From: bt979@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jeff Preston)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Subject: Not fade away
Date: 16 Oct 1992 12:58:58 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: bt979@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jeff Preston)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


  Since this is the day to make from-the-heart appeals...

  Not too long ago on this list, hardly a week would go by without
somebody expressing extreme disgust with the state of the music business
in general. These posts would be the subject of much heated debate, but
no one really mentioned taking any action. This really puzzles me about
Americans; we know for a fact that a dozen letters from angry moms can
make a multi-million dollar corporation whimper like a whipped pup (I
am referring to the pulled adverts on Fox's "Married With Children" a
couple of years ago). Yet we somehow fail to use these networks, and our
understanding of the forces which cause governments and industries alike
to behave within certain, predictable parameters, to organize campaigns
to make our wishes known in a similar fashion. After all, anyone who can
type in twenty lines of text to send off to this list surely doesn't see
it as that much more difficult to do the same thing, print it out, and
stick the whole affair in a stamped envelope, do they?  I didn't think so.
But I suppose if I don't expect people to take their inalienable rights
seriously, why should I expect them to take their music seriously?
  In a way, I envy those who enjoy the music they hear on FM radio, MTV,
in the malls... the music industry is doing everything in its massive
power to make sure you never have a shortage of this music, and thus you
will not have to worry that someday you will not be able to find, say,
Madonna's CDs in the racks. Lately there has been some discussion on
rec.music.bluenote about certain artists who, for one reason or another
(although economic factors would not be a minor one) have "disappeared"
into other occupations. This hit home with me, since there was a recent
interview that Allan Holdsworth did with a Swedish magazine (translated
excerpts of which were posted to Atavachron) wherein he states
(paraphrased), "I'm risking my family to continue trying to make a living
in the music business." Now I know Holdsworth's music isn't for everyone,
but I doubt there's anyone here who could hear his playing and honestly
say the man does not deserve to make a modest living from doing what he
does, at the very least.
  With the release of Allan's first album on Restless, _Wardenclyffe
Tower_ , coming up, I would like to solicit opinions from the room on
ways in which a fan might help to maximize exposure of a non-mainstream
artist's new album. I certainly don't want to see this guy behind a
counter fixing bicycles in San Diego, and I think the surest way to keep
that from happening is to bend the sales curve upward, even to a small
extent. Any ideas, folks?

  Jeff ("n.n.")

-- 
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