Main problem with the industry is...

[malcolmson]

I wrote a book in 1999 trying to address much of what you're talking about...a book I wish I'd had when I started back in the 60's called: "So You Wanna Be A Rock Star".....stressing what I believe is much of the problem....musicians not

really studying music plus everything else that can lead to great songwriting, such as English and History. In this fast food society, kids seem to think there is some kind of shortcut to being great.....it just ain't so!

 

 

'54 strat

 

'49 Pro

[Delle_Rose]

 

I wrote a book in 1999 trying to address much of what you're talking about...a book I wish I'd had when I started back in the 60's called: "So You Wanna Be A Rock Star".....stressing what I believe is much of the problem....musicians not really studying music plus everything else that can lead to great songwriting, such as English and History. In this fast food society, kids seem to think there is some kind of shortcut to being great.....it just ain't so!

 

 

Well, there's a shortcut to everything else, so why shouldn't there be a shortcut to being great?

 

The thing is, most songwriters aren't great musicians. And a lot of great musicians aren't very good songwriters.

 

English and History and everything else are all fine and dandy, but just because you know something doesn't mean you know how to use it. I'd much rather hear an agrammatical mesh of naive warbling than academic wanking put to a "conceptual" melody.

 

I mean, Bob Dylan is a great lyricist... almost everyone agrees with that. But he deliberately uses poor grammar, illogical structure, and anachronistic timelines that purposely skew any "intellectual" elements that may be in his songs. One can argue that he wouldn't be able to do that without a grasp on language and history, but one can also argue that he doesn't know what the {censored} he's ever talking about.

 

Greatness isn't a skill or a craft... it's something you're born with. It may sit dormant until something sparks it... but it's that spark, not years of study, that make great writers (of course, sometimes you come across a writer who found that spark after years of [usually informal] study). But that spark also lets you fake it... Marc Bolan, Syd Barrett... very "smart" songs... but if you asked either of them to write an accurate and detailed historical piece, I doubt either of them would have been able to. They may have both known a lot, but they knew what they wanted to know, often outside of its orthodox context.

 

And no amount of education could teach you how to do that.

 

Honestly, I think saying "if you work hard, you're sure to succeed" is the biggest cop-out and shortcut ever (even if it's only a shortcut relative to it never happening)... Because face it, not everyone can succeed at everything.

[Mittens]

Another exception to the "Popular Sells, Unpopular Doesn't" theory:

Primus.

They didn't sound too much like anything before them.

And they had a suprisingly large impact on the industry.

Their music is getting more innovative.

Hopefully people will keep listening when the next album rolls around.

It's gonna kick ass.

[Poker99]

Too

Many

Bands