In Going Emo I
mentioned that there were various musicians for whom I had some positive
feelings, without having listened to their music yet. This comes from tweets
and Tumblr posts by people I follow.
Kellin Quinn, the
lead singer of Sleeping With Sirens, has been at the point where I could recognize the face and name, but that was
about it, until recently, where there were two issues getting a lot of re-tweets.
Since both of the issues pertain to problems and opportunities in the modern
music industry, we will use those as jumping off points, and this will probably
bleed into next week.
The most recent issue
was two tweets, from Kellin, re-tweeted by multiple users, and a reaction to
the VMAs (Video Music Awards):
"I've lost
faith in music after watching last nights VMA awards.. If that bulls*** is what
music is today.. Then I f***ing quit"
"This! This is
music, this is inspiration.. I think it's time artists look to where we started
from, and begin again. pic.twitter.com/7SBFM4cVQe"
(Asterisks are
mine.)
The picture shows
works by several artists, including Prince, Fleetwood Mac, Foo Fighters, Marvin
Gaye, Bruce Springsteen, and Aerosmith, so covering multiple decades and
genres.
As you might
expect, I am sympathetic to that sentiment, but my first thought was "Oh, don't be such a drama queen." I can say that, because for me, that is not what
music is today. Yes, I have spent a lot of time listening to past music, but
there is contemporary music in there too. Great albums have been released this
year and last year. Good bands are in the studio now, working on new material.
It is easy for me to feel positive because of that.
(Also, I did not watch the VMAs, and I think that helped. I highly recommend not watching.)
It is true that
this music is not what is making the headlines, or the big bucks. There are ways
in which that is a problem, and I hate seeing dreck rewarded, but it's
important to focus on the positive, and on ways of making things more positive.
For me, the band reviews are my contribution, and the other music blogging, and
maybe more playlists, because I keep thinking of other ways to be more
effective. Spread the good music!
That works in two
directions. One goal is that we are trying to help more people find good music
that suits them. Music is so important emotionally, and can bring so much joy
and pleasure, that there is a real value in that.
The other part is,
of course, that these artists producing good music need to be able to live, and
so people need to buy their music, or concert tickets, or band merchandise.
This leads to the next Kellin issue:
Long story short:
Oli Sykes (of Bring Me The Horizon) tweeted about charging for pictures, which
was indirect, but seemed pretty clearly pointed at a Sleeping With Sirens
package.
Honestly, $80 for a
Polaroid would seem like a bad deal, but as the full package includes the ticket,
early admission, a question and answer session and a signing, along with a
signed poster, that's probably a pretty good deal. The thought of using a Polaroid
so the fan can get her own picture with Kellin signed is pretty clever as well.
So, I can't really
hold this package against Sleeping With Sirens, or Kellin. I also don't hold
the other tweet against Oli that much. I suspect he just saw $80 for a
Polaroid, and did not investigate fully before going off. I will hold this
against a professional music writer, and I would hold it against myself, but with
musicians tweeting maybe the bar can be set a little lower. And of course from
my point of view these guys are all just kids anyway.
That being said, there
is something that I hate about the package too. Again, it is completely reasonable
for them to get in on the act: Meet and Greets and VIP packages are becoming
really common, with lots of bands, and something that everyone is looking at
now is how to get more money. Digital streaming has a very poor cash return,
actual album sales have become less and less popular, and so what used to feed
the labels has largely dried up, leading to the labels wanting more out of the
touring piece of the pie.
There's a lot
that's ugly about it, and when you add it all together it is not just a revenue
problem or a publicity problem, but a new world that requires a new way of
thinking.
So, I think I want
to spend some time there next week, and maybe I will explain that crack about
what I would hold against a professional music writer. See, I can be indirect
too, though I think I was indirected recently as well, which I think means I offended
a band that I reviewed, but there were reasons for that. Anyway, it's not
stopping me, so you can look forward to reviews of Kris Orlowski and Jeff
Keyson, coming up.
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