I don't think there is such a thing as "bad music."
Sure, there is music you don't like, poorly executed music, music you don't understand, there are people you don't like who make music, genres of "noise," music you are embarrased to admit you that you listen to, music in complex time signatures that you can't dance to, screaming, poorly recorded, formulaic, overproduced, scary, silly, unfinished, boring, ear wormy............
But, none of that is "bad." Bad music would imply harm, psychological torture, physical sickness, not just unappealing but harmful. People are harmful, music is not.
It's a made up ratio, but i'd say music is a 15 to 1 ratio. For every 1 thing you like, there are 15 things you don't. That's not bad. That's just you. Your distaste should not translate to other people. Some people don't have the time, energy, desire, to experience what they don't like in search of a moment of enjoyment. Some people think being a musician is not a valid job. I would argue that a musician is the real life embodiment of the political spectrum. Someone who must compromise their own likes and desires with the world at large to reach a stable relationship. Musicians must play what you say you want, even if they themselves don't like it, and even when it turns out that you didn't really want it. If you abandon them, they must keep going in seach of a new patron.
Some people don't like or think of music as an art form. For some people, music is the disposable paper plate of on the go entertainment. Yet, it seems wrong to deny the lovers of music their pleasure as well. If it's all about money we all lose, but if it's not about money at all we all still lose.
Art and science are two of the many things that don't mesh well with market based capitalism. They require a large degree of blind investment and an understanding of the small but vital return on that investment. An idea is only as powerful or good as the people who turn that idea into a reality, and a lot of people favor immediate pleasure over philosophical investigation.
There is no such thing as bad music, only music that you don't like. That's my opinion, for what it's worth.
Cheers
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Saturday, September 9, 2017
the anarchist musical cookbook: a made up faq
You: Hey paul i've got some questions...
Me: Have at it.
Q: Can i enter zero for the price when i download your music from bandcamp without feeling any sense of shame or embarrasment?
A: Yes. I don't know about the embarrasment, though.
Q: Can i burn that downloaded music to a cd and play it in my car, or on my stereo?
A: Absolutely.
Q: Can i burn 100 cds and try to sell them to my friends?
A: That seems like a whole lot of work, and i'd be willing to bet that you don't make any money at all.
Q: But, let's say i did. Are you going to sue me?
A: Let's just say, i can't afford a lawyer, so probably not. Can i have 30%?
Q: I work for a record label. Could i download your music, give it to a transcriptionist, have a studio band rerecord it, file for copyright, claim it as our own, and sue you for copyright infringement?
A: I guess you could. Again, that seems like a lot of work, and i don't have lawyer money, so whatever. Can i have 30%?
Q: how would you like a recording contract?
A: Do i have to live in a van, get yelled at by strangers, or spend a significant amount of time outside of my basement? If so, no thank you.
Q: Do you want to be famous?
A: Holy hell, no.
Q: Are you a member of ascap, bmi, sesac, etc.?
A: Please go away, and leave me alone.
Q: Do you want to be in my band?
A: My minimum fee is $40 an hour. If i have to put up with bullshit, it's $75 an hour. If i have to live in a van, it's $350 per day, cash, no exceptions. So, probably not.
Q: You suck.
A: Not a question, but thanks for noticing i guess. Please go away.
Q: Can i give you some money without demanding anything more from you?
A: Absolutely, we're friends now.
Q: Do you play live?
A: Only for a lot of money, so no. I play for free in my basement every night, record the non-terrible stuff, and give you the option to download it for free on bandcamp. I think that's a pretty sweet deal, considering i make no money.
Q: Do you shred?
A: No. I think we can all agree that what i do is the opposite of shred. My solos are known to induce narcolepsy.
Q: Why are your videos pieced together from stock footage, or focused on your fingers?
A: Because A) i don't have a decent video camera, B) i like syncronizing small gestures to music, and 3) i think it's funny.
Q: Are you serious?
A: Rarely, and always.
Hope that clears up anything you weren't sure about.
Cheers
Me: Have at it.
Q: Can i enter zero for the price when i download your music from bandcamp without feeling any sense of shame or embarrasment?
A: Yes. I don't know about the embarrasment, though.
Q: Can i burn that downloaded music to a cd and play it in my car, or on my stereo?
A: Absolutely.
Q: Can i burn 100 cds and try to sell them to my friends?
A: That seems like a whole lot of work, and i'd be willing to bet that you don't make any money at all.
Q: But, let's say i did. Are you going to sue me?
A: Let's just say, i can't afford a lawyer, so probably not. Can i have 30%?
