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She just wanted to play bass.


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Thanks for posting, it is the new "real world" that we are facing.

Not long ago I was gigging Th/Fr/Sa and booked well into summer.

 

Not now, nada. This is a small scene, NYC shoud be a HUGE scene but it just isn't safe in either place right now to go back to the old ways.

 

Even when it is safe, the scene may not come back or may return slowly.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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The part of her story not liking having to play the flute and then taking up the bass and falling in love with it, reminds me of wanting to do the same thing back in grade school with the clarinet. I still have woulda coulda shoulda regrets as I love the bass and have played around with it. But I didn't keep mine. I played keys for awhile too but my true love is still playing the guitar for my own enjoyment. Being a working musician in NYC was probably a rough life and presented her with many challenges. That's just the way it is for dedicated artists... :cool:
Take care, Larryz
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I fear this virus will destroy the arts, period... and as it was, we've somehow reached the point where the only people who are able to forge careers in any area of the arts - music, acting, movie-making, fine arts, creative writing - are upper-middle-class to flat out super-wealthy,,, and it is much, much, much easier for the children of superstars or moguls or rich people to dominate every field. That's not a good cultural sign.

 

Taylor Swift, Drake, Lady Gaga, Greta Van Fleet, Ariana Grande... whatever you think of their talents, the fact that they are the children of extremely wealthy people who do whatever they have to do make their kid's dreams come true is the biggest factor in their success.

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I fear this virus will destroy the arts, period... and as it was, we've somehow reached the point where the only people who are able to forge careers in any area of the arts - music, acting, movie-making, fine arts, creative writing - are upper-middle-class to flat out super-wealthy,,, and it is much, much, much easier for the children of superstars or moguls or rich people to dominate every field. That's not a good cultural sign.

 

Taylor Swift, Drake, Lady Gaga, Greta Van Fleet, Ariana Grande... whatever you think of their talents, the fact that they are the children of extremely wealthy people who do whatever they have to do make their kid's dreams come true is the biggest factor in their success.

 

 

Humans had music before they had wealth or security. As old as these instruments at this link are, they are not the first used to create music. That said 40,000 years is a LONG time.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-18196349

 

So doomsday predictions are premature I think. While wealth can buy connection, the flip side is that many of us of meager means now have very capable home studios and we all have the internet.

Fame can be obtained without wealth - Jenna Marbles is not a musician but she has done well by starting small and humble on YouTube. I don't know anything about her parents but I remember her selfie stick home made cell phone videos from a few years back and she currently has 20.2 million subscribers. https://www.youtube.com/user/JennaMarbles

 

So, anything is still possible. Do what you do!

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Well, Jenna Marbles is the daughter of a wealthy chemical engineer who holds several patents, and she has a Master's Degree from Boston University. Not exactly rags to riches... riches to more riches.

 

And I'm not "slamming" wealthy kids... most of my best friends qualify as that and since the charge is locally relative I've been called that by others quite a bit.

 

But it is about time to invest in creative pursuits and education. The "people" need champions in their culture that they see a reflection of themselves in... I think the increasing lack of that is why rock and roll is no longer the dominant form of American popular music and has been replaced as the preferred music of the working people by Hip Hop and modern country (which is increasingly hip hop with fiddles and pedal steel and AC/DC guitars).

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Well, Jenna Marbles is the daughter of a wealthy chemical engineer who holds several patents, and she has a Master's Degree from Boston University. Not exactly rags to riches... riches to more riches.

 

And I'm not "slamming" wealthy kids... most of my best friends qualify as that and since the charge is locally relative I've been called that by others quite a bit.

 

But it is about time to invest in creative pursuits and education. The "people" need champions in their culture that they see a reflection of themselves in... I think the increasing lack of that is why rock and roll is no longer the dominant form of American popular music and has been replaced as the preferred music of the working people by Hip Hop and modern country (which is increasingly hip hop with fiddles and pedal steel and AC/DC guitars).

 

 

The only thing that never changes is that everything always changes. If we think we are defeated, we are.

 

Didn't know much about Jenna or her background. There's no doubt her early videos lack production values and could be done by anybody with a cell phone.

She is not outstandingly attractive or spectacularly talented but she does engage. Mainly, she just kept on doing it.

Edited to add - Her "What a girl's underwear means" has over 18 million hits. It looks and sounds like crap but it's funny - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EElTg4tFqXc&t=1s

Money does not buy charisma or persistence. Neither does lack of money.

 

The last issue of Tape Op was devoted to the Dub music of Jamaica - with interviews from Lee "Scratch" Perry and Hopeton Overton Brown aka "The Scientist." The lineage to Hip-Hop is traced through DJ Cool Herc, who moved to NYC from Jamaica and brought Dub ideas with him. It is a style founded in a lack of funding, "found material" is the basis for Hip-Hop. Certainly it has evolved but those are the roots.

 

Bottom line is - Can you and do you connect and to what scale? Tear it up at the club? You got something but those 4 walls are closing in.

I dont have answers, I have questions. I LOVE guitar and playing live but first and foremost I am a songwriter. Slow to the draw beyond any doubt but ready to plan a new attack on the planet.

Do what you do and go with it! Cheers, Kuru

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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The "people" need champions in their culture that they see a reflection of themselves in... I think the increasing lack of that is why rock and roll is no longer the dominant form of American popular music and has been replaced as the preferred music of the working people by Hip Hop and modern country (which is increasingly hip hop with fiddles and pedal steel and AC/DC guitars).

