Where is the Badass Music?

Posted on May 3, 2007 by E
Filed Under The Life |

Today’s short story comes (in part) from something I’ve been thinking about ever since L and I discussed this post on Mark Cuban’s blog. The man owns the Dallas Mavericks, made a boatload of cash from selling a company to Yahoo! and is interestingly opinionated about a lot of developments in a lot of businesses. So periodically, I seek his blog out to see if he’s saying anything interesting (to me).

The question he raised was, from a business viewpoint, what needs to happen to pull the music business out of the doldrums. Now I don’t necessarily know much about ‘business’ per se (’cause if I did I’d probably be addressing a roomful of suits and getting paid to do it instead of putting this thought out in a blog) but I do know a thing or two about what I like.

L said possibly the simplest thing about the state of the musicbiz when she said, “put out more exciting music.” She had said it before and she said it again at Hard Rock Café during the exhilarating of listening to songs from yore signalling their arrival with a magical riff or signature roar…

Which brought me to the realisation that the real problem with music right now is that there might simply not be enough really badass acts in circulation. Think about it. For generations past, music was the primary source of escape. Music allowed you to be who you wanted to be, in your head and through your preferences. The ‘rock stars’ (I use the term loosely to encompass all genres of music) had rabid fans and the attention of the media and industry because of who they were, and also for what they did.

They might have drunk, smoked, shot up and fucked around with gay abandon and in so doing they promoted a dangerous lifestyle that excited safe kids from Amsterdam to Zanzibar. That’s what made music exciting. Who the hell wants to aspire to the worker ant ethic of Linkin Park? Who wants to play music with earplugs on like Dave Matthews Band and Coldplay? Come on! Where ’s the danger in that?

The Stones and Aerosmith are still alive right? Bet they have stories to tell (if they can remember them). More exciting ones than a vegan breakfast tale set in New York starring Moby…

So yeah, two point plan for music’s revival. (1) Make music the people want to listen to and (2) live your lives without apology.

Sales mechanisms, market share, DRM vs. DRM-free, that shit is for the suits to figure out. I’m not saying give up control, I’m saying have a great product to control in the first place. Don’t make it about the marketing, make it about what you put out. A true star can only live that groupies and mansions lifestyle when she makes them wanna air guitar it up to something like the Sweet Child O’ Mine intro.

People didn’t listen to music because it was good for them (that’s why they took their vitamins). When I was a kid in Mumbai with no cable TV, few friends and no clue about anything called the Internet, music helped me feel alive and it gave me hope that there was a better life ‘out there’.

Today’s tunes…not so much. And it’s not just ’cause I’m older.

Which is why hip-hop is probably the only game in town. Even in a city like Mumbai, thousands of miles away from the ghetto. They brought the danger and the fans came a calling. Unfortunately, the hustlers are going corporate and, I suspect, causing a slide in their fanbase as they do.

I’m not worried though, because I know that somewhere in the sticks where life is not all MMORPGs, someone is getting ready to rebel against the state of the world by strapping on a guitar or plugging in a microphone.

They said reading was dead until JK Rowling came along. I think it’s too early and too cynical to begin polishing music’s gravestone. But what do I know…I’m just another struggling artist.

So how does all this thinking coalesce into a short piece of fiction? Read Punk Rock and let me know what you think.

   

Comments

One Response to “Where is the Badass Music?”

  1. Asymmetric on May 3rd, 2007 10:16 am

    Sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to let you know that I have a blog on Cuban music.

    Cubanocast

    www.nelsonguirado.com/index.php/cubanocast

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