Advice for the Female Musician
Being an Individual in the Music Business
by Greg Vail
It is very important that any art form be real. In today's world, it is harder
than ever to be true to who you are. The Music Business is defined by a few
originals and a vast number of cheap copies trying to bank off the success
of the few.
It all starts with two words that don't belong together; Music and Business.
Real music is just that; real music. Business is the financing and marketing of
music. The business pushes artists to sell. To sell, one must be commercial,
which today almost always defies the concepts of originality and art.
Younger musicians come up seeing the success of earlier artist and begin
copying that previous art form with sound alike redundancy that sells but
eventually kills the original art form due to a total lack of originality or
personal creativity.
For instance, in smooth jazz, young wannabe artists have taken an already
commercial adaptation of jazz and repeatedly regurgitate smooth jazz
sounding songs using elements of selling pop music that has little creative
juice in it to rewrite lame copies of a copy of an adaptation of an original.
What do you get? An art form that is selling nothing worldwide, labels
dropping jazz artists like the plague and radio airplay that continues to call
pop hits smooth jazz, and very little available time on the radio for
instrumental pop or smooth jazz as we now know it.
To survive, an art form or genre must be real. But time and time again, short
sited business genius sends the artist and the art through the rinse cycle
called "Copy and Sell". What we have is a formula and money driving process
and junk being produced on a daily basis.
The business people are not really the problem because they don't
understand art and can't be expected to. The problem is ours as the
musicians.
From my church pulpit, I have heard at least a thousand times that we come
into this world as originals, but most leave it a carbon copy. Blaming the
process or just being aware of the tendency does nothing. We have to look
within and see why we end up losing site of where we fit into the process
and make a strong determination to be real and original.
Our culture seems determined to sell conformation. If you look at any group
of kids that think they are being original you will find nothing more than a
sub culture that creates copies with different rules. Punkers, rockers, the
pop preppies, the druggies, geeks, you name it. They all conform to different
sets of rules and lack any originality even though they think they are so
original because they are fighting the status quo. I see groups of high school
friends all dressed the same every day. We are afraid to be ourselves and
find comfort in conformity to avoid the risk of rejection.
There is no place for this in art of any form. Socrates said "Know thyself."
You can not be true to who you are if you have no idea who you are. Many
never even ponder the question.
As a musician, I have had to make a choice to be myself and deal with the
consequences of nonconformity. My lack of commercial success and financial
duress are directly effected by this.
I spent my early career learning from my heroes and copying much of the
music I loved. The music you love is part of who you are. To copy and
become another David Sanborn clone would have been a very short career
since he would always be better at being himself and is an artist so he is
always growing and changing.
We need to make an effort to know who we are, our music tastes, our
influences, our experiences, our relationships, our backgrounds, our life
positions, our spiritual journeys, and our personalities; allowing these things
to shape our art, music, and playing.
If we are only looking for the quick buck, a cheap copy will do. Every Kenny
G copy will tell you it worked great. Most of them don't even think they are
lame copies because they have bought the success and confused it with
artistic validity. Cool thing is, being a real original includes not caring about
the success of the lame copies because I could never and will never sell
myself that short to get on the Wave again.
I have played with just about every "artist" in smooth jazz and can tell you
many of these guys would never have a single CD sold if it were not truly a
shallow art form to start with. Much of the problem in pop art forms has to
do with the advancement of technology and the lame content of pop music
requiring no musical talent, making it possible for people with no talent to
appear to be artists. These people are being true to who they are because
they have no talent, can't write a song, and know someone with a computer
with $600 in software that they can almost use.
What is an original? A person who knows who they are. A musician that can
actually play an instrument well and is always growing in these skills. I know
smooth jazz guys that have played the same licks for 10 years now. Art is
always growing because artists are always stretching and experimenting,
trying to create something cooler and more exciting than the last thing. If
you are not improving, you are not growing and have little to offer to the
musical voice of the world.
An original hears everything, but listens to their own voice. Maintaining your
person gets easier with time. You don't have to chase every whim in music
and second guess every time the CD sells less or the show does not go over
well. Speaking as an original, I can say is much easier from the beginning.
For me, it is hard to play games and try to be something I'm not because I
actually know what I am.
To maintain artistic integrity, one must not need the approval of others to
survive. You need to be driven by the need to be yourself and grow with
every new project the next step of who you will become.
Most lame artist clones will never change because they can't. You have a
choice to make. You can be a lame copy or a real contributor to the world
with a unique voice, artistic integrity, and personal expression though your
music. I know what I choose.
