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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Lee Elliott" <blelliott01@gmail.com> |
| Subject | Re: too much and or not enough |
| Date | Fri, 11 May 2007 17:31:33 -0600 |
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> One of the best things to come out the DIY era, in my judgment, was the idea that
> anyone with enough balls could strap on a guitar, write some tunes and get a record
> out.
That's fine - that used to be cost of entry - either starting your own
label or convincing at least other person in the world at a label big
-or- small that what you are doing could possibly be enjoyed by
someone other than your mother. The internet is a vanity press.
Now that radio sucks and all the cool stores with the smart people are
gone I don't relish sitting at my computer trying to find something to
like. If a band is for sale in my local shop - they have a certain
amount of credibility - diy or major or whatever. I'm don't want to
be the first person to buy your album unless I know you personally.
> But I'll take that in trade over the notion that three or four multinationals should be the > sole determiners of what I get to listen to.
That is the horrible end-state we seem to have arrived at with the
majors - there is a reasonably happy medium between one giant force
controlling all and a 1,000,000 independent arts selling digital files
for micropayments. I would prefer something in-between.
> the stuff you really like -- via music 'blogs, magazines or online music
> groups like this one. It's not incumbent on you to "keep up" with every
> shred of recorded music being released at one time. I'm fairly sure you'd
> like to have a life, right?
Ya - the radio show might have tainted me a bit because I made
'keeping up' a personal goal - and in the end - though I discovered
many many new favorites - primarily through this list and our local
mail order friends - I was a little burnt out. And many of the great
early Audities type bands that formed the core of the 'scene' were
finished or had slowed down quite a bit. I think you can see the
change in the end of the year polls over the years - as the taste of
the group starts to splinter a little into different directions -
which is fine. I just wanted to bring a taste of that modern power
pop scene to my little city for a while.
> Again, I'd rather have a multiplicity of choices (with me acting as the sole
> gatekeeper)
I think you are overstating 'sole gatekeeeper' a little bit - the list
and the blogs, etc. are filters too - you know at least one other
person - who's opinion you give value - like's what you are buying.
Again it's trolling the ether aimlessly in a gloom and doom future
that I was implying - sort of - I guess.
And I remember actually liking the radio when I was a kid - nice mix
of local, national and international. Later in life I was very
surprised that some of the hits here were not hits everywhere else -
not sure that could happen now. It could occasionally be a reflection
of our taste as a community instead of a natioanally programmed
commercial for crap. I thought Steve Earle was an international
superstar!
> As for rich v. poor musicians -- wasn't Mozart buried in a pauper's grave?
Somebody signed him ... he got screwed over but he was still a rock god.
--
Lee Elliott
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