(I guess these days this would be a blog.)
‘Spose their was a huge chain of food stores, all owned by a large conglomerate, and when you entered this store you noticed all they sold (or were interested in selling) was cookies, sugar loaded cereal, soda pop, doughnuts and candy. That is ALL you found on the shelves!!!! Well… you would find the manager and ask: “Where is the real food, the fresh fruits and vegetables, the lean cuts of meat, whole grain breads and cereals?”
To which the manager replies: “We don’t sell any of that here… people don’t want that!”
To which you reply: “Sure they do, people need good nutritious food!” But, the manager digs in: “There is NO ROOM in our store for any of that!!”
Well, ya got Nashville and the big “Country” and Pop radio empires! Cutesy dancing Babes, pretty boys in cowboy hats… and little else!!! But where’s the REAL music?!? You know the reply: “We don’t want any of that HERE!!! That’s the bad news…
The good news… it’s out there if you want it, and it’s relatively easy to find. But, it does require a little effort (thank God for the Internet!). The “candy” is spoon fed, because its creators believe the public is too lazy (and stupid) to look for anything else. Ya gotta admit they got that part of the market sewed up (the lazy & stupid part)! Time to start the revolution!!!
Let’s use “Country” and Nashville to begin our discussion: Music historians will note no new innovative country music trend has EVER started in Nashville!!! Hank Williams was not welcome (at first) in establishment Nashville, so he had to go to the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport . Soon, of course he got so big Nashville was forced to notice, and he got his Opry gig. Ditto, Elvis, Buck Owens, Waylon and Willie, Dwight Yokum, etc. You get the trend, (establishment) Nashville is (and has always been) the ENEMY of music innovation, NOT its incubator! A good example is the current “Bluegrass eruption” started by “O Brother, Where Art Thou” (again, not made by "establishment" Nashville). It has bloomed in spite of Nashville’s and “Country radio’s” best efforts to ignore it. When most folks hear Bluegrass they tend to like it, often impressed with virtuosity of the musicians who perform it! But again “establishment” Nashville and the radio monopoly are slow to catch on!
My personal opinion is much of the stuff “perspiring” songwriters and performers hear (and especially pay to hear) about how to succeed is 90% hog manure! If you do get lucky and get a coupla cuts, you can then make real money by selling tips to wannabe songsmiths in seminars and such.
Pitching songs to most publishers, is probably pitching them down a black hole… ah, but we live on the dream. I’d say… have as many good demos as possible available and ready to give if a maybe/kinda opportunity comes by. Persistence is probably the biggest key to success (as much as talent, although talent DEFINATLY helps!). Don’t leave the buzzards alone until they give you a chance?!? What ya think?
