I don’t understand how a heart is a spade…
It’s always good when a skim of blogs and newspaper sites reveal a common topic, and today has been a bumper harvest, so here’s a few links to some rather interesting points of view:
First up there’s this article in the Guardian by composer John Woolrich about ignoring musical categories. One sentence sticks out beautifully:
“Many people are hungry for anything that sounds a bit different, uses sound in a new way and sets itself apart from the naked consumerism of commercial pop.”
Common sense to some, maybe, but it’s always good to see it written about with such enthusiasm, especially from one who probably has very little interest in the week-to-week changes of fashion and taste that usually blight newspaper music journalism.
Onto the permanently outspoken Victor Stone at Virtual Turntable, who, not content with having just completed an excellent five part series debunking many myths and giving many splendid pointers about music composition, now picks up the ongoing discussion about the pros and cons of signing the “big record deal”, initially in response to an article on Brad Sucks, which itself was a comment on an Ask Metafilter thread, and then carries it back to his own site, the better to state his case.
(If you’re digging through this and are interested, or have never read them, don’t fail to check out Steve Albini’s “The Problem With Music” and both of Courtney Love’s speeches (one, two) that are referenced within the above links – although now both a few years old, these articles eloquently target the perpetual problems that still exist in the ol’ Music Biz – Eye-peeling reading for the uninitiated, indeed).
And finally move on to the February 3rd entry in David Byrne’s always interesting diary (there’s no date direct link – move to a proper blog format, David, please ;), wherein he ruminates about the current stateside success of The Arcade Fire, wonders how they’ll do in their soon-come major label ping-pong game, and ends up relating a discussion with his young daughter about the idea behind “intelllectual property”.
Phew. For one day’s skimming, that’s a mighty potent, and highly inspiring bunch of opinions and attitudes.
No further comment from me needed, I think.
March 9th, 2005 at 6:12 am
Nice Find on the Woolrich article. Although I must admit I must have missed the memo on the “People’s ears are used to being stretched – witness the popularity of world music – and during the past few years there has been a proliferation of styles and an incredible eclecticism both in composition and programming.”