Re: In/Out, Labeling, Media Intelligencia, and other things...

[John Malcolm <johnfingers@yahoo.com>]

Anything to say about looping?


--- Andre Lafosse <altruist@altruistmusic.com> wrote:
> O list,
> 
> With the talk about media, inclusiveness or
> exclusion to or from "the
> music biz," labeling, et al. I have a couple of
> thoughts...
> 
> 1) I once had a (very nice) email exchange with a
> critic who had
> (positively) reviewed my CD in a well-known,
> nationally-distributed
> magazine.  
> 
> The critic's email address was @starbucks.com.  
> 
> Not exactly a domain name that suggests a
> "self-appointed" critic,
> firmly ensconsed "within" the industry, enforcing a
> bastion of
> exclusionist, gatekeeper-mongering elitism.
> 
> 2) If I'm not mistaken, Wes Montgomery worked a day
> job until the day he
> died, or at least throughout the vast majority of
> his "professional"
> existence.  A great many music writers, promoters,
> managers, and (of
> course) musicians who are very much a part of "the
> biz" derive some or
> all of their income from sources other than those
> which are 100% based
> upon music.
> 
> It can be an easy psychological trick for a person
> to feel like they're
> on the outside looking in if they're not paying all
> their bills with
> music, but it's simply not an accurate or realistic
> assessment.  It's
> not as if you one day cross into a threshold
> forevermore seperating you
> from the mere mortals.  
> 
> Mr. DT/S-C sums it up nicely (as usual) when he
> remarks that EVERYONE
> who's doing their music at whatever level is, in
> some way or another,
> part of "the biz."  
> 
> Just one example: many (probably most) of the
> 120,000 + artists on
> mp3.com are not full-time pro musicians.  But get
> enough of them in one
> place, and suddenly they're comprising one of the
> most visible and
> important indie music resources around.
> 
> 3) With regards to the age-old lament about labeling
> or categorizing
> what one does, and the "evils" of putting music into
> specific genres...
> 
> Here's a quote from Derek Sivers, who runs CD Baby
> (and who is himself a
> veteran of successful marketing and selling of indie
> music):
> 
>
==============================================================
> IF YOU DON'T SAY WHAT YOU SOUND LIKE, YOU WON'T MAKE
> ANY FANS.
> 
> A person asks you, "What kind of music do you do?"
> Musicians say, "All styles. Everything."
> 
> That person then asks, "So who do you sound like?"
> Musicians say, "Nobody. We're totally unique. Like
> nothing you've ever 
> heard before."
> 
> What does that person do?
> Nothing.
> They might make a vague promise to check you out
> sometime.
> Then they walk on, and forget about you!
> Why???
> You didn't arouse their curiosity!
> ==================================
> 
> You don't need to take this as gospel, but it does
> raise a good point:
> very, very, very few people are doing things so
> utterly obscure and
> unheard-of that they have no existing points of
> reference whatsoever.  A
> lot of musicians have a hard time describing what
> they do (myself
> included), but it's a very good idea to try and get
> over that obstacle.
> 
> Why?  Well, how are you going to differentiate
> yourself from the other
> 120,000 people on mp3.com?  Or the other 5,000
> albums at CD Baby?  Or
> the other 200,000 CDs at a giant record store?  Or
> the other 1,000,000 +
> files on Napster?  
> 
> Or the other hundreds of people on the Looper's
> Delight List of Artists?
> 
> Yes, of course your music sounds different, and of
> course people are
> going to hear that once they find you.  
> 
> But getting those people to hear you in the first
> place...  aye, there's
> the rub.
> 
> Anyway...
> 
> Andre LaFosse | Disruption Theory |
> http://www.altruistmusic.com
>
================================================================
> "A spectacular collision of manifold musical
> thoughts and patterns... To
> call Disruption Theory a futuristic album would be
> an understatement."
> (20th Century Guitar Magazine, February 2001)
>  
> "His six-stringer is pumped up with energy, creating
> a firestorm of
> pyrotechnics and burning sounds, but with a
> sensitivity to weirdness and
> experimentation. Disruption Theory reveals the
> difference it makes when
> a player knows what he is doing. Here is one that
> deserves the title
> 'unique'." (Expose Magazine, October 2000) 
> 
> "Fripp and Zappa, step aside."  (MOJO Magazine, May
> 2000)       
>
=========================================================
> 


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