From: dbidwa@sei.cmu.edu (Daniel Bidwa)
Subject: Re: Devil CD's
Keywords: hot rails to hell
Organization: The Software Engineering Institute
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 11:47:28 EST


nasiatka@anhep3.anl.gov.bitnet (Jim Wylde) writes:
|> Oh, I don't know about that....  I mean it's really nice to just be a
|> 'cult' band have a small, dedicated, faithful following, but to really
|> make it big means that: A) more people get exposed to you, even if the 
|> first set of stuff they hear is pop-ish.  They dig it, do some digging
|> for the other stuff, and maybe get a lot of new fans.  B)  It keeps the
|> record companys happy, so they let you make more.  C)  You get to
|> make a bit more money 'cause now yer big-time.  Oh, yeah, D) you get to
|> stop having to play small bars/clubs 'cause you can fill a 30,000 seat
|> arena!

A) Okay. Not a bad end result, although I don't agree that it's necessarily a
good reason for a band to change its sound. 
B) Who cares about the record companies -- in this age of inexpensive
multitrack recording, it's not like record companies are really necessary for
anything more than distribution (and maybe promotion), except maybe the
initial chunk of cash needed to press the record.
C) Who cares. 
D) _Big_ who cares. Arena shows suck like crazy sound- and presence-wise.
I'd take a smaller club any day. (This reminds me of when Thomas Dolby, in his
pop heyday, chose to play four shows at the 9:30 in DC (a relatively small
club) rather than play just one show at a larger venue. Better sound, better
atmosphere, more fun for everyone involved.)

I think a lot of this depends on why people get involved in music. If
someone's in a band to "make it", as is the American Rock Music Dream, then
all of this makes sense. If someone's in a band to make music that they like,
then all this is less important. (This tends to drop into the whole "artistic
purity vs. commercialization" argument, which may or may not be relevant,
since there's plenty of shitty music being made on both sides of the coin.)

|> Personnally, I think it's sort of an in-genre crossover.  Not really a
|> sell-out, just exploring new turf.  Kinda like Bono and U2 playing with
|> BB King.  Did Bono sell out as some U2 purists claim?

I haven't paid any attention to U2 since somewhere around "Boy" (well, other
than the Island/Negativland lawsuit), so I really couldn't say, but I'd hazard
a guess that the U2/B.B. King collab was equal parts exploration and
exploitation. Yeah, it's new territory for U2 (and for B.B. King too, although
I'd bet he didn't initiate the collaboration), but it's also an example of
U2's bid for musical legitimacy: U2 (or Bono; whatever) wants to be taken
seriously; B.B. King is a well-known blues performer, certainly a "serious"
musician; if U2 plays with B.B. King, then they must be serious musicians too,
right? 

|> Not familiar with em...  Personally, though I'd flip my legs up in the air
|> for Young Mr. SAtan Spawn himself: Glen Danzig.... :)

Ah, yes, Mr. Steroid himself. It's too bad he's outlived his schtick -- it
worked pretty well with the Misfits, but geez, that was ten years ago. 
I think he's pretty funny now.

|> >Wow, rap, punk, and now metal -- soc.motss is certainly hitting the
|> >fringes of queer-accepted music lately. Klezmer, anyone?
|> Whaddya mean fringes?  How many of your gay friends grew up with Rock?
|> Most of mine just ditched it because *you have to be into dance music*
|> to be gay.... (YEECH!!!!)

That's true -- Gay culture does seem to be fairly pop-oriented (Erasure,
blech), or at least that's how it seems; I honestly have no idea what's really
popular (in both the queer and non-queer communities), so it's hard for me to
say. 

|> Hell, up till recently, I ran the Gay Metal Society here in Chicago.
|> Group of Heavy Metal Homos into all sorts of rock/metal.  We did parties,
|> and had metal nights at local queer bars, and were somewhat political in
|> interfacing with the music scene out here.  You'd be surprised how many
|> gays/lesbians there are on the rock scene...

Probably. I just wish more of them would be willing to come out of the closet.
Heck, David Geffen did it, and now look what he got -- Nirvana! (Further proof
that queers have a stranglehold on culture...:-)

|> Have a good weekend!

Ditto, of course.

Newsgroups: soc.motss