Dear All,
I’ve moved my blog to
http://theblankstave.blogspot.com
Thanks for Reading!
Love,
San
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Monthly Archives: April 2009
http://www.theartscentre.com.au/whats-on/event.aspx?id=1628
They’re playing at the Arts Centre May 1-2. Check out the link for more details.
The show, The Bar at Buena Vista is a tribute to cuban music legends, in particular the Buena Vista Social Club musicians.
I wanna share this blog article that I came across at the New York Times website. It was a great forum for songwriters and for those who want to understand songwriting.
Bob Dylan once said this about protest music when he started to question it,
“You can’t go around criticizing something you’re not part of and hope to make it better.”
It’s interesting to wonder about this. Today’s popular artists such as Dixie Chicks, Springsteen, U2, etc – those who support either the left or the right, all sing in the name of change and hope for a better world. This is what music has been doing for a long time – trying to change public opinion or lift the spirit of a nation. It is why people love music, and it’s also why some have come to question it. I had a conversation with a music producer once, who has always used music as a way to express his feelings and thoughts about political issues, having grown up witnessing racial and cultural divides first hand. I asked him whether he still believes music could change the world. He said he’s asked himself the same question. He said he realized that most of the people he performed for already thought the same way he does, so it is important for him to speak to those who have yet to hear the message. But he also said that in order to change the world, it needs to happen outside of music, not just within. Artists like Neil Young and John Butler Trio have launched projects to preserve the environment, while other artists perform as part of charity campaigns.
And the question arises – how effective really, are these projects in the name of music? Do artists really care about the world? Or do they only care about others just to benefit themselves? And do those who listen really hear the message? Does change only happen in a chorus?
While it is important to practice what we preach, in music and in anything, “music should never be harmless” as someone once said to me. Artists write and sing the sentiments of a nation, or a divided nation, of the hero and the villian, of the saviour and the victim, of people who might clap or take offence from it – music remains a form of expression. Music can stitch an open wound but it can also force it to tear. It is fair to argue that it takes one to know one, it takes those who’ve walked to talk the talk. But like writers, like doctors, like a good friend – music tries to look in from the outside, to reach out and understand something apart from oneself.
I came across this article by Mark Mordue, a writer based in Sydney. He wrote about the significance of poetry in life and in music. It’s amazing what words could do to you. We live by them. We swear by them. We die by them. We learn by them. And we long to find them. One of the reasons I fell in love with music is because of its lyrics. It wasn’t “lyrics” to me. And it wasn’t just words to me. Music and its poetry taught me brutal honesty and gave me a sense of freedom I never thought I had. It’s always been easier for me to understand the world and myself through poetry and sound than anything else. There is a certain magic, a certain comfort and simplicity in rhyme and rhythm… and whether you are being rational or not, right or wrong doesn’t seem to matter. What matters is that you are able to say it like it is. Sometimes people will say that poetry is too deep, too complicated, too abstract and it doesn’t seem to make any sense when you could’ve just used a “simple language”. But I would argue that poetry IS simple language. It may seem abstact and its meaning obscure but I believe poetry is like painting, like a photograph – it just captures a moment almost perfectly. Have a read of Mordue’s article. 
*Note: Sorry, the article I’m talking about is titled, “Lyrics to Imaginary Songs”. I just found out Mordue might have taken it off his blog, The Basement Tapes. I don’t know why but I’ll let you know if it’s back on.
So with slumping CD sales, music industry reports have shown that touring is the new breadwinner. Live Nation (who has signed Madonna) and Ticketmaster are planning to merge but some artists, especially those with independent labels are concerned it would be harder to book larger venues. And Bruce Springsteen is not very happy because in February, Ticketmaster redirected buyers to a secondary site where the prices of the tickets to his concert were hiked up. The merger would encourage monopolised music-ticketing. There might be some good news as just announced, New York Senator Chuck Schumer plans to introduce a legislation that will protect against unfair pricing by secondary-ticket markets.
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It’s interesting though, if we look at our own experiences with buying tickets. There’s a double standard here… My friends’ friends usually have “better deals” – they buy tickets not because they want to attend the concert but they want to make money by selling it to others, either in lower of higher prices. Sometimes people don’t even care if the price is higher as long as they get to see their favourite rock-star or to see their favourite Olympian. So if we are to curb the problem of secondary-ticket markets, shouldn’t we define who the real consumers and sellers are? And how are we able to do that efficiently? It won’t be soon before we are able to see legislations like that of Senator Schumer to take real effect even after it’s passed. However, it is a step forward to protect the rights of musicians, if not the rights of consumers.
