stickin it to the man?

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Bjart Sod
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Post by Bjart Sod »

=^-..-^= wrote:A new model for the music industry? Maybe, maybe not. Remember, it is because of the record industry that we've even heard of Radiohead. They can now afford to nix the hand that sparsely fed them, but made them a household name. A local band using the same marketing technique is not goint to get the same results.
I'm not going to deny the role of radio and MTV in Radiohead's branding, but I wonder what the majors are doing right now for the next Radiohead?
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Post by bassjones »

Bjart Sod wrote:
=^-..-^= wrote:A new model for the music industry? Maybe, maybe not. Remember, it is because of the record industry that we've even heard of Radiohead. They can now afford to nix the hand that sparsely fed them, but made them a household name. A local band using the same marketing technique is not goint to get the same results.
I'm not going to deny the role of radio and MTV in Radiohead's branding, but I wonder what the majors are doing right now for the next Radiohead?
They're all flocking to find the next Brittney. And the music gets worse and worse.
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Post by Silencio »

bassjones wrote:
Bjart Sod wrote:
=^-..-^= wrote:A new model for the music industry? Maybe, maybe not. Remember, it is because of the record industry that we've even heard of Radiohead. They can now afford to nix the hand that sparsely fed them, but made them a household name. A local band using the same marketing technique is not goint to get the same results.
I'm not going to deny the role of radio and MTV in Radiohead's branding, but I wonder what the majors are doing right now for the next Radiohead?
They're all flocking to find the next Brittney. And the music gets worse and worse.
Yeah, it was so much better when hits like "Yummy Yummy" where rolling out of the machine.

C"mon.... pop music is what is it and has always been. When Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn were writing "Mood Indigo," the whole country was sing "Minnie The Moocher."

And the record industry loves diversity. It's dying for another Radiohead, but there isn't one. Bands like that only come along so often, bcause it requires a huge amont of vision to start one. You can manufacture bubble gum out of any one of 100,000 kiddie singers. But you have to wait for innovation.

There's no flocking. You think the music sucks? Then do like John Lennon, or Pete Townshend, or Donald Fagen or Ben Folds or Thom Yorke and start making music that is so damn good it can't be denied. Or, in Pete's case, at least make some music you can stand to listen to.

But at least give it a serious shot so you finally understand how hard it is to be great.

PS: No, a local band won't get trhe same results, but you don't have to make 6 million bucks in a month to be a success. YOU COULD JUST MAKE A GOOD LIVING. This business model works great for hundreds of bands and singer-songwriters, in Boston and San Francisco and Atlanta, who are mkaing a comfortable living and a retirement fund simply writing songs, touring and recording.
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Post by bassjones »

I just play bass man. I don't write (well, a little), I don't sing.

And yes, you're right about pop music, but wasn't Minnie the Moocher better writing than Oops I Did it Again???? And at least at that time, people knew who the fk Duke was. I bet 90% of the musicians on this board don't know who Oz Noy is, let alone non-musicians.
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Silencio
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Post by Silencio »

bassjones wrote:I just play bass man. I don't write (well, a little), I don't sing.

And yes, you're right about pop music, but wasn't Minnie the Moocher better writing than Oops I Did it Again???? And at least at that time, people knew who the fk Duke was. I bet 90% of the musicians on this board don't know who Oz Noy is, let alone non-musicians.
"Hi di hi de hi de hooooo!"

Nah... it isn't. :D

And let's face it... Oz Noy is a genius, but that's not fair. He's not the Ellington of his day... he's more like the Kokomo Arnold of his day (a really osscure blues bottleneck player of the 1930s). I love Oz's playing, but he's not a hit songwriter. I think Ellington compares more closely to my previous list... I'd call him Elvis Costello: popstar/artist/groundbreaker.

My point is that it's always pretty much the same:

* A handful of avant garde guys, some dazzling but mostly making crap

* A larger handful of pop geniuses, translating the best of the vanguard into something accessible that transcends the mainstream and becomes art

* A huge pool of people recording bubble gum ("Hut-Sut Rawlson on the rillerah and a brawla, brawla sooit!")

This is the music business, and t'was ever thus.
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Post by bassjones »

gotcha. That makes more sense, put that way.
"brad!
...your tunes and your playing sound really great... all the best to you and god bless-
adam nitti" www.myspace.com/adamnittimusic

www.bradjonesbass.com
http://groups.myspace.com/northeastindianabassplayers
www.myspace.com/bassjones
www.myspace.com/whitehotnoise
www.esession.com/bradjones - hire me for your session from anywhere in the world.
Bjart Sod
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Post by Bjart Sod »

My question was actually a serious one. With the bleh-ness of top 40 radio in so many areas of the country and the slow death of music television with actual shows about music, what sort of advantage do the majors have over labels like Merge or Kill Rock Stars when it comes to picking up the pop geniuses?
[i]Bound his hands, slit his throat
Three Masons stole his life away
And dumped him in the cold Ontario[/i]
Silencio
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Post by Silencio »

Bjart Sod wrote:My question was actually a serious one. With the bleh-ness of top 40 radio in so many areas of the country and the slow death of music television with actual shows about music, what sort of advantage do the majors have over labels like Merge or Kill Rock Stars when it comes to picking up the pop geniuses?
I don't think they have any. They've got promotional clout and more money to do it with, so they might be more likely to sign the next Ben Folds based on that....

But with the industry changing so fast, the next Ben Folds is probably pretty wary of the Bigs... and besides, who needs UMG's radio payola mojo when the best exposure comes from being in a car commercial, anyway?
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