 

I have a hard time knowing the difference between rap and hip hop. I don't care for either genre especially when they invade Country, Mexican, Rock, etc., music. I know Rap and Hip Hop are popular genres and many other people really appreciate them. I do not like New Country, with the inclusion of AC/DC rock guitars, hip hop, etc. A little bit is OK, but it is now so overdone. I only listen to the stations that still play Classic Rock, Rock and Roll, Classic Country, Country Rock with a jazzy influence, etc. I think it's not a popular music problem so much as it is the passing of my generation and the ones that came along before me. We just lost Little Richard at 87 which was one of the bench marks of a generation of rock and rollers. I'm 70 and most of the rockers were 20 years older than me so they are in the rest in peace threads more and more these days. I still love their music.

 

The younger generation(s) are blowing out their LF hearing ear drums while driving around in their cars with the bass booming. I know they are near me with my windows up and theirs up and the bass still comes driving through while we are cruzing main street. I think that is all you need these days to get their attention and make the kind of music that they consider popular. We used to play our music loud too, but not near as loud that I'm hearing from the next car with the windows up. I love the old slap bass rock and roll and the old walking jazz bass and the honky tonk bar bass, etc. So I know how addicting the bass is and how it drives various genres. It's a young and old problem and everyone should try not to turn it up too loud and protect their hearing. The bass drum will also cause you ear drums to vibrate if you get too close LOL! :cool:

Take care, Larryz
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The younger generation(s) are blowing out their LF hearing ear drums while driving around in their cars with the bass booming. I know they are near me with my windows up and theirs up and the bass still comes driving through while we are cruzing main street. I think that is all you need these days to get their attention and make the kind of music that they consider popular. We used to play our music loud too, but not near as loud that I'm hearing from the next car with the windows up. I love the old slap bass rock and roll and the old walking jazz bass and the honky tonk bar bass, etc. So I know how addicting the bass is and how it drives various genres. It's a young and old problem and everyone should try not to turn it up too loud and protect their hearing. The bass drum will also cause you ear drums to vibrate if you get too close LOL! :cool:

 

As a sound engineer of close to 50 years experience, the one trait which tells me a mix has been engineered by someone under 30, with no education in acoustical physics, neurobiology nor musicology, is when the spectrum is tipped up to feature tons of bass, & the most prominent element in the balance is the kick drum. It obscures so much other information in other instruments it's almost comically bad audio engineering, but that's what predominates now.

Scott Fraser
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To be clear, I support the existence and success of hip hop and rap, modern and even "bro" country, doom and death metal, emo-mariachi and whatever else people come up with that catches the fancy of fans.

 

I don't like 90% of it, but I'm a bit of a snob and don't like 90% of anything... I don't play or write it (though I might give emo-mariachi a shot, now that I think of it) so of course I kind of wish the stuff I appreciate was more popular, which is a natural reaction, I'm sure...

 

What I'm reacting to more is our prevailing cultural dilemma... where the arts like everything else have become an increasingly "success or failure" extreme thing, especially in places like NYC like in the story, places which are supposed to be our Cultural capitals.

 

I remember a post written somewhere years back by a popular and successful indie rock singer/songwriter/bandleader... he's worked his way to being a well-known reliable concert draw in that world, is on a good-sized indie label that has cache with the kids and he was selling a good amount of records... I think he said he'd had 3 or so years where his income from worldwide touring and publishing and a few song placements in places and recording royalties was about $70,000, and that is above the average household income for America... but when you list "musician" next to it, in the eyes of most people and banks, etc., it equals "homeless and unemployed." You're either a millionaire or a failure in the field, right? He was writing that about health insurance, because it was really expensive for him to have for his family, but his wife had a major health problem and of course, only so much was covered and then the rates spike because you actually had to use the insurance you pay for and now it's unaffordable. That forces you to a life or death decision thing... the life route being to go get a normal job, and very few normal jobs leave time and energy for sustained original music output, and certainly not sustained international touring... and without sustained international touring, interest in and demand for your recorded output decreases, and with a decrease in demand the business realities start pushing down the ability to release physical product, and without physical product and no touring, the income from your music drops to nothing... so you're now just another hobbyist... which is fine, maybe music is more "pure" that way, but it sucks as a choice for someone who was successful on their own terms.

 

And that is why it seems like every genre of music I dig into - including rap and hip hop - and every field of the arts is being increasingly dominated by wealthy kids who don't have to worry about things like having health insurance covered. That's not a healthy cultural thing... and as that feedback loop inadvertently alienates more and more people... well, we end up in a reality where grown people are jamming out to "Baby Shark" in nightclubs.

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Thanks for posting, it is the new "real world" that we are facing.

Not long ago I was gigging Th/Fr/Sa and booked well into summer.

 

Not now, nada. This is a small scene, NYC shoud be a HUGE scene but it just isn't safe in either place right now to go back to the old ways.

 

Even when it is safe, the scene may not come back or may return slowly.

 

Meant to point out earlier, which the article does, that NYC has been drying up for a long time because space is too expensive for clubs and studios... one after another they're being forced out by the costs of rent. The same thing is leading Broadway to be strip of live-action musicals based on Disney cartoons...

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As a sound engineer of close to 50 years experience, the one trait which tells me a mix has been engineered by someone under 30, with no education in acoustical physics, neurobiology nor musicology, is when the spectrum is tipped up to feature tons of bass, & the most prominent element in the balance is the kick drum. It obscures so much other information in other instruments it's almost comically bad audio engineering, but that's what predominates now.

 

I got a good giggle out of your post Scott! So true! :lolol:

Take care, Larryz
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Being engaged to a bass player, I love bass. I don't like it so loud it buries everything else. We went to a park in Honolulu last summer to see a band and we we pulled into the parking lot all we could hear was the bass. We decided to go ahead and listen away, stayed for about 15 minutes and couldn't take anymore. We learned from people who started playing in the 60's and taught us properly. If we were to play any differently would be disrespecting them.
Jenny S.
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