I am probably a bad person
I play in a few bands, but these days it tends to be Band A and Band B.
Band A was over (on my day off!) to work on some new songs, and they caught wind of an upcoming Band B gig. You see, Band B is playing a show at a nearby shopping mall, and the show is sponsored by [that big corporate radio giant that you all hate because you're paying attention and agree that it's a bad idea that one company should own so many radio stations]. And we're being paid a lot of money for our short set.
Enter Band A mocking Band B, deploying terms such as "sell-out" and "stupid" and "lame" and "hypocritical".
I sigh.
We in Band B do seem to be "getting our hands dirty" or whatever. Under some rule-based ethics, we're guilty. But I'm thinking that the music industry is so egregiously fucked, not to mention cut-throat and totally luck-based at this point, that we're okay to get what we can get for the moment. Later, when we've got fame, we can use our platform to denounce it all.
I'm not saying we're chuckling all the way the bank. But we've got to get to the bank at some point, or we're going to run out of gas and strings and drumsticks.
I hate the FCC.
Band A was over (on my day off!) to work on some new songs, and they caught wind of an upcoming Band B gig. You see, Band B is playing a show at a nearby shopping mall, and the show is sponsored by [that big corporate radio giant that you all hate because you're paying attention and agree that it's a bad idea that one company should own so many radio stations]. And we're being paid a lot of money for our short set.
Enter Band A mocking Band B, deploying terms such as "sell-out" and "stupid" and "lame" and "hypocritical".
I sigh.
We in Band B do seem to be "getting our hands dirty" or whatever. Under some rule-based ethics, we're guilty. But I'm thinking that the music industry is so egregiously fucked, not to mention cut-throat and totally luck-based at this point, that we're okay to get what we can get for the moment. Later, when we've got fame, we can use our platform to denounce it all.
I'm not saying we're chuckling all the way the bank. But we've got to get to the bank at some point, or we're going to run out of gas and strings and drumsticks.
I hate the FCC.
posted by Stanley at 21:25
8 Comments:
Did I hear Band A or Band B? Or some tertiary band?
You heard Band A.
Band A is much better than the Tertiary Band.
let it be known that i took no part of the nay-saying and that if we were offered the same gig i would be all about it. money rules.
-Jon Bray
Ken Vandermark's Tertiary Band isn't bad.
As a sell-out myself, I say take the money and run. Purity may be morally virtuous, but there's a reason that most religious think you only achieve true virtue in the afterlife.
The fact that you blog about this, questioning yourself and said Band's moral uprightness for participating in a function sponsored by Clear Channel (?) - all this tells me that you already know where you stand, deep down, on this issue.
ryan, you are a good friend.
y
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