Your Odds In the Digital Music World

[ransack5]

It is a over saturated music industry in these times with more and more artist using technology towards recording and producing music. In these times things are harder than ever because there are million of more talents artists and producers doing the same thing that everyone else is attempting to accomplish. Before the internet blew up things weren't as bad but now everything seem to be falling towards the same direction.In another 20 years who knows what the music industry will be but it sure doesn't seem to be a large financial profit margin like it was back in the late 90's.

[crs7string]

Jun 29, 2008, 5:37pm, mojobone wrote:I'm not interested in making music that's only listened to by other musicians. I think that's why jazz audiences have shrunk over the past quarter-century or so. Jazz musicians were so hungry for the respect classical academia denied them that they made it so you had to study to play. Once it's decided that a music has to be 'conserved', you can put a toe tag on it. The vocal jazz tradition is dying out and nobody dances to it anymore. Everything gets neatly categorized and old men will write scholarly papers and argue about it. Now that we have the 'School of Rock' it's only a matter of time. Hip hop, you're next.I'm not sure generalizing like this about jazz is entirely on the mark. Like all genres, there are so many different sub genres. There is a lot of new and ground breaking music being recorded. The late Michael Brecker, Pat Metheny, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Bill Frisell, John Scofield and many, many others come to mind.I will agree there are other jazz artists that have made the music a "museum piece"As long as musicians have a desire to improvise and grow, there will be new and exciting music and an audience (admittedly a small one) Jazz never has and never will be the music of the masses.Thankfully, public radio keeps jazz alive on the radio. This is still a good source to hear new music. BTW I'm a jazz guitarist, so I am somewhat territorial on this subject. Chuck

[gongchime]

I really like Frank Gambales playing. I love the way he took what Allen Holdworth was doing and took it to another level. Respect on that. But in either case, it's deffinitely musician's music. But certainly doesn't belong in a museum. Not yet!

[mojobone]

Well maybe I was wearin' my pessimistic shoes when I wrote that, and maybe I should have prefaced it with the fact that I'm a roots-oriented american musician and a fan of stuff ranging from Mahavishnu to Preservation Hall; maybe the internet has once again failed to convey my attempt at a wryly humorous tone. Be that as it may, I don't see how it can be denied that jazz doesn't occupy the public consciousness as it once did. Just groping for some reasons why. (maybe it's Wynton Marsalis' fault )Scott Henderson said, "When you get in front of an audience, you don't want to sound like you went to school." That, IMO, is what's wrong with the subset of jazz I don't like.