Work Harder

Before the convenience of ipods and Mp3 players, musicians were forced to endure an extensive process of industrial filtration and shameless self-promotion. Typical freshman bands gigged night after night in back alley pool halls for little or no pay to audiences distracted by booze and a smoke filled atmosphere. Through all of the haze, the bands would truly connect with their fans. Not by mass friend requests via an Internet networking site, but by actual human communication and conversation concerning the underlying message of the songs being performed. These bands would then progress to the next level and permanently leave their creative mark on music by documenting the songs on tape. This would allow committed fans to own and become a part of a sound that had previously sparked their own creative spirit. Through word of mouth, endless touring, and album sales, bands would begin to gain popularity amongst credible sources within the music business. This humbling amount of limelight would soon grant these rookie bands the corporate sponsorship and funding necessary to reach greater audiences throughout the world.

This dream of “making it” has been rewritten and the concept of the “starving artist” is slowly beginning to fade as the generation of convenience has began to sacrifice quality for instant gratification. Without the filter of educated, credible, and veteran industry professionals in place, thoughtless and off-pitch vocals backed by distorted, unclear, and disheartening musicality now floods our youth’s dominant information source, the Internet. These networking sites allow anyone with a microphone and a computer to digitally expose their music to an unsuspecting audience of millions. The ease of songwriting mixed with mass exploitation is creating a daunting grey area between quality music produced by committed and inspiring artists and those who have no intentions of producing a product that gives back to the very institution it spawned from.