There are Three things which have popped up which have me thinking and so, if you'll forgive me, I'm going to blather a little bit. The first is a post on
Zolius about the group think that develops in any community. The second was a post in
Eye Weekly in which Metric is forced to be defensive about their Polaris nomination within minutes of receiving it. The third is our own
Shadow Polaris voting and the lack of diversity I mentioned there. (Though I am deeply impressed by the taste of the voters.)
Indie music fans have always pretended that what they wanted was something
real, but many of them do not seem to think that musicians who want to make a living are
real so I'm going to attempt, at once, to defend and explain NxEW.ca and to try to set some parameters on
real.
First, for NxEW's part - we are a volunteer run organization. All of our contributors write out of a passion for the music they love. There is an interesting dynamic that takes place in music where anything that does not include you is somehow illegitimate. I recently had a conversation with someone that went something like this:
me: downloading is not the enemy, it is a good way to promote your music.
him: but it steals from artists.
me: not necessarily, you're assuming that everyone who downloads would have bought it
him: I don't care, if people want my music they need to pay for it.
me: but there are so many artists giving their music away that even if you stop people all you will succeed in doing is making people never listen to your music in the first palce.
him: I know alot of artists are giving their music away. That doesn't matter, ;you're assuming that all music is created equal.
me: there are two things all artists can agree on: 1) Not all music is created equal and 2) their own is exceptional. (I should add that this is someone I'd never heard of prior to this conversation.)
him: ...
The fuel that runs NxEW is passion, if there is a certain amount of groupthink, a certain lack of diversity it is because (something like) 110 people are deeply passionate about that particular type of music. It does not mean that your music is bad, but you are failing to evoke passion. NxEW has an
open door policy for contributors (though we only cover Canada so that we can do a good job of covering Canada) but we never ask anyone to cover anything that doesn't interest them. At the same time we are overwhelmingly positive. While "it is better to promote what you do like than tear down what you don't" isn't editorial policy here it is more or less something people adhere to.
There was a great deal of talk in the comments on the
Zolius post about what is overlooked by polaris, about all the other genres of music outside popular indie rock that weren't included but if Canada's music bloggers and journalists aren't excited by what's going on in those genres, if they're not actively listening to it and talking about it why would they nominate it for awards? It doesn't mean that that music is bad, but it is failing to inspire people to talk about it. The Canadian indie/rock/pop that dominates the Polaris prize and even our own shadow Polaris vote is actually very exciting and diverse. A person who doesn't regularly listen may not see it, just like a person who doesn't regularly listen to classical may not know the difference between Mozart and Beethoven but the current Canadian indie/pop/rock music scene is influenced by everything that came before it. If you listen to the whole broad spectrum you will hear the influence of classic rock, new wave, punk, disco, funk, reggae, hip hop, world music, classical, jazz, soul, orchestral, folk, country, roots and on and on. Unlike many of the popular musicians who came before them many of todays popular musicians have both been playing since a very early age and have some amount of higher education in music, including classical training. Those who dismiss it as 'all the same' have a very incomplete musical education or simply aren't listening carefully enough.
On we must go though to the second half. The
indie and
real part. I will be the first to acknowledge that many of today's popular musical entertainers are not
real - much of what is played on commercial radio is little better than karaoke People of questionable talent singing over the music of others - people who have little or no musical talent sining vocals they didn't write over music they didn't write or perform which is then so over produced that many of the worlds dumber people cannot tell the difference. The thing to remember, for artists and fans, is that most of these performers will have brutally short careers. The people who listen to, like and buy such music are not really music fans. They are gullible and uneducated and listen to music
because it is popular and because they believe that liking it will improve their own popularity and improve their odds of getting laid. Most of these people will stop purchasing music altogether by the age of 25-30 and many of them will download it all anyway because they do not care about music and they do not care about musicians.
I have said before, and will doubtless say again because I repeat myself: what I would like to see is a world where musicians (and other talented artists) are treated like the highly skilled professionals they are and paid accordingly. That means no (or very few) mega stars riding in limos, buying yachts and trashing four star hotel rooms but talented musicians on the whole being able to pay the rent (or motgage) and earning a living comparable to other skilled professionals: doctor, lawyer, stock broker, musician (or other artist).
To achieve this though people must change their perceptions and expectations of musicians. They are, we have to remind ourselves, people. People with a skill and a job to do, but ultimately people. They have good days and bad days, they have various personalities, they have a limited number of hours in the day, they have various interests and obligations, they have friends and families and they want to earn a living (preferably using the skills that they have learned over many years of study and that they have a passion for employing.)
The first thing we have to get over is archetypes. If you are unfamiliar with the work of
Joseph Campbell in this area then your education is not complete - it is vitally important to your understanding of politics, religion, popular culture, the arts and much more - back to school with you. The key point here though is that we have certain expectations of 'rock stars': The 'rebel without a cause', the 'diva', the 'introverted poet' and so on. This is not
'real' it actually takes away from our appreciation of music in that we're focused on appearances and it forces costumes and false personalities on musicians who are none of those things.
Second we must get over, or at least redefine, 'sell out'. The only question we should ask ourselves is "is the music still good? Do I still like it?" A bizarre mentality has emerged where it's ok for Feist to work in the mailroom for apple computers to finance her new album but it's not ok for her to let them use her song in a commercial to finance a new album. It's ok for the purchaser of the album to work for Pepsi, but Emily Haines cannot have any contact with Pepsi less she be a sellout.
Musicians, like anyone else, need to pay the bills. If they are going to keep making music it has to, at some point, be a profitable exercise and just because you and your friends know who they are and really liked their last album does not mean that their mattress is stuffed with hundred dollar bills. The vast and overwhelming majority of musicians, especially
'indie' musicians are barely making ends meet. Some are not. If you want them to be
'real' you have to afford them the
'real' ability to pay the rent.
Now when it comes to concerts it's a bit different. For me personally I like going to small clubs, slapping down $5-10 at the door, grabbing a pint of good beer and talking to friends. Going to a stadium with 25,000 people, paying more than I can afford to sit a quarter mile from the stage and paying $10 for a plastic cup filled with piss water beer is not a pleasant experience for me. I don't care how good the band is. But that's just me. If Metric or Feist or anyone else can convince thousands of people to do it more power to them. I won't be there, but I'll buy your CD and still love you in my heart of hearts.
One final note, in the age of
social media everyone expects direct interaction with their favorite musicians (or whatever). The thing is that it all goes back to them being people. When they have a few hundred fans they can probably interact with you directly. When they have a thousand or two they might be able to, but a little more slowly but when they have tens of thousands of fans they realistically can't. It doesn't mean that they've gotten big headed, or that they are too important for you. It goes back to being
real and human. Imagine if, on top of everything else going on, your job and friends and family - you got 500 emails or other messages a day from fans, all of whom expected a personal response. You too would fail the test and people would say you'd gotten too 'big headed' and forgotten where you came from.
I guess the long and short of it is that, in my opinion, everyone needs to step back a bit and realistically examine things from the viewpoint of others before trying to claim victim status, either as an artist, or as a fan. We definitely need to support our artists more, we need to find ways for them to earn a living. On the whole though there has never been a better time for Canadian music as an artist or as a fan - we all just need to put away the daggers and enjoy it a little more. Things are pretty good, if you don't obsess over the little things that you wish were better.
Labels: Canada, canadian music, Metric, nxew, Polaris Prize
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