Become a Good Musician and get Rich & Famous |
A Rock'n'Roll story about changing of values.
When I was a teenager we used to go at our richer friends' houses. They possessed record players (we couldn't afford them at the time). They had good, really exciting collections of records. From western bands: Led Zeppelin, Doors, Grand Funk, Deep Purple, Joy Division, Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, Allman Brothers and similar.
From Yugoslavian rock bands: Smak, Time, Teska Industrija, Leb i Sol, Yu Grupa, Korni Grupa, Indexi and similar.
Rock music was so exciting. It touched my heart deep down and shaped me for life. I remember making lists of records that I should buy when I grow older and have more money. And this list kept growing over the years. And I am fulfilling my dream.
We would sit down and listen to a new (or undiscovered for us) record from say, Deep Purple. And it was magic. Every new song was full of colours. Great guitar riffs, solos, interesting ideas.
Every song?
No, not really.
You see, these people were EXPERIMENTING. They would try something new, they would walk paths that no one before ever walked.
They were PIONEERING many new musical ideas in their style.
This is why Rock'n'Roll was so exciting.
Not every experiment was successful, though. It can't be ever. They were failing, producing rubbish songs and albums.
But most of them would recover and get on. And experiment again and produce more great songs. Or just disappear forever from the Music Horizon.
That's why we became rockers. Rock music was different, rebellious, exciting, cool... But we never used these words to describe it.
What was really mattered to us was that Rock Music was INNOVATIVE.
Slowly we were growing up and our tastes started changing. We may started to listen Classical and Jazz and Folk music, but deep down remained Rockers.
We were buying the new albums of the old bands. We were searching for new bands that play any exciting music. Truth is, there were a few new bands with a few new songs... But nothing to really take your mind for an evening.
Then we didn't know what's going on. Now we start to see the truth.
We believe so, at least.
Money.
In the previous century, most of the musicians were making music for the sake of it.
In many countries, there is a saying that a musician doesn't feed the house.
After a few of them unexpectedly became rich and famous, the attitude started to change. People would get on in bands to became famous.
They are not interested in imitating good musicians. They are interested in imitating rich and famous musicians.
Sadly, even the little kids today want to become famous, not to learn to sing...
Rock music got popular because it was free and experimental and different. This what they were aiming and they achieved it.
Then it became huge, too huge. And once the numbers start going up, it's hard to stop them: sold records, gigs, dollars...
...it became cool to be a rock musician. A Rock Star, as they call them on TV nowadays.
And people started learning and playing and singing music for the sake of becoming popular. Not for the music, that was secondary. Video clips were made for musicians and bands where the music was only a background to the mind blowing eye effects on the screen. Happily, the 'literal videos (#link) do a bit of justice to the video-tried-to-kill-the-music phenomenon.
Money. Fame! Glory! Glory?
'Fame' (famous, celebrity) is when the media expose you on their front pages. 'Glory' is when people hear about your playing/singing/composing and they truly respect you for that. There's a difference.
"Something that sounds familiar, but it's different" reads an advert from a smaller record company searching for new bands. So much for creativity.
The truth is, it all started with the 70's bands themselves.
I vividly remember how disappointed I started to be when I would listen to the later records of Deep Purple, Sting, Phil Collins.
I would be asking people: why is this so? How come, someone who was so creative, over the time to start producing such bland music, staying in a comfort zone of chord changes, lyrics and arrangements???
How could we (rockers) speak about other styles when our own Rock Music became so uninteresting, boring and then it slowly died?
The Media's hike for 'celebrities' made it only quicker.
People would say: they lost their inventiveness. But it was always after they got rich - only then the music started to sound like teasing us to BUY it, rather then to LISTEN to it.
So, truth is, as long people will aim to be famous - they will be forgotten the moment the step away from the camera.
If you want to be a really famous, a glorious musician (not media famous), grab an instrument and learn to play.
As long as you are working hard on learning the instrument (not how to dance), as long as you are honest, and aim to be a pioneer - you will be remembered for long after, you will change the world. Because you will change the hearts of many generations of musicians to come.
Much more worth living than (ex)change a bunch of money from other accounts to your own and then back (when you die).
Changing a heart is forever.
| Buktop Mactopuduc |
Viktor.Mastoridis.co.uk
