Would Kurt Cobain have made a deal in here?

[Picardster]

Hi Fellow Passengers,
with all this categorization and framework for listings going on here on Taxe I wonder if creative people who make music "out of the box", crossover stuff with new and creative sounds and tunes would be able to find deals in here, since such material would hardly fit into any wheelbase of any listing.

Any thoughts about that?

[crashgates]

.

[Patrick]

I doubt it. Complaint rock is old hat, is it not?

[johnnyrowing]

Sorry for long reply. You are such a key contributor to the board and your question was thought provoking.

Here is a TLDR just in case:
To find success, I think we have to keep getting better at knowing what's going on with music. We can still be creative and find success while writing in any "box".

The longer answer:
Cobain probably wouldn't have, only because I doubt it would've interested him. There are lots of really talented people out there that are making the music they want to make and give little to NO consideration of ever finding a market for their music. I kind of think Cobain would've been writing like Cobain market or not. Thereagain, if you do anything long enough and we'll enough it'll probably find a market . . . Even if small and 20 years later in a vintage listing.

I sense a little bit of loading in the question with creative being associated with "out of the box". Nirvana was in a box just as much as any artist. They were influenced by what they liked and they fit right in with lots of the music happening in Seattle. I'm not saying they weren't unique, by the way. Just making the point that they were hanging out with other musicians and playing shows for similar crowds. That is a box too.

I personally love the creativity that the "box" of a listing description invites. Limitations usually generate lots of creativity.

Also, with the crossover comment. It is my understanding that some Taxi artists have actually been innovators in new spins on styles like Dramedy. Some of these artists have submitted to listings where their prior work is one of the references! So, it is possible for creative folks to find success and move the dial on genres.

It seems like pretty much all music is representative of something that is happening somewhere else at the same time. Or conversely, intentionally reaches back to bring the classic back. So, again creative is probably still in a box in some way. Disruptors are pretty rare . . . I think most of the change happens in pretty small, nearly unrecognizable, increments.

When we write, we can still be in the box but bring some outside elements in the box with us. It's fun. If we are close on a genre or artist, even with a bit of new or you, it'll probably find a home some day.

Johnny Rowing

[superblonde]

Not sure what Cobain has to do with anything. His music was an evolution of punk and industrial. Much of his sound was lifted straight from Pixies and also the Beatles. The Pixies sound has been used as reference tracks in the past.

I doubt Cobain could have met strict deadlines because he was a heroin addict. (Unpredictable behavior & schedule.) But at least he wrote diatonic music (not so with many tracks in review sections here).

Several forward tracks just in the past couple weeks have blended EDM with various other genres (like hip hop beat) so if there is a question about whether fusion or evolving styles gets accepted, that should be clear. Not so much because the artist intended fusion but it seems to me more because the artist has no idea what they are doing compositionally and thus accidentally create a mashup which accidentally works.

[Picardster]

To avoid misunderstandings, I neither want to accuse anyone or any system - and Kurt Cobain stands for many names. Maybe I should have taken Zappa - since he definitely was out of the box.

I remember an interview with him when he was comparing the music-business of his beginning to the one in his last years.
Here it is

Taxe sure is a very good system and platform for many artist and for some parts of the industry. No doubt at all.

I just wonder about the limits - and about the question who fits in and for whom it is simply not suitable.

[Picardster]

I doubt Cobain could have met strict deadlines because he was a heroin addict. (Unpredictable behavior ...

First thing I wondered with the OP was how Cobain would have handled RETURNs (like, tons of them)...

Good one, Tom

As I said, I should have taken someone else. Think of Zappa, Bob Dylan and other Trendsetters

[Patrick]

The 90's went right over my head with the exception of Oasis, Radiohead and The Posies.

Cobain lost a lot of points with me when he dissed Pete Townsend in his suicide note.

If the listing asked for pretentious complaint rock, I'm sure Cobain would have inked a deal here.

[superblonde]

in his suicide note.

you mean the note which was found at the murder scene yet has significant evidence he didn't write.

[superblonde]

Zappa - since he definitely was out of the box.

All of these artists signed to mainstream corporate record labels ("sold out"). Many artists are uncomfortable with their music being used for advertising or television. So what? Why did Dylan sell out to have his music used in commercials ranging from trucks to sneakers?

Is the real question: "Are yesterday's famous musicians capable of writing to an industry listing successfully?" Seems unlikely because most of the famous musicians did not know what they were doing as I mentioned before, their hits were "by accident". Joni Mitchell would not be able to write a new composition to fit a specific listing but could have submitted existing tracks which seemed to match up after listening to reference tracks to judge sonic similarity. Many of the licks and runs which made yesterday's hits famous were not written by the famous artists but written by studio musicians for $100 for the day's work (everyone from Neil Young to Lou Reed to.. everyone). That is my perspective. At least Cobain wrote all of his songs himself, by himself, lyrics, melody, rhythm, and drums, often by taking aspects of progressions and riffs and licks he heard from other bands and applying it in his original songs.

John Lennon wrote Come Together specifically for a political ad, but when he was only halfway through, the result didn't fit the 'listing' and knew it would be rejected, so kept the song for artist release instead of advertising release. "Greatest songwriter" failed at writing to a listing.