Part 2: Art and Entertainment are Two Different Things

Part 2 of my opinion
Maybe I am misunderstanding everything but I think media has really made people’s habits evolve.To say reality TV would be a generalization, but let’s take Paris Hiltonfor example people magazine, a sex tape ,a hit record and merchandising. Sting now has his music in a car commercial for the launch of his album and to think we destroyed Peter Frampton just for appearing on the cover of rolling stone with his shirt off!

That was the 70s.
We are now having to compete for kids attention ,we have video games.
before Atari was not as entertaining as Ozzy but Tekken 3 or Grand Tourismo—that’s a pretty hard act to follow. I was in France for 4 weeks over the Christmas holidays and I hate to give the French credit—great food, great wine, great women but back to music—they have a TV show which is on weekly called" Taratata.” You canwatch you tubes of it , and all of your favorite American artist passing through France play this show but the idea of the show is to have an act come on play their hit live and do an interview and then perform a cover of their favorite song.
I was blown away i saw acts from countries all over the world performing great songs live

Where is our platform in America for signed artists?
MTV has flavor of love
Vh1 has some videos on in the morning but I think American media is once again underestimating the intelligence of the viewer and there is a real gap in the market.
I am not a tv producer but I know that people would love to watch their favorite artist perform in prime time like this. Take the artist pink for example. On a show like this we could all actually see that she is an amazing singer and not just watch a movie style video and have to listen to a
grossly over produced song. Imagine hearing and seeing Incubus or Oasis or Rufus Wainwright. If you want entertainment buy a bag of coke and hire a couple of call girls.

Art and entertainment are two different things. The problem is, is that it’s too intertwined. No one can tell the difference anymore cause like our presidents, it’s not a live performance. I think we need in the media more live exposure of music , for it to progress and get popular again!
adrian lechaczynski

Part 1: MY OPINION, EVERYONE HAS ONE

People over 30 tend to buy music josh grobin james blunt nora jones toby keith etc. Also, there are a lot of very poor illiterate people in this country who don't have computers there for are not freely swapping music and they go to their local corner shop and buy a rap cd which caters to the same audience over and over again people wanting to make it big in a stupid
superficial way aggression and a rich lifestyle that the artists don't even live themselves. The strokes, the libertines, starsailor, radiohead.
Why are they not selling 10 million albums?

Well, ipod wearing educated people tend toknow how to find their way around a computer easily and swap songs forfree this is a shame cause if you cant even pay your rent and you devote your life to your music it really is off putting who's to blame well no one its evolution look at global warming population growth its only normal that we would end up being able to communicate more efficiently what's cool well we can have web cam chats for free send tracks back and forth via email but if you have the talent to write an album like all that you cant
leave behind U2 nothing can stop you before people did what they were best at now days they want to boast that they did the whole album themselves cause of useless record
companies its a shame i am sure we could nurture another patsy cline but the cool critics would say, "Oh shes just a singer and her record company would not be able to find her good songs anyway I am sure we could encourage another burt bacharach to write a classic etc.

Doing it all your self is great, if you are as multitalented as prince but in most cases even the beatles its a collaboration. So, in a way home studios have given more people access to making music but the standard has gone down plus no kid has 18 dollars for a cd with only 2 good disposable songs on it so in the late 90s the record companies did it to themselves I dont know the future but i know people who love music will still listen to it people who like to write it will still write it people who like to perform it will still perform it we just need some real music lovers back behind the desk and chairs like the founder of atlantic records or Chris Blackwell island records with the means and ears to encourage and attract another, tea for the tillerman, cat stevens, bob marley, crosby stills and nash and young etc.

- adrian lechaczynski

Music is at a Crossroads

I have two differing philosophies on today’s music industry. First of all (to begin with the less positive of the two), technology has allowed for new super editing devices that allow anyone off the street to be transformed into a singer (see Lindsay Lohan, who is on her third album I believe.) It’s sad to see famous artists get up on the stage and lip sync at a concert that the public spent at least $30 or up on. Where did the talent go? Though music’s new technology is amazing, and it’s great if it enhances an artist’s song/album, it should NEVER be a substitute for talent. It’s practicably just an accepted norm nowadays that artists will lip sync at a concert (luckily there are always true talents like Chris Cornell, Alicia Keys, and Kanye West to lighten the spirit.) I say if I’m going to pay money to go see a prerecorded show, I’ll just go watch a movie. At least you don’t have to pay to see someone dancing around on a stage pretending to sing to their CD.

Secondly, on a more positive note, ITunes, MySpace, YouTube and the like are revolutionizing artists’ marketing chances! Now that record labels are no longer the only chance (and in fact are in the process of demise) that a band has to be noticed, artist’s can represent themselves and get discovered. A whole new way for music to exist has been created. MySpace is free and anyone can use it!

I think the business can go either way. It is at a crossroads right now. Music is at the dawn of a brave new world, and hopefully, talent will prevail.

Ellen C.

A NEW GAME IS AFOOT

Things are changing. A new game is afoot. While this is utterly terrifying to the old ways of doing music business, that old dinosaur that is lurching around trying to push glossy, highlighted, tweezed and overly reverb-ed nonsense down our throats and ear canals, for the musician, this is a time of change, opportunity, revival and renaissance. THIS IS EXCITING! I must disagree with Rose below; this is NOT the end of the road for many musicians. It is just the beginning! It is the exit off the main highway for sure, to a thousand different streets …some will be dead ends, some won't; but if you're in it for life, because music is your passion, because it is the only thing that you can do and you have to share that with anyone who will listen, then you will find a way in this new wild and wooly digital world. And those musicians, those "lifers" if you will, are the ones that people are DYING to listen to, to connect with, to grow up with! You could never ever hear these cats on the radio! Generally speaking, acts like this aren't getting signed to big labels anymore, and why on earth would they want to? True A & R has become much more rarefied.…the system isn't set up like that anymore, to find, develop and support life- long artists like this. I think that the real talent recognizes that. This talent has gone off the grid so to speak. There is so much fanfuckingtastic music being made… All I have to do is look as far as my circle of broke, unsigned friends hoofin it out here in Los Angeles. People listened to and MADE music long before the music BIZ ever existed, and they will continue to do so. They are doing it. Maybe MTV sucks, and we now lack a real tastemaker to let the public at large know what's good, but nonetheless, good music is playing as we speak. You may have to work a little harder to find it. You may have to work a hell of a lot harder to MAKE it. But, the pendulum is swinging back towards the real deal…it has no choice!! It's coming back to the honest and sincere, the all heart and no money kind of music, the music that means something to people, and doesn't care if it's not able to be sold to the Disney Channel. So don't lament. Figure it out! Now, excuse me while I get back to my day job. J

Most sincerely,

Samantha Farrell