Q: I work for a record label. Could i download your music, give it to a transcriptionist, have a studio band rerecord it, file for copyright, claim it as our own, and sue you for copyright infringement?
A: I guess you could. Again, that seems like a lot of work, and i don't have lawyer money, so whatever. Can i have 30%?
Q: how would you like a recording contract?
A: Do i have to live in a van, get yelled at by strangers, or spend a significant amount of time outside of my basement? If so, no thank you.
Q: Do you want to be famous?
A: Holy hell, no.
Q: Are you a member of ascap, bmi, sesac, etc.?
A: Please go away, and leave me alone.
Q: Do you want to be in my band?
A: My minimum fee is $40 an hour. If i have to put up with bullshit, it's $75 an hour. If i have to live in a van, it's $350 per day, cash, no exceptions. So, probably not.
Q: You suck.
A: Not a question, but thanks for noticing i guess. Please go away.
Q: Can i give you some money without demanding anything more from you?
A: Absolutely, we're friends now.
Q: Do you play live?
A: Only for a lot of money, so no. I play for free in my basement every night, record the non-terrible stuff, and give you the option to download it for free on bandcamp. I think that's a pretty sweet deal, considering i make no money.
Q: Do you shred?
A: No. I think we can all agree that what i do is the opposite of shred. My solos are known to induce narcolepsy.
Q: Why are your videos pieced together from stock footage, or focused on your fingers?
A: Because A) i don't have a decent video camera, B) i like syncronizing small gestures to music, and 3) i think it's funny.
Q: Are you serious?
A: Rarely, and always.
Hope that clears up anything you weren't sure about.
Cheers
Monday, September 4, 2017
the independent artist (why most bands average less than 2 records)
I am an independent/diy recording artist. Usually when you hear those terms it means "not a subsidiary of a major record company," but i mean not a part of the business side of music at all. I don't have an agent, or a pr person, or a bar where i can play my weird music regularly, or friends who like to hang out and jam with me, or money to go to a real recording studio, or money to pay other musicians, or money to buy better gear, or a video camera to make regular youtube videos, or any people i don't know visiting my websites. I am literally a guy in his basement making music because i like to do so. I have to physically burn cds from my laptop, watch the progress bar progress while music uploads, buy one 100 dollar piece of gear at a time.
None of that should be taken as sounding bitter, or pitiful. I'm happy and productive, and have zero control over whether or not anybody cares. I don't beg for money, or expect anybody to do my work for me. What i do want is to expess what i dislike about the "music business," and tell people where their money really goes when they buy a cd or record (which i myself do quite often, hypocritical though it may seem).
What does your 16.99 really pay for? It pays for the record company's investment, the recording engineers, the manufacturers, the truck drivers, and the arbitration of taste. When you buy a shrink wrapped, bar coded, security tagged album, you are not really supporting the artist, you are supporting the assembly line that brought that artist to your attention. Is that necessarily bad? No, i don't think so. The bad part comes from believing that that's automatically better than going to a bar to hear a local band, or listening to your neighbor's kid practice in the garage, or spending an afternoon sifting through bandcamp/soundcloud pages. The bad part comes from thinking that record companies, tv, radio, etc. are a legitimizing force in the musical world. It's the "call me when you're famous" syndrome.
That mentality costs way more than mere money. It means that perfectly normal people have to travel from city to city in a van that keeps breaking down, never knowing if they will actually get paid at the next gig. It means that there is no middle ground between shitty bar (no offense to your bar), and 1000+ capacity arena (and the opening band still makes no money). There's no middle ground between hauling your own gear while eating peanut butter sandwiches and full on travelling show company. It means that a guy in his basement recording his own music because he loves it can't make any money at all. It means that you can't play your favorite cd over the intercom at work, that you can't hire a cover band without fear of ascap/bmi trying to take money from you, that there are no real djs on commercial radio anymore, that every other commercial on tv features a cover version of a famous song.
Now, the complicated part. Your 16.99 was vitally important to the store. People stopped buying cds and real record stores folded. But, they weren't replaced by diving back into the real world of music that surrounds you. Instead, they were replaced by streaming subscriptions and digital downloads. Tower, hastings, etc. were replaced by amazon, apple, and spotify. And, this only served to devalue the act of making music even further. That band you like no longer has physical shelf space; they may or may not randomly appear on an ever changing list of things to click on; they might get a front page feature for as little as 3 hours before whatever new thing catches the eyes and ears of the general public. More than ever it is vitally important for an artist to flood you with advertisements, and facebook posts, and crap interviews, because he or she who shouts loudest generates the most clicks. All because you have no physical engagement with the music they produce (who among you still buys actual recordings, plays an instrument, reads notated music?).
