The Fall of Rome
Kt
kamara | 10 Sep 2007 | 2 Comments | Share this...
As I caught a few stomach-churning moments of the MTV Video Music Awards last night, I got the distinct impression that I was watching something akin to that critical moment when the Roman Empire began its slow and steady decline...and though disturbing, I think the world is much better off.
Talk about the last nail in the coffin! They took it to Vegas, which was the first sign. True, Las Vegas has its own brand of a certain seedy beauty, but in the hands of the now-irrelevant MTV it served as gross reminder that nothing REAL this way comes… There was something of the laughing-stock in every moment-- every performance, every presentation, even the still-electric Alicia Keys came off looking like a side-show within their poorly designed, trashy, barfy joke of a show. It’s called tele-VISION-- if I wanted to watch web-tv, I’d go to the motherfuckin’ web!
But enough of that-- I say let’s get on with it! I think we can all safely say that MUSIC in a general sense is actually getting better. Yes, the labels are totally fucked, but for us as makers of music and creators of culture the playing field has never been more ripe for the fruits of our labors. We cannot let ourselves be fooled that we’re in the same boat as the greedy fucks who have shoved their rotting shit through the channels of our culture for the last 50 years, making a veritable SHIT SHOW of the world’s cultural breeding ground. Oy vey, I’m all worked up!
So what to do? Is it safe to say that an artist who wants to communicate with the masses still needs the resources of a major label, no matter how fucked in the head they may be? How on earth do we reach our greatest potential audience without those resources? Even if we do it ourselves, with just the help of the internet and our own creative prowess, how do we maintain our vision and develop our talents and still pay the bills? Who can an artist-with-vision depend on these days?
Well, that’s what I’ll be shootin’ the shit about this week on this here TPL blog… hope to hear from YOU!
If this isn’t akin to Nero fiddling while Rome burned, I don’t know what is.
Great points all around. I think part of the problem is that in order to sell a million records, you have to appeal to a million people. And in order to do that, you almost have to get rid of everything that’s too different from what people are used to. And that’s how we end up with the VMAs. There are obviously exceptions, but there are parallels in almost all creative fields - look at the NYTimes Bestseller list, for instance. I’m not saying that people don’t like things that are different, just that “different” is so personal that mass appeal is pretty much ruled out.
Before I conceded that I wasn’t cut out for making music, my dream was to be in the biggest band in a small-ish city. To me, that’s the sweet spot of popularity and artistic integrity. Anything above that is a crapshoot with Vegas odds.
Adam | 11 Sep 2007 | 6:43 pm