Andare, Partire, Tornare ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Music Buisness, which eats its own I wanted to write briefly about the Great White show, but not really about the controversy about pyrotechnics or about the tragedy more directly (aside from the fact that as the wife of a musician starting out a new band and playing lots of crappy little clubs, the whole thing gives me the urge to wrap Bemo in a fire-retardent jumpsuit). Mostly, I've been fascinated by the descriptions of the band - ranging from simply "one-hit wonders" to "washed up hair band" who amazingly managed to scrape together three hundred people to watch them play. It amuses me, because the music-buying public tends to assume that if you aren't in heavy rotation on MTV, or selling out stadiums, you're a nobody. Tons of little clubs survive on bands that were formerly great but who were caught in an image that became dated, or who never made it quite big enough to garner a base of fans to keep them afloat. Great White, never one of the true glam bands or even one which fit the "heavy metal" category very well, became victims of the Nirvana overthrow at the beginning of the nineties, and despite the fact that they were more of a hard blues band, they were thrown out with the bathwater. King's X, a personal favorite of mine and Bemo's, has managed to scrape by on touring small clubs and staying on a very minor label. Their music is still top-notch, their fans are devoted, but most people have either never heard of them, or perhaps remembers their one small hit back in the eighties. Persia is a diehard Matthew Sweet fan, and knows people who loved Marcy Playground before "Sex and Candy" and still follow them, despite their one hit wonder status with most of America. There's lots of good music out there if you look under the surface. This all has something to do with the idea of selling out, musically. Bemo and I had a discussion today about the ill-fated Guns and Roses. The band broke up because Axl (pompous ass that he is) read the prevaling winds correctly and wanted to move to a more Alice in Chains style of music. Had he done so, the band, like Metallica, might now be reviled by more purist fans as sellouts, but might still be playing large venues and making lots of record sales. (Of course, this begs the question - did they plan to put out more putrid albums like The Spagetti Incident?) Instead, Guns and Roses is now regarded as a band that had their glory, but who is no longer very relevent. How about Sugar Ray? Their first big hit was a throwaway song nothing like their usual songwriting. But their followup albums have been top sellers. Are they to be reviled for selling out, remaining untrue to their band's vision? Did they see that they were simply better at the poppier stuff and shed the hardcore image without regret? Who knows? With each band it's a different story. I suppose the little moral to this story is to realize that it takes a hell of a lot of luck to become something as transitory as a one hit wonder. If Bemo and the boys make it that far, it would be beyond any expectation. And if it all faded, they'd go back to playing small venues for the simple joy of being musicians. 11:29 p.m. - 2003-02-23 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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