The arbiters of taste were not originally the bad guys, but we let them become the bad guys. The music business is now the business of keeping the machine alive. A record company can't produce physical music without investing huge amounts of money, and they can't invest that money without making an even larger amount of money first. That's how the machine works.
Which brings me back to the basement where i create music because i enjoy it. I'm not begging for your money, but i am saying that 10 bucks means a whole lot more to me than it does to the machine. It doesn't mean that i deserve it more than anyone else, but it does mean that i appreciate it more. If you're in the market to "support the artist," consider handing your money directly to them, rather than handing it to 300 other people and hoping that some of it makes its way to the artist. If you like physical cds/records, go to a store and buy them (they do still exist, and i myself do so when possible). If you like filtered mainstream music, pay the subscription fee. Just stop thinking that you're not allowed to like "amateur" musicians, and are prohibited from spending a small amount of money to buy them a better brand of peanut butter, or maybe a hamburger...
... feel free to comment or say i'm an idiot.
Cheers
None of that should be taken as sounding bitter, or pitiful. I'm happy and productive, and have zero control over whether or not anybody cares. I don't beg for money, or expect anybody to do my work for me. What i do want is to expess what i dislike about the "music business," and tell people where their money really goes when they buy a cd or record (which i myself do quite often, hypocritical though it may seem).
What does your 16.99 really pay for? It pays for the record company's investment, the recording engineers, the manufacturers, the truck drivers, and the arbitration of taste. When you buy a shrink wrapped, bar coded, security tagged album, you are not really supporting the artist, you are supporting the assembly line that brought that artist to your attention. Is that necessarily bad? No, i don't think so. The bad part comes from believing that that's automatically better than going to a bar to hear a local band, or listening to your neighbor's kid practice in the garage, or spending an afternoon sifting through bandcamp/soundcloud pages. The bad part comes from thinking that record companies, tv, radio, etc. are a legitimizing force in the musical world. It's the "call me when you're famous" syndrome.
That mentality costs way more than mere money. It means that perfectly normal people have to travel from city to city in a van that keeps breaking down, never knowing if they will actually get paid at the next gig. It means that there is no middle ground between shitty bar (no offense to your bar), and 1000+ capacity arena (and the opening band still makes no money). There's no middle ground between hauling your own gear while eating peanut butter sandwiches and full on travelling show company. It means that a guy in his basement recording his own music because he loves it can't make any money at all. It means that you can't play your favorite cd over the intercom at work, that you can't hire a cover band without fear of ascap/bmi trying to take money from you, that there are no real djs on commercial radio anymore, that every other commercial on tv features a cover version of a famous song.
Now, the complicated part. Your 16.99 was vitally important to the store. People stopped buying cds and real record stores folded. But, they weren't replaced by diving back into the real world of music that surrounds you. Instead, they were replaced by streaming subscriptions and digital downloads. Tower, hastings, etc. were replaced by amazon, apple, and spotify. And, this only served to devalue the act of making music even further. That band you like no longer has physical shelf space; they may or may not randomly appear on an ever changing list of things to click on; they might get a front page feature for as little as 3 hours before whatever new thing catches the eyes and ears of the general public. More than ever it is vitally important for an artist to flood you with advertisements, and facebook posts, and crap interviews, because he or she who shouts loudest generates the most clicks. All because you have no physical engagement with the music they produce (who among you still buys actual recordings, plays an instrument, reads notated music?).
The arbiters of taste were not originally the bad guys, but we let them become the bad guys. The music business is now the business of keeping the machine alive. A record company can't produce physical music without investing huge amounts of money, and they can't invest that money without making an even larger amount of money first. That's how the machine works.
Which brings me back to the basement where i create music because i enjoy it. I'm not begging for your money, but i am saying that 10 bucks means a whole lot more to me than it does to the machine. It doesn't mean that i deserve it more than anyone else, but it does mean that i appreciate it more. If you're in the market to "support the artist," consider handing your money directly to them, rather than handing it to 300 other people and hoping that some of it makes its way to the artist. If you like physical cds/records, go to a store and buy them (they do still exist, and i myself do so when possible). If you like filtered mainstream music, pay the subscription fee. Just stop thinking that you're not allowed to like "amateur" musicians, and are prohibited from spending a small amount of money to buy them a better brand of peanut butter, or maybe a hamburger...
... feel free to comment or say i'm an idiot.
Cheers
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