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A Random Thought:
I’ve recently converted from just a Facebooker, to a Blogger and now to a Twitter. I’m amazed at how powerful social media has
become. Music artists make use of MySpace as if it’s second nature now. But now there’s that Tweety Bird which in my opinion,
is slowly transforming the relationship between producer and consumer. I know this has been said before but I believe Twitter
has made that virtual relationship a little bit more real than surreal – I think it’s due to the fact that Twitter acts on random
bursts of thought and feeling, it’s more direct than Facebook or MySpace. I may be generalising but I think Twitter really makes
you go, “Oh wow, Britney Spears is actually just like any another person I’d meet, and she’s actually speaking to us.” That’s just a
little bizarre and scary. But at the same time I feel for celebrities. I think some of them crave for a sense of normalcy and reality
with the relationships they have with people and I think so far, Twitter allows that to happen – the line between the personal and
business blurs even more?
“Take all of your wasted honour
every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems
better put ‘em in quotations.”
“Have no fear of giving in
Have no fear of giving over
You better know that in the end
It’s better to say too much
than never to say what you need to say.”
from the song, Say by John Mayer
This is a brilliant song, ‘The Wrestler‘ written and performed by Bruce Springsteen. It won a Gloden Globe. It was a soundtrack for the Oscar-nominated film, The Wrestler.
It takes me back to Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’. There is a rather similar structure in their lyrics. A recurring line througout ‘The Wrestler is “have you ever seen….” – “Have you ever seen a one-legged dog making his way down the street?” Bob Dylan’s verses in ‘Blowin in the Wind’ always starts with “How many” or “How many times” – “How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?”
It’s one of the tracks from Springsteen’s new album, ‘Working on a Dream’ – an appropriate title given the times that we’re in. ‘The Wrestler’ feels like an anthem for our plight to find a balance between our dreams and our reality, between the changing and the unchanged. A song that washes away our calm exteriors to reveal the hard look on our faces, and a song that seems to say that there is something in nothing.
“I got the chutzpah, or whatever you want to say, to believe that if I write a really good [song] about it, it’s going to make a difference. It’s going to matter to somebody.”
• Discussing his the political themes in his music during an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, July 2008
(Quote from TIME Magazine – April 2009)
Artists have found a new platform for their music, as you might have already noticed – artists like The Fray and Snow Patrol are featured quite regularly on Grey’s Anatomy. The Fray has described TV as “another form of radio”.
This is not exactly something new, as it has been going on for the past few years. You can say that this is also a continuity of film scores. You might have noticed when Channel 10 plays its commercials and program previews, it will flash the title and performer of the background soundtrack on the TV screen.
I’ve asked an artist manager recently as to what’s the next big thing right now in the music industry. He said it’s sponsorship – as in tying a song/artist with other affiliations such as TV shows, soft drinks, apparels, etc. This is what often known in the marketing world as, synergy.
I find this a clever way of getting one’s music out into the world, especially through TV shows. What I find even more interesting is how TV shows and institutions outside of music are now the new tastemakers of popular music. It is an advantage for artists who need the exposure. It is good for the consumer who is out for another fresh song. What’s funny though is that when I listen to a song that was introduced through a TV show, I associate the song with a particular scene but let’s say if I’d gone and downloaded the song and played it without Grey’s Anatomy running, without associating it with anything else – there will be a difference (even in the slightest way) in how I feel about the song.
What I can’t help but wonder is that when artists rely on these associations, does this represent the lack of taking risks in the music industry? What I’m trying to get at is – can a song speak for itself?
The hit TV series, Gossip Girl has everything going for everyone. You get fashion, money, eye candy, fantasy and there’s music. What’s interesting here is the success of the soundtrack album for the show, titled (and appropriately abbreviated) as OMFGG (Original Music featured on Gossip Girl). Artists featured on the show are usually young, alternative bands who are eager to get their foot in the door. The show’s music supervisor (also for Grey’s Anatomy), Alexandra Patsavas usually chooses music by artists and indie bands who are usually unheard of otherwise for Gossip Girl. Artists like The Kooks got their big break through Gossip Girl. While digital piracy, dropping CD sales are putting pressure on artists who are guarding their creative sanity, it may be a risk worth taking to feature the underdog through popular means like popular TV shows.
It may also be a risk worth taking to avoid getting caught up in the delivery of music, and rather focus on the music itself. It shouldn’t be just about business even though money is necessary to kickstart the music project in the first place. I interviewed an up and coming band from the US, The School of Seven Bells. When I asked vocalist, Alley Deheza how does the band cope with the current economic climate and dropping CD sales, she said that it’s important to focus on the music and try not to get caught up in deadlines because making-music would turn into a “chore”.
