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Thursday, October 11, 2007
I have returned an educated man (and I kept the receipt)
A question I got a lot when I stopped Brill Building was "when are you going to return to blogging?" I even joked about it in my "last" post (it's not even the post before this. That would be the commentary on my Comic Foundry piece). There have been a few incidents that convinced me to come back. There was being recognized at this year's San Diego Comic-Con (thank you nice woman whose name I have forgotten). I was told by an established writer/editor that blogging is a great way to keep visible. So I figured I'd start this little enterprise again. The fact that I've already been writing a bit at The Sound of Young America's blog (Podthoughts appears every week!) helped. It kept my skills from getting rusty.
What had me hesitate from starting up the blog is this: I'm not excited about too much in comics. I look forward to new issues of Casanova, Criminal, Iron Fist and various other books under the Fracbaker empire. I like seeing my name in Punisher War Journal (thanks Matt!). I'm addicted to Naoki Urasawa's Monster. But that's about it I'm afraid. I've still got the new 24seven and Tekkoninkreet to get to but I can't see anything on the horizon that would compel me to produce a meaty post once a week. That's why I've turned to other subjects.
Since graduating college (that's right, you're now reading the blog of a college graduate and a published author. Those are two claims I couldn't make at the beginning of the year) I've made a discovery similar to one I made at thirteen-years-old. I've found playing guitar and listen to music is way better than comics. Some of you may disagree and that's fine. Personally I'm more excited about finding new music to listen to than than finding new comics to read. In addition to reading Blog@Newsarama and Progressive Ruin everyday I scour Fluxblog and Aquarium Drunkard for new bands. I await every week for a new edition of the Chicago radio show Sound Opinions becuase I value Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot's take on the music business and taste in new music. The most significant change is that I'm playing guitar seriously again and writing songs at a pace as quick my high school days. I've given a lot of thought to becoming a musician in addition to a writer to cover more of my creative abilities. I enjoy writing prose and screenplays but songwriting, while still a challenge, just feels so much more natural to me. Yet I hesitate to totally dedicate myself to musical career becuase the music industry scares me. I'll illustrate with one of the biggest topics on the blogosphere this week. And yes, if you were wondering, I do a lot of hesitating. In fact, I think I spend most of my time hesitating.
Yesterday, as I'm sure you heard, Radiohead released their seventh album In Rainbows on their website for a price of your choosing. I ended up paying the price of a regular CD becuase I felt, even before hearing the album, that this band deserves solid financial reward for creating good music (that and, to be honest, I kind of screwed up the exchange rate). Now that I've listened to the album, both complete and individual selections, I feel I completely got my money's worth. But you don't need to be told "twenty-something white person enjoys Radiohead." That's not news. The big deal is how they distributed the album. "It's the future of the music industry!" declared the people who like to declare the future of things. "It's the end of the music industry!" declared the people who liked to declare the end of things. Let's tune out the noise and just look at the facts.
It makes sense that we would see a change this big now. Radiohead cultivated their dedicated fanbase in the '90s, the last days of the old ways. You would find out about an artist through radio or MTV, buy an album in stores and see them in concert. The only thing about that process that has stayed true today is the last item. There was a much more financial give and take between artists and audience. Now radio and MTV play has dried up, along with the royalties to go with it. A lot of fans have no problem obtaining music through file sharing services (I'll save it for another post but real quick I'll say I'm disgusted by the act of downloading whole albums and catalogs for free even though I do it myself. Yeah, I know. It'll be a Hell of a post). Those of us who remember when the video for "No Surprises" would premier on MTV's TRL have grown up with the band and have no trouble following it to a new model of consumption. A lot of artists could pull this off. Prince tried it in the '90s but he was hampered by having to deliver CDs to people. Trent Reznor's been threatening to do this for a while now. But what if you're starting out as a musician? What if you're Joe Nobody with just a guitar and an ear for hooks? If I came up with an album and said you could pay what you want would you be more inclined to try it out as opposed to if I was an artist with a major or established indie label behind me? Would you be more comfortable with the latter becuase it proved if someone else is willing to put money behind me maybe you should too? Or would you dig the former becuase it said I'm a true artist who finds the art more important than the capital? How would even find out about me in the first place?
It's such a hard problem to untangle, the music business. The movie and comic book businesses are screwed up too but not as bad as the music business. I'm angry with the fans because they don't realize getting product for free amounts to telling the money men "don't bother caring what I want Mr. Bean Counter, sir. Ignore me and all my desires!" I'm angry at the record companies for having their heads up their asses, which they've always have, but are now being more impatient with their artists and A&R people. I'm angry that they look like a bunch of old out-of-touch losers who are confused and afraid by this here Interweb (I mean, that's what they are but they could at least have the decency to obscure that fact). The only people I'm pleased with are their artists. I'm pleased with The White Stripes, PJ Harvey, LCD Soundsystem and the former On a Friday (shows how much of a nerd I am) for producing amazing music this year. That's why I keep returning to my Epiphone guitars, one electric and one acoustic, and keep doing what I'm doing. Maybe no one will listen. Let's face it, probably no one will listen. But I'd like to imagine myself having a steady, uncompromising career not unlike what Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Richard Thompson have.
I don't know, maybe I'll post some songs here. We'll see.
Permanent Link: 8:43 PM |
1 comments
Comments:
FUCK YEAH!!!!
Sorry, I'm just glad you're back.
# posted by Ken Lowery : 9:56 PM
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