Re: FW: Ephemerality of uniqueness

QoolDjMarv@aol.com
Wed, 20 Dec 1995 12:02:41 -0500


> ...when things start becoming mainstream and trendy, the "coolness"
> of it all seems to disappear.
>
>I'd tend to agree with this in as much as those things that >become
mainstream often get packaged with lots of hype and >"crass commercialism".
And of course, the really popular >stuff gets played to death on every radio
station, in every >shop & down every street. This tends to put me off. I
can >recall occasions when I liked a particular artist until they >became
very popular; it just seemed different. Perhaps it is >merely a perception
thing or perhaps the artist, having >achieved mainstream success, changes to
cater for their new >audience. I think, even less cool, is the mainstream
>followers of this newly popular music who have no >appreciation for what
came before. For example, Elson >mentioned the Kool & the Gang song "Jungle
Boogie". Lots of >Pulp-Fiction fans think it's really cool & will rave on
about it >remaining totally ignorant about the origin of the song and >the
whole pile of cool songs by the same and other artists of >the time.
(Roy Ayers being my favourite and I think you >should all go out and
listen to either "Everybody loves the >Sunshine" or "Mystic Voyage" right
now!)

I hope that I'm not flamed but I tend to rejoice when 'good' music finally
gets its due.

What I mean is two fold -- as a fan/dj and as someone working at a major
label.

As a fan, I sort of enjoy it when I hear some really 'good' music, let
someone else here it, and they say to me, "Where'd you get that," or even,
"What the hell is that?" I enjoy that because as a DJ, I love introducing
new music to people. Now if I introduce a lovely 'underground' deep jazz
joint to someone, and then at every gig I play, they ask me to play that song
so their friend can vibe off of it, or if they just want to hear it
themselves...I like that. If I really love Kruder & Dorfmiester and I hear
one of their songs in a TV commercial
or in an MTV trailor or whatever...I tend to smile and say to
myself..."Finally, someone else (the masses) is hearing this music." Now
because I hear K&D on a SAAB commercial, it absolutely does not mean that I'm
going to take that vinyl out of my crate and never play it again...I may play
it more. If we love this music and its artists we can't keep it to ourselves
and hope that no one else hears it for the sake of keeping it 'cool.' I'm
sure that K&D would love to sell some records and with saying that, I'm sure
that with their musical intensity and intentions, they would not change their
style at all. I guess that it is nice to pat ourselves on the back for
grooving to a music 2 years before Joe Public hears it but I'm not mad at Joe
Public when he finally does hear it and enjoys it. In fact, I say to Joe
Public...if you like that, well you'll love this..."

As a 'music biz' person I know that while every artists makes music for the
love of music there are certain cost that have to be covered when you record
an album. Most artists aren't that concerned with that aspect of the biz
(which is why a lot of groups get shafted) and want to focus on putting out
good music.

With that being said, there is not an artist on this planet that wants to be
in debt to their label/distributor. Also take into consideration that when
artists re-coup their costs (marketing, ads, photos, duplication,
distribution, video) a label/distributor is a lot more open to having them do
another album. Now do you think that K&D would be upset if the mainstream
caught on to their album and they sold 200,000 copies instead of the
hypothetical '50,000?'

What if they want to distribute their own music, own their own studio, bring
in more top notched musicians as guest on future albums? Do you think that
they would not want that financial latitude?

Mainstream is a state of mind that hardly any artists have in mind when they
make their music. To me, this is true of acid-jazz, blues, roots (not
dancehall) reggae, and classic rock...any music that requires some
musicianship. Not so much of today's R&B and tootsie-roll Pop.

Did this make sense?