Notebook 026

Everyone Bums The Underdog
Journal Entry: Fri Jan 27, 2006, 12:19 AM


Sometimes I analytically study the music industry because it's something I want to utilise in my life (All the following is purely my own opinion and judgements. I could be wrong on anything).

I hate it how every1 dislike bands/groups because of their commercial sucess.
Okay let's take busted for instance. Okay busted weren't that artistic or different and their songs aren't groundbreakingly artistic. But thats because I think they were mainly a record labels immensely sucessful experiment for the industry. But as this they worked. I don't know whether or not they wrote their own songs. So what if they messed up a bit live? Doesn't everyone have bad days? (Or did they? They looked to me like they were quite good performers. *update* I've just been informed they were good performers at at least three gigs. Thanks Jessica and good on ya for being honest). The thing i feel mainly when listening to them is sympathy. These three lads were probably quite talented as a group when they first started out (I think the guy with white hair and big black stripe is the brains?!), yet the record labels saw their chance to make a mint, and took it.
A short while down the line, surprise surprise they split. Why? Because Charlie wanted to pursue his interest with his new band. Give the guy some fucking credit. He was probably fed up of being fed that shit from the record labels, and being told how to look and act. He was the first one to speak up and be first to act on his opression, so give the guy a break. He risked alot giving up the sucess of Busted for his music. (We all know they would've survived for a long time more. eg. Westlife...who the fook is actually still buying their records?) And yar, we all know Fightstar will never be accepted because he is 'Charlie from Busted'. But thats happened many a time before. *Cue worn old 8mm footage of every single solo act that's come from splitting up from a band*. But Charlie is also just another record label manipulation. Maybe even just a smart fucker who only cares about money and knows the industry very well, saw his chance to make it out first and catch the ripple from Busted. Or maybe even he's just naíve about the industry, and thinks that this will be a fresh start for him, and yes, the corporate fuckers again seized a opportunity to either a) promote themselves b) make some money or c) get on a 'fashionable' band wagon. Or maybe even still (I know, alot of different options to choose) he is being true to his artistic side and saying "I dont give a fuck about sucess or whether this band takes well in the public eye, because im just in it for the music we write."
So heres comes the people who diss fans of Busted and Busted themselves. Okay, some teenage girl who's only just starting buying cd's thinks they're 'Hawt' or 'Super Kewl', that's what they were made for stupid. And the poor girl ain't in it for artist inspiration. She wants pictures of cute guys on her walls and good catchy songs to listen to. But there's another kinda admiration for Busted: "Yeah I know they're cheesey and the songs aren't that artistic, but what songs they have are catchy, and when they play, I have a good time because it's fun. Both laughing at AND with them."
I personally just feel sympathy for the young naíve aspiring musicians who thought the music business was a lot more simple than it actually is.

Onto my next rage/saddness.
Jeff Buckley. When I heard of Jeff Buckley I was just starting to get into the music industry as a whole and understand what its all about. Hence, I felt Jeff Buckley was kinda a certificate for this. He in one word for me is 'Potential'. Had he been alive today, who knows what he'd of been like. (Word has it he also was quite naíve about labels, so maybe [i can't believe i'm saying this] it was better off that he died when he did, before he got chewed up and spat out by money grabbing corporates and his art be left in ruins]).
But i first off bought 'Grace' in HMV. It was on the radio in the shop and i thought "Fuck me this is a good song!" So i bought it purely on impulse. (And yar the lady looked at me like a piece of dirt when asking her who it was then immeadiately asking to buy it. Bitch. Thats what you're fucking job is, so just do it slave.) I got home, listened to it, and admittedly only liked the one song i'd heard. I then picked it up later when a friend said i really should listen to it again as he's really good (Thanks Timmy-Lar). So indeed I did and now i fucking bum this guy. I'm not goig to go into my personal opinion of why he's so great. If you like, you like. If not, buy something else. Then i looked onto t'internet for his background and blah blah, and it hit me that he is dead. My play of that album after that was the best play of one album ever. Full Stop. (cause thats what 'period' means right?) And yes, I cried.
So I tootled into HMV some time after with a big wad of cash and saw they had nothing of particular interest. Back to good ol Music Zone. And what did i see before me? 'Jeff Buckley Live at Sin-É' for £12. Bargain. (2cd's and a DVD, even though DVD's like 12minutes long). Went home and whacked it on. I thought it was dead kewl. (purely for the video of Jeff saying he carries a notebook everywhere. I was ""AGGHH, that's me, that's me!!") And i also put on the cd. Loadsa live versions and acoustics and a few demos. (I personally think live performances are pointless unless you were there because performances aren't just about the music, it's about a hell of alot more, like visuals and senses, and having a good time dancing or singing along like a demented Godzilla.) So I was not too pleased with that.
Determined to improve my vision of Jeff Buckley, I went in search of a few more cd's and realised the only one that'd be of much significant difference was 'Sketches for `My Sweetheart The Drunk`' so I handed over the cash. I was gutted. Some scrambled old recordings of him with a hell of alot of meaningless noise and wrong chords. In the inlay it says from his mum "I didn't want the labels to release his music after his death for profit" Nice thought darling and i'm sure the sentiments in all the right places but this album cant mean a great deal to anyone except Jeff, and those people who were around him when he was alive. So i kinda took hold of my copy of Grace. Stuck it on repeat and wollowed in the fact that it was never gonna get any better than this. (But it did, with every listen Grace gets better and better. And yes, even though i know i'll never be able to sing the track 'Grace' as good as Jeff, I still try.)
Onto the present. Yet again the internet. 'Jeff Buckley: The Movie' or whatever it is called. Enraged beyond belief. I really hope that it isn't going to be some commercialised rip off, and i hope to fucking hell the actor can lipsync well. Else i'm going to personally smash his face in. I am really dis-appointed that his sad ol mother cant get her wished to keep her son from exploitation even after he's dead. Think about it. Thats something really saddening.

And with this i come to my final point (seems essay structures do come in use): Is it possible for someone truely artistic to be released commercially, be sucessful, whilst not being inlfuenced or maniulated by the love of money/power/fame?

I think not.

Do You?