Music Think Tank - MTT Open

I’m a musician, not an actor…

Do I have anything against actors?

No… What I do feel passionate about is the abundance of heartless musical garbage that clogs the airwaves. So many people singing songs that have very little substance or meaning, the singers sound like they are not even convincing themselves. & even worse, they aren’t even pretending to try their hand at a bit of originality.

Battles VS Backstreet Boys: Can they co-exist or will one beat the other senseless? I know which side I’m on (I did this myself with GIMP… Pretty terrrible but hey, I’m not a visual artist either… I’m a musician.)I read this nice (succinct) article by Heather McDonald called ‘Creative versus Commercial’ on my iPhone while eating a solo Ramen dinner last Friday night & couldn’t help but throw my $0.02 in as a comment. Then I kinda surprised myself with how passionate I was about the whole thing. Anyways, as I have been making a conscious effort to start writing shorter blogs, I thought my comment would be the best place to start. Here it is. Don’t forget to checkout Heathers original article for a better perspective on the whole thing.

Here is my comment from Heathers blog:

As @allen mentioned, this is something I often think about as an independant artist. At the end of the day, like @Abram mentioned, If you’re doing music to make money as a first priority, go get into accountancy or something else ’safe’. Not only are you perpetuating the problem of music being horribly tainted by commercialism, but you’re probably just as likely to win the lottery as you are to write a ‘hit’.

For me, I can’t really bring myself to write & perform a song written for commercial reasons. As I believe is a pure musical pursuit, I strive to create something unique & organic. If I write a song I don’t believe in, I feel I have ceased being a musician, & am instead being an actor.

Cabaret & theatre aside, it would seem that many so-called musicians are being actors. I hope this is understandable.

After recently watching a singer/song-writer comp, I am sad to see that the judges time & time again opt for those who fall more inline with what is already accepted rather than those who are pushing the creative envelope.

I can thankfully take solace in the fact that it still seems to ring true in general that those artists & bands who have lasting carreers, which live on long past the time they stop creating music & who have fans who are truly passionate about their music, more often than not tend to be the pioneers. The copycats may make some hell cash but at the end of the day/month/year, their music is forgotten. This is what I believe & I hope, for the sake of pure creativity, that it is true.

Thoughts, comments, abuse?

Ryan Collings is otherwise known as Stanmore Phoenix. Creating his unique alternative acoustic art rock on the streets of Sydney is where you can find him. Or at his blog you can find a bunch of links down the right-hand margin.