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-----Original Message----- From: Steve Lawson [mailto:steve@steve-lawson.co.uk] Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 4:29 AM To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com Subject: Re: Eminems success / labels future Arthur Lee wrote: > At the risk of getting the wrath of the anti-Eminem folks... > I've come to my own personal revelation that anyone who makes it in the > music business > doesn't suck, they have each worked hard in their own way to refine their > God given talents and their karma and hard work has put them there. I think > it's a matter of taste and not a judgment on whether a particular artist can > play or not. Arthur, the point about taste is fair enough, but there are 'clearly' a LOT of people who make it - usually for a short time - in the music biz who have no 'talent' as such, certainly not for music - the Milli Vanillis of this world - it could be argued that even Milli Vanilli could dance, but you don't win Grammies for dancing... 'Making it' on that kind of level is all about money - the recent spate world-wide of shows like 'pop stars' and 'pop idol' following the manufacturing of bands, and also the prevalence of bad singers who look good getting a 'pro-tools voice makeover' to pull their sorry-assed singing in tune demonstrate that the real geniuses at that end of the biz are the marketing people and the studio engineers who make silk purses out of the most rotten of sow's ears. I'm still not so sure about that. I saw some special on Milli Vanilli (before I sent my TV bye bye) and they actually could sing and the question was why didn't they. I think there are certainly levels of talent but I think most of the people who make it still have talent and don't really suck. They had to have some or they wouldn't have gotton the "marketing people's" attention in the first place. Of course your ears are a bit more critical but I've heard so many musicians bad mouth people who have "made it" including myself, until I realized that you can't suck and actually make it, that it's more a matter of taste. I could still be proven wrong but I think it would be very rare. Art is all about taste isn't it? Your sentiment is lovely, and I only wish that it were true. My only consolation is that I don't even think of myself as being in the same profession as that stuff, and as such can appreciate good pop from a distance, disassociating it from the artists and listening to it for what it is - disposable fluff that may or may not contain real nuggets (I speak as a big Spice Girls fan... :o) There are people on that end of the market who can both play and sing - Craig David comes to mind, as well as a few of the poppier singer/songwriters around. The music buying masses don't really care, so I'm not going to lose sleep over it... I like the Spice Girls too...I didn't buy their CD but I saw them on MTV and thought they were good. As for Eminem, as I said, I still can't make out where he's coming from. I love his sense of rhythm, and his control of words and rhyme is, IMHO, mind-blowing - and the first time I heard 'Stan' on the radio, I had to pull my car in to the side of the road in tears (me, not the car - she's not into rap). Still, the 'message' that his stuff seems to carry a lot of the time is appalling, and the thought that there are kids in the world who look up to him is a scary one for the future of the planet, though arguably only marginally more scary than the people who are currently in power... It's like every generation needs to push the envelope lower and lower it will be vey interesting to see how these kids/generation turns out. I don't like to think too much about the people who are in power because they are all about power and oil. You 'can' be huge in the music biz without any hard work - unless breast enhancement surgery or blowing a record company exec can be classed as hard work. I think that those are the exceptions. However, the big question is why would anyone want to 'make it' in the music biz? I've never met anyone who was measureably happier as a 'star' than before, and I've met a lot who were distinctly uncomfortable - it's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that turns out to be a dung-heap. Your own loftier and more spiritual aims seem to be a much more enlightened and healthy path to pursue, and I hope and pray that you manage to sell a shed-load of records along the way... :o) If you can make it on your own terms it could be worth it but for the most part I think it would be a rather difficult challenge and not at all what you expected it to be. I gave up the unconscious dream of making it big time to just being able to make a living with my art, bringing more joy into people's life and growing as an artist. Thank you for your kind words. -Arthur Lee www.arthurleemusic.com Steve www.steve-lawson.co.uk