Jul 032014
I just saw this posted on a fellow musician’s FB page; he had added several NSFW comments.
I’m interested in your thoughts…
I just saw this posted on a fellow musician’s FB page; he had added several NSFW comments.
I’m interested in your thoughts…
It’s a tough pill to swallow, but I agree with this guy completely. To be yourself – to really BE yourself – you’ve got to box yourself into some identifiable subculture. I mean, if you bring it down to that core message, how could you possibly argue against this guy’s advice?
Image is important, but if the sound isn’t worth anything, no one is going to stick around.
I think I also reacted to his very smarmy tone, and while he’s using all his BOLD TYPE to let us know the important parts, he isn’t really very helpful in sharing his process.
Few giant bands have a worse sound than KISS, but they knew how to package themselves!
Like it or not image is part of the medium. From cover albums, press photos, concert posters, and stage personas. Even when the first rock and roll band walked on the stage wearing their street clothes as an “anti-image”, well that was just an image too.
Gone are the days of listening to the radio and imagining the band “playing that new cool song”.
I’m going to try and remember if there was a band that I stopped liking after I got my first glimpse of their image.
Rock N’ Roll has always been very closely tied to image. My dad never understood why I’d like one band, and despise another because he thought the music all sounded so similar. He ran into my room so I wouldn’t miss the big new band from Scotland, the Bay City Rollers one night, and couldn’t figure out why I thought they sucked before I even heard a note. But they looked awful to me. They were obviously geared towards little kids that liked top 40, and I was not that kid. The old man thought it sounded like the same stuff I listened to, and when push comes to shove, it probably does technically tick off all my boxes musically, but I hated them then, and I hate them now. Actually I think now I just don’t care, but I actively hated them at one time.
I never had cable during MTV’s heyday, so I missed a lot of image stuff, but I still bought a lot of records just because I liked the cover and/or the band’s name. I don’t know many people that buy records like that, but knowing the images you can live with can make it a lot easier to buy records. I don’t think the guy said anything that anyone that likes music doesn’t already know, but he didn’t elaborate on it much.
Oh, I was at a mall in Cincinnati the other day. I looked in Hot Topic because they had a ridiculous T shirt sale and I’ve got some teenage birthdays coming up. One T shirt not on sale said, You’re Too Mainstream for MY World. Really, Hot Topic kid? Once again, it looks like all the non conformists look the same.
I completely agree with your points, LMKR, and with apologies to anyone insulted by this, remind me not to read advice from someone who declares himself to be “passionate about marketing.” Dude, Amway’s hiring.
I think the dude doesn’t say anything about what he did or how; he doesn’t say anything about where his supposedly successful band is at now; I think “magazines” voting you “the best band in South Florida” and “one of the bands in South Florida who should already be famous” doesn’t quite set you up for life and was probably won by band members and their girlfriends sending in postcards; and I KNOW, because it says at the bottom, that he runs a consulting agency, where I’m sure for a small fee he’ll let you in on All His Secrets And How You Can Do It Too.
I trust my implication is clear.
Well said!
My response is encapsulated in the comment: ‘As the great comedian Bill Hicks stated, paraphrasing, “for those of you in marketing, kill yourself, no really, there’s no punchline, there’s no joke coming, just kill yourself, you are all that is bad in the world‘…
Be sure to skip the ad…just on principal…
Dopey article makes me want to piss in Farrle Williams farking hat…er. image.
authors note: I misspelled Pharrell on purpose. I misspelled ‘principle’ on accidental…