talking on a similar topic to a long time mate of mine yesterday about the ridiculously talented and wonderful ahab - a roots/country band from the UK, who, if there were any justice would be huge. They have the tunes, the looks, the character and personality - the lot. Unfortunately, Mumford and Sons (Corporate fakes from London) seem to have jumped into their niche through fortuitous management, luck and god knows what else.
The key word in that is "luck" - age doesn't seem to matter - it's whatever "them" happen to like at any point in time. Some artists e.g. David Bowie can be good at being one step ahead - but then get it horribly wrong - Tin Machine, anyone? The Trashmen's re-release of Surfin' Bird which recently went top 3 in the UK - the planets aligned around Family Guy and they had a hit. I guess there's an element of novelty in all success. The more successful just have the more enduring novelty that gets noticed. You can only do what you do and then, who knows.
This was an interesting read after seeing Crispin Hellion Glover live over the weekend with his latest movie. He performed before the movie, and then came out to talk with the audience after showing the movie. Lucky for him, he can get high paying acting jobs and then create works that are important to him. During his talk, he elaborated on the Corporate Hollywood movie making machine. He wasn't railing maniacally about it, he was explaining the process of how it churns out the safest money making movies to avoid anything that might excite, annoy or offend anyone not possessing an open mind.
I think some musicians are able to do this same sort of thing. One that comes to mind is Billy Zoom of X, who I think I read once that he either didn't like the band's music or that it wasn't what he enjoyed playing. The money earned from playing is important though so he can pursue what he cares about.
Wow. This couldn't have come at a better time for me, as an artist writing for my third record, wasting away in obscurity here in Nashville, TN. As Nick B said, yes, I am wondering where the money is going to come from just to make it and mail a few out to press and radio myself (definitely no money to hire any help). My last record, I was a bit conscious of writing something that could potentially get cut by the scant few outside-the-box country artists here in town. But I told my producer/guitarist/husband just yesterday "I think I need to make a record from the heart of an artist, EVEN THO NO ONE CARES, and not worry about writing something that could get cut."
I've recently crossed the enormous hurdles of getting my music into the hands of some publishers and producers and found that they aren't interested. Depressed as I have been about it, it has also been freeing. It has brought me to the realization that I am making these record FOR MYSELF. So I need to act like it. Dance like no one's watching...make the record I would make if no one were listening...because they aren't and they may never.