Lessons from the Old School

One thing that just occurred to me, while working on a writing project and having a western playing in the background is that the internet is actually taking music back to an age before corporate backing ruined music. Isn't that strange. Hear me out on this before you realize that I am completely insane.

Long ago, before corporations really started throwing around their influence, in order for artists to get known, they had to play the clubs, travel the roads and perform their songs for anyone who would stop and listen. After travelling from city to city, they would build an audience. In building their audience, they would increase their income and would be able to continue doing what they do.

Thanks to the internet (and piracy) the corporate influence on what music people buy and listen to has dramatically increased. Signed artists aren't pulling in Michael Jackson 1980's numbers. They are increasingly being forced to stepped out of the music video and get their ass on the road to build a fan base.

This is the best time ever to be an independent artist. The internet allows those who can't afford to get on the road physically, blaze a trail throughout cyberspace without needing a record contract. Those who can afford to tour physically from city to city might even make more money than their signed counterparts, because they don't have the overhead that comes with paying the record company first and the artist last. Blaze your trail...

Ruin My Whole F**King Sunday!

When I'm writing, which is a twelve to eighteen hour a day thing for me, I'm listening to music. Since my love of music is so broad, what I listen to will change from day to day. I will pretty much flip a coin to what I will listen to. Sometimes, it will be a set of podcasts, an internet radio station, or I will cruise through different sites and just let music play. It's an amazing way to discover music. That's how I discovered Wolfmother - who kicks international, rockin' howlin' ass and is one of my favorites forever and are working on their new album right this f**kin' minute...


I rarely, ever listen to traditional commercial radio. I don't have the patience to listen to the same crap over and over again. Here's my problem today. I was listening to a college radio station that I have never listened to before and they were rocking all night long. These morons don't have a "Playing Now" list so that you know the name of the artist and the song that you just heard.


What a waste of time. I don't want to hear music that I can't own in some form or fashion. It's bull. I've made it a new rule not to listen to radio or podcasts that don't tell you who the artist or name of the song is. Anything that will eliminate anxiety, stress and disappointment, I'm all for it.