Many years ago I was playing at the Palm Beach Hyatt and Tom Scott walked in. He was leading the band for the "Steve & Eyde" tour (they were big stars in the 1980s).

We got to talking and Tom put it this way (I'm paraphrasing). I know there is a sax player playing in a Holiday Inn somewhere like Valparaiso that can put me in his back pocket. But I had the connections, was at the right place at the right time, showed up straight and handled the gig.

Tom had the connections. His father is television composer Nathan Scott, who had more than 850 television credits and more than 100 film credits as a composer, orchestrator, and conductor. It helps to know the right people, and helps more to be related to the right people.

In most forms of art, the gatekeepers decide what the public deems popular. Back then the gatekeepers were the Labels. I really don't know who the gatekeepers are now.

The public is very obedient, they like what they are told to like. That goes in art and fashion. And popular music is not much more than fashion. The public doesn't know how to listen to music, it just knows what to like to be in with the in crowd.

So there is a lot of luck involved, you have to know the right people and it really doesn't matter if you are good or not, auto-tune will fix your bad intonation, studio musicians will cut the parts for you, and if you are one of the lucky ones, you can be a star.

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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