Members blue2blue Posted October 5, 2012 Members Share Posted October 5, 2012 I melted under the unbearable strain of cynicism.This is too bad. You have a lot of valuable things to say and you are good at giving good, common sense, practical advice about the music biz. Now, having been around the block, I've been to a few of the sorts of seminar/conference/lecture thingies like the now-redacted material was from. In fact, I think I went to one of TAXI's first such promotional exercises and have been following them from a distance for a long time. There is, of course, no question that I'm extremely cynical about the music business. I try to make sure it's not a secret so that people will know where I'm coming from. I don't want anyone surprised when I express my decidedly jaded and cynical views. But because of that, I think it's very important to have countervailing views and positive examples. I'm sorry that the pervasive cynicism got to you -- if I'd known there was a danger of that, I would likely have tempered my comments with some encouragement for your efforts -- despite the fact that I was (secretly) a bit worried that they inadvertently amounted to free promotion for TAXI. But TAXI has been around long enough and seems to be a source of perennial curiosity that I think some discussion of them is worthwhile. Of course, I fully realize that your intent was simply to get the views of some industry veterans and a newcomer who's doing it the industry way into discussion, not to promote TAXI. I think your contributions here, Lee, are very important because you a) have a genuine love for pop music in most of its forms, b) generally have an open mind about the business despite a long involvement with it (which provides worthwhile balance to folks like me who decidedly do not), and c) have the energy and enthusiasm that such a path requires. Mind you, I'm not saying I think a Pollyanna approach is appropriate (nor do I think you present it) but I think it's important that not everyone here hates the music biz. Folks, if you want to be actively involved with the music business, you should pay good attention to what Lee says and, if you can find a way to genuinely develop the sort of enthusiasm and open-minded approach he so often displays, while still keeping your feet on the ground and remaining realistic, it will likely keep you a lot more sane. That can be tough to do, but I think Lee is a pretty good example of what a positive attitude can do to help you maintain your enthusiasm in a tough business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bee3 Posted October 5, 2012 Members Share Posted October 5, 2012 Lee is King. King Knight. I'd like to hear war stories of Lee's musical past actually... the early 80s pop music scene. I want to hear them... I want to hear them all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 5, 2012 Members Share Posted October 5, 2012 Lee is King. King Knight. I'd like to hear war stories of Lee's musical past actually... the early 80s pop music scene. I want to hear them... I want to hear them all. I think of Lee as the heart of this forum. Imagine if I was the heart of this forum, eh? What a cold and lonely place this would be. That's why they have me on spam patrol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ShadowsofBirds Posted October 5, 2012 Members Share Posted October 5, 2012 I feel like I missed something interesting.. but figured I'd chime in with an observation based on the the "pick a genre and stick with it" idea.. Ive been listening to a series of lectures on the evolution of classical music - the speaker likes to assert that the music from given era's is a reflection of the world at the time.. We live in the information age where everything is available all of the time.. My observation being that I'm not sure "Genre" is what it used to be.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 5, 2012 Members Share Posted October 5, 2012 Well, I need to personally apologize to you guys for being so off topic (not to mention perhaps a bit, you know, forthright in expressing my negative attitude toward the music biz) that it drove the OP -- in this case, valued forum member Lee Knight -- to remove his posts from an article outlining the viewpoints of two representatives of TAXI and a young artist who is having some success. It certainly wasn't my intent to drive that content out of the thread, I was just reflexively expressing my admittedly profound disdain for the music business in general and, in particular, the business sector that profits off the aspirations of musicians for various sorts of career 'success.' But if I wanted to talk about that, I should have started my own thread. My bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members grace_slick Posted October 6, 2012 Members Share Posted October 6, 2012 Up Can anyone look at the complete and utter tripe that the Starship put out and think that there was any musical, artistic or cultural merit in the devolution from the Jefferson Airplane to the commercial enterprise known as the Starship? Meanwhile, the musicians from the Airplane stayed true to their music. They didn't end up making as much money, but Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady have a lot of good music in their wake -- and they still have their musical integrity, something that certainly can't be said for Grace, Paul, and Marty. Oooh. My namesake is being crucified. lol. I agree completely. I actually have an incredibly lame and shameful soft spot for We Built This City and also Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now, simply because I am a child of the 80s, but even I know that Starship's stuff is just on a completely different level to Airplane's stuff, and even Jefferson Starship's stuff (which I personally like very much). Grace herself has openly admitted to being a sell-out because of the commercial stuff of Starship. She said the 80s were bad for everyone. Music went crap, everyone dressed like clowns, hair got big, and everyone's brains just fell out. Yep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 6, 2012 Members Share Posted October 6, 2012 Grace herself has openly admitted to being a sell-out because of the commercial stuff of Starship. She said the 80s were bad for everyone. Music went crap, everyone dressed like clowns, hair got big, and everyone's brains just fell out. Yep. LOL. Yeah, that's the Grace I fell in love with back in '67. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted October 6, 2012 Author Moderators Share Posted October 6, 2012 Well, I need to personally apologize to you guys for being so off topic (not to mention perhaps a bit, you know, forthright in expressing my negative attitude toward the music biz) that it drove the OP -- in this case, valued forum member Lee Knight -- to remove his posts from an article outlining the viewpoints of two representatives of TAXI and a young artist who is having some success. It certainly wasn't my intent to drive that content out of the thread, I was just reflexively expressing my admittedly profound disdain for the music business in general and, in particular, the business sector that profits off the aspirations of musicians for various sorts of career 'success.' But if I wanted to talk about that, I should have started my own thread.My bad. Blue and I have been sharing manly man hugs since and have worked it out. No worries, my friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 7, 2012 Members Share Posted October 7, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members grace_slick Posted October 7, 2012 Members Share Posted October 7, 2012 LOL. Yeah, that's the Grace I fell in love with back in '67. HAH!!! Exactly. That Grace was still present even during her "clown" days of the 80s, but she switched her integrity off in order to make money and go along with what was happening at the time. Have you ever heard her album "Software"? That's an 80s album...and it's uh...*cough* yeah. In one of the songs called "All the Machines", at the end the lyrics are "EEG...brain scan. ECG...electro-cardiagram. X-ray, X-ray, X-ray, X-ray".I need say no more. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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