Prog and the state of the music business

 

Jazz music presents an observation for me. It derives from the "Black Community" and was developed through their bloodline. Their bloodline into the creation of new music....Blues, "Rock N' Roll", Jazz, Gospel and to minus all that inventive music from the western culture ....it would be scary to imagine what would have developed instead. I am very thankful they developed this music in America. 

 

So many positives and negatives in music culture and obviously within all walks of life...but more extreme with the emotional side to being a musician and struggling for that serious life. I believe that an ego should shut itself down every so often  like hitting a switch. Musicians who struggle with their lack of talent to master something new...yet are talented enough to be great writers often become discouraged over themselves and desire to be egotistical for power. A great player who is humble will struggle with a difficult piece of music and not think of themselves and only focus on the art. I'm not sure why great musicians have ego's. There is a personal history of composers centuries ago who were put under extreme pressure to write the perfect composition. They seem to have a different upbringing where the evidence of ego driven ideas begin at age 13. One kid who is multi talented tells the other kid (who is quite talented at only one particular instrument)....that he must be a moron because he does not know what a rudiment is. Every child or teenager travels through the identity crisis ...but one day they will be sitting in music college hearing some devoted musician playing the most inferior pieces in the world. They either have to wake up then and realize that the possibilities are endless in music and that the smart thing to do would be to remain humble or become a nasty ego inflated baby. Which is how a lot of great musicians turn out because their parents were not musicians yet forced a macho attitude upon them that doesn't work well in the development of an instrument.

You already have hours of hard devotion on an instrument.....letting your ego stand in the way is the last thing on earth you want.  Parents will force the wrong kind of encouragment or support to the child. My dog is better than your dog or my son can pitch a baseball finer than yours. Then the kid is excepted into music college at 18 and some respected music professor teaches him a thing or 2 about music and about what dedicated musicians define as practices. Now the kid thinks to himself...."Why was my father teaching me all this nonsense?"  Why do that to your kid? Why not tell them the truth in the beginning and then prepare them for the trials in music college Parents do not want their children to lack confidence yet their macho method of raising them will shatter into pieces when their child is faced with the realization that he/she must study more..... and that alone is quite a larger blow to a full blown ego well developed at age 18 than any honest step in life they could have taken to prevent the nightmare itself.     

I guess I was thinking of a different kind of gig, the kind of cellar club with a couple of bands, each with one or two indie releases, each scaring up 20 or so mates and hoping that their leafleting of the area and hopefully the noise on the street outside will entice in some extra punters, as might the happy hour bar prices.  I'm really talking the long-tail end of the business not the 1000 seat city venue tour with trucks and a tour bus. But where you can have a beer with the bass player and lead vocalist...

I go to quite a few of these type of gig, bands with tiny followings who have outlaid several grand of personal money to get their music recorded, who might get some positive noise on sites like this and are trying to get heard.

And as far as I can tell much of the prog scene is exactly like I describe.

CDs were a  poor substitute for the joy of a double gate-fold sleeve anyway and I don't really miss them.

LPs were great until they scratched or had a poor quality or filler track that you couldn't easily ignore.

 

I dunno, I'm not an industry whiz, but i do miss the Album/CD art that seems to be faing away.