check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPZztrRWjZ8this is part 1 of 13, available on youtube
It's a documentary of the music industry, where it's been and where its going.
Please watch and comment if you have time.
So far just watched this part... a bit 'off topic', but what a cool jazz theme 3 mins in!. Makes me wish there was a BIAB style with harmonies like that.. minor 2nds and everything! .. Further reaction later.
Alan
It starts out slow, but gets pretty interesting after the 3rd or 4th part.
Pat,
Great find! This is definitely worth watching.
The first 2 clips are kind of slow, but it gets it’s legs by the third one. Don’t let the 13 clips throw you off. It’s only about an hour.
It harkens back to a comment I made I made on one of your threads a week or two ago about being “true to yourself” as a musician. It depends on whether you’re playing to make money,(which is fine to do), or whether you’re playing what you like and you don’t care what people “want to hear”.
I would rather play what I like, and if anyone wants to listen, they can. No requests please! (Unless of course you already know it’s something I like to play.
)
You may not, (probably won’t), make any money with this approach. But you may find a small niche of people who want to hear what you play, instead of what a “focus group” or pop culture says they should listen to.
Interesting. During part 8, one of the interviewees stated that "today's fans are not buying music, they are buying pop-culture."
I had never really thought of it that way, but he is correct.
This video in available on Hulu for free, with only a few commercials. I found it more convenient to watch, and the resolution looked better also.
Sadly, the message was right on the mark.
When the history of important American musical influences is written, Louis Armstrong and Woody Guthrie will get chapters, while Lady Gaga will have a couple of sentences and a footnote.
Here is old school combined with one of the new breed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OFMkCeP6ok&feature=topvideos_musicI've drawn my conclusions, but I'll let you judge on your own.
Hey guys!
That was quite interesting to watch, thanks for sharing the link here I appreciate it!
I found this interesting on a couple of levels:
1) the OLD paradigm in which music companies and radio stations have a virtual monopoly on who gets air play (and therefore, has a chance at fame and fortune) is what most of the negative comments were about... but its worth noting that the ability of common musicians to record, produce, master advertise and distribute their own music online has bypassed the weasels and put music's destiny back in the hands of the music CREATORS (in large part, thanks to companies like PGMusic who empower the musical masses)
2) The NEW paradigm of "only the beautiful are marketable" actually creates opportunities for people like us, because the beautiful-but-not-talented performers need to buy their songs from people like us.
Well Bob, its like this... (true story)
As a younger man I took pleasure in jerking people's chains, withholding praise even when it was due, basically messing with good people who didn't deserve to be messed with. I did it because a lot of other people did it, and at the time it seemed like fun. In short, I was not a pleasant person to be around.
But I noticed one day that nothing good ever happened around me anymore. All the positive people left my side and the only people around me were those who enjoyed the kind of behavioral crap I dished out. All of the remaining people were black holes of negativity, value subtractors, users and losers.
The value adders were somewhere else, surrounded by the positive people who were like them. And being surrounded by value adders, they all flourished like plants that have exactly the right amount of nourishment.
It occurred to me that positivity is something that needs to be fed and watered or it dies on the vine. I imagined a world where all the positive people gave up because of those who consistently withheld the encouragement and praise they had worked for and rightfully deserved. It wasn't a pretty thing to imagine.
So, I made a conscious decision to positively reinforce anyone who seemed to be doing something worthy of praise; and, by default, a conscious decision to resist the temptation to say anything that might discourage, insult, wear down, deflate or subract value in any way.
Yes, you're right... at times it comes across as disingenuous... but all idealism appears disingenuous to those who don't share the ideology.
The difference between what I do and what a snake oil salesman does is that the snake oil salesman profits by cheating people out of their hard earned money and gives them something worthless in exchange.
I don't profit in any way by praising others... in fact I try to avoid cheating them out of the reward they've earned. It is enough to me that people who are doing a good thing don't give up. If I accomplish one thing in this life, I want to die knowing I took every step possible to reward goodness wherever I saw it. And I definitely see goodness coming out of PGMusic. Read the forums, people's lives are literally jump-started by the fun they're having and the musical successes that wouldn't have happened without it.
End of story, its nothing more complicated than that.
Regarding the terminology you find so amusing, I can only say that I have always taken pleasure in the sound of a well-crafted phrase. Words can be powerful in both directions...They can tear down as easily as they can build up.
Knowing that, I use them with surgical precision, not randomly nor disingenuously.
Thanks for asking. It was time to get the lid off that molasses jar.
allegory:
a man walks up to another man for conversation. As he walks away after the conversation, he finds himself thinking "wow, that man is really interesting and smart"
Later he walks up to a different man for conversation. When he walks away from that one, he finds himself thinking "Wow, I must be interesting and smart"
the difference in the first person's response to each conversation is directly related to the way the other two men directed the flow of ideas. Each man accomplished his intent.
There is a lesson in this story; but depending on which man in the story most resembles the reader, the interpretation tends to be different.
Sounds like Pat awoke to the truth and beauty of a situation, if you ask me.
Keep it up, Pat, sometimes takes a thick skin in this age, as I'm sure you've found out on occasion.
Optimism is often mistaken by quite a few as having some sort of sinister lining to it, part and parcel of what passes for education in our era, too, classes purported to be on Critical Thiking these days have nothing to due with Thinking Critically but rather with being critical. Thank you, Alinsky, but no thanks.
And Pat stated the case admkrably well, IMO -- optimism is indeed a discipline -- but those of us who practice the art and science of becoming your own word wouldn't have it any other way.
--Mac
Pat, you ought to bottle that attitude and sell it.
Heck, I'd send in a buck or two for a good healthly dose of "Pat's Magic Elixer for Positive Attitude Adjustment". Perhaps a discount to forum members would be appreciated by all.
Thanks, Pat. I really needed to see your words. Our world is so filled with negativity especially from the news media. My wife and I often comment on it and wonder why it's so rare when something positive (not to mention heartfelt) is every reported. I'm no big fan of the media. At least ABC has some human interest stories via their "Person of the Week" sometimes, but not nearly often enough.
As to PG Music, both it and these forums have literally brought some happiness, not only to Pauline and I, but also to many folks in retirement homes and some hospitals. I don't mind being reminded of this at all.
Stan
