Armed with a rare pair of themed "sequel singles," Diane Renay surged full speed ahead into The British Invasion, armed only with a Crewe of one...hitmaker Bob.
Fun story, but contained within it is the seed of a truly big topic. It shows up in your casual mention of "self-contained groups" with songwriters already on board, as exemplified by the Beatles, and the swift sidelining of the old guard. I think of it as the "CEO" model (single headliners commanding the resources of legions of songwriters and musicians--think Ellington, Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Elvis, Ronstadt) being replaced by something like an artistic SWAT team--self sufficient, agile, and deadly at everything. Today, we have transitioned back to the CEO model (Beyonce, Gaga, Swift, etc., as well as all of hip-hop), and the burning question is, why has the SWAT team model died in the U.S.? It is still thriving elsewhere, but the bands pursuing that model here are considered "indie", and most of them, frankly, are not that good. The best musicians are largely doing session work for the CEOs, or playing in metal bands where technical badassery still matters. Your thoughts?
MY thoughts? Sounds like we would do well to start a collab thread enlisting others to add their opinions to your thoughts (here and others you'd add), as I would add my dos centavos there, as well!
A shame to "waste" great convo on the comment section here! You're certainly right: It IS a truly big topic, and it'd be cool to get input from our learned fellow subscribers here...I've got plenty of past and current record biz players on my sub list, including a rock critic or two (not to mention YOUR sub list)! THEY must have a word or two to say about the topic!!
That's a great idea. My sub list includes a few practicing musicians. Bigger question is mechanics. I can write up an initial post--the question is how to put it out there. Your thoughts?
Fun story, but contained within it is the seed of a truly big topic. It shows up in your casual mention of "self-contained groups" with songwriters already on board, as exemplified by the Beatles, and the swift sidelining of the old guard. I think of it as the "CEO" model (single headliners commanding the resources of legions of songwriters and musicians--think Ellington, Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Elvis, Ronstadt) being replaced by something like an artistic SWAT team--self sufficient, agile, and deadly at everything. Today, we have transitioned back to the CEO model (Beyonce, Gaga, Swift, etc., as well as all of hip-hop), and the burning question is, why has the SWAT team model died in the U.S.? It is still thriving elsewhere, but the bands pursuing that model here are considered "indie", and most of them, frankly, are not that good. The best musicians are largely doing session work for the CEOs, or playing in metal bands where technical badassery still matters. Your thoughts?
MY thoughts? Sounds like we would do well to start a collab thread enlisting others to add their opinions to your thoughts (here and others you'd add), as I would add my dos centavos there, as well!
A shame to "waste" great convo on the comment section here! You're certainly right: It IS a truly big topic, and it'd be cool to get input from our learned fellow subscribers here...I've got plenty of past and current record biz players on my sub list, including a rock critic or two (not to mention YOUR sub list)! THEY must have a word or two to say about the topic!!
That's a great idea. My sub list includes a few practicing musicians. Bigger question is mechanics. I can write up an initial post--the question is how to put it out there. Your thoughts?
Hit me up via e-mail.