[lbo-talk] why Prince is right

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Sun Jul 11 23:19:49 PDT 2010


On Mon, 12 Jul 2010, Mike Beggs wrote:


> I'm not worried about the future of music at all -- as Dennis implied (I
> think), the great bulk of musicians have always made whatever they made
> off music by playing live -- it must be only a tiny minority that ever
> made anything like a living off recordings.

There's a wonderful book entirely built around this premise (and full of excellent practical advice) by Eugene Chadbourne entitled _I Hate The Man Who Runs This Bar: The Survival Guide For Real Musicians_.

He has several points:

1) First, most musicians have never heard of him, have never heard of his kind of music, and probably wouldn't like it if they did -- and that's completely irrelevant. Real musicians -- people who live to play and write, and whose indispensable goal is to make some kind of living at it because it's the most important thing in life to them -- are all very much alike in their position in the universe. The people who makes spaces for them play are almost always interested in something else and rip them off a lot -- no matter how cool or progressive or highbrow the facade looks. An avant garde violinist and a death metalist are both hustling a living in a similar way.

2) Even though you've never heard of him or his music, he's been making a living at it for 30 years. If it's possible for him, it's possible for you. He knows where of he speaks. And more importantly, he knows lots of people like himself (see point 4). And he's never made crap on recordings.

3) 99% of musicians are in this category, and always have been. The exceptions are absurdly exceptional. But so long as this ocean is maintained, the froth machine will always stir up waves on top. We needn't worry about running out of froth.

4) The way they manage? By networking. One of the great things about the book is that it was written in the pre-internet age. Musicians used to network by postcard. But simply by playing in bars and clubs and fairs and wherever else someone was willing to pay them, musicians meet other musicians who know other musicians. Combine that with writing to people who made records you liked and, within a few years, they were all networked up the wazoo literally all around the world. So Chadbourne could appear in Talinn and know someone he could call on to drive him all around town finding an E string. Who would do it, even if he'd never met him, because this is what musicians do. And of course he does the same when someone drops in on his town. Nobody ever talks about as the Code the Real Musician. But they all live by it, just like frontier settlers do, and for the same reason.

So basically musicians survive through a worldwide mutual assistance society made up of other musicians and devoted fans and significant others. It not only helps them play. It helps them live. And it is continually deepened and broadened by hanging out at each other's shows and meeting each others friends.

I can't but imagine that the internet will make that network even denser.

And I don't see why the internet should kill live music at this level if the radio and CDs didn't. Not many people go to see music live. But there aren't proportionally that many real musicians to support.

Michael



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