[lbo-talk] why Prince is right

Mike Beggs mikejbeggs at gmail.com
Fri Jul 9 20:19:23 PDT 2010


On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 12:52 AM, Eric Beck <ersatzdog at gmail.com> wrote:


>
> Yes. Well, except for the public solution part, which just sounds so
> European. And what has Europe produced in the last 50 years that's
> worth a crap?
>
> </tongue partially in cheek>

I meant something like what Julio's talking about. But in the meantime, yes, public arts funding is better than nothing. The European arts and music festival circuit looks from a distance like it's fostered a lot of cool stuff, though on the other hand I doubt many people are making much of a living out of it and playing the grants system is no doubt as alienating as the industry. Then there's that old fashioned public arts funding called the dole, which has surely harvested a massive cultural bounty for us all.

Scelsi is awesome, but that's really 'the aristocratic solution'.

It is interesting to think about how scenes have been shaped by their economic circumstances. I can't remember too clearly but I think Simon Reynolds talks about this in his book on post-punk - the different economic circumstances between the Brits who got the dole easier, and America where things tended to flower in areas of peculiarly cheap rent, or around fortuitous things like the keyboardist from Pere Ubu owning a building in Cleveland. Or further back, jazz basically being driven by people who first made a living playing in other people's bands and as session musicians.

Mike Beggs


>
> In addition to the accepting the reality of the Internet, it'd be nice
> if people didn't demand payment by appealing to property and ownership
> rights. Prince's move just transforms him from a worker into an
> enterprise. Not really an improvement, imho.
>
> I wonder how a subscription service would work for musicians?
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