promote - promote - promote!!!

[Jeremy David]

> manny at telerama.com wrote:
> ...The way it used to be before the danceclub mentality crushed interest in live music.

> whatever. is it about the style or is it about the substance?

There once was a time when Duke Ellington could tour with a 15 piece
orchestra and actually make money doing it. Can you imagine what a
band with 16 guys in it would have to charge today? Who can afford
that now? People could afford it in the 30s because there were only so
many ways to go out and have fun, and live music was one of them.
Motion pictures became more popular in the 40s and 50s, as did
recorded music, and it was no longer financially feasible to tour with
16 guys, because people could go to the movies instead.

I think it's really hard to say that dance clubs killed live pop
music. Live music is very expensive, and people today have far more
entertainment options than they did 20 years ago. Video games are
gaining popularity at an explosive rate. You can enjoy them at home in
your clean, warm house which is full of food and drink and if you're
lucky, people you like, and lots of them even have great music in
them. Movies also have entertaining music in them. So do millions and
millions of iPods.

Multimedia experiences are becoming the norm. The idea of entertaining
ones self by concentrating on music and only music may become as
antiquated as silent movies.

And even if you think that the indie musicians have better or more
substance than what's on VH1, which I strongly doubt, who cares?
People can get substance from novels, which cost less than the 12
bucks to get into an indie rock show, lasts longer, and if you want to
read a novel, you don't have to sit in some folding chair covered in
some strangers sputum. And anyway, there's more depth to Mariah Carey
than there is to Le Tigre or Duke Ellington. Seriously, compare these
two cherry-picked choruses and tell me which one says more about the
nature of humanity. One is currently the number 2 hit on Billboard,
one is Le Tigre, and the one is by Ellington.

I gotta shake, shake it off
Just like the Calgon commercial
I really gotta get up outta here
And go somewhere


My Fake French is hot.
You can't make me stop.
Got nowhere to run to baby.
Come on turn it up!


It don't mean a thing
If it ain't got that swing
Doowa doowa doowa doowa doowa doowa doowa doowa!

I do believe that live music *can* be a very special experience for
the performer and the listener, but I don't have any illusions that
anyone wants to pay me for what I think is a special experience, or
that there could possibly be a sustainable industry based around my
special experiences, because people are having very special
experiences all the time for dirt cheap.

- Jeremy