Re: Why does mainstream seem more like , downstream these days?

[Matt Davignon <mattdavignon@gmail.com>]

I don't think that most of the listening public actually listens to
music anymore. I think the big 4 record labels got where they are by
identifying what most people like about the music - that there IS
music, and that they feel like they can understand and identify with
the images of the artist behind it. This is part of what made Michael
Jackson and Madonna (and now Eminem and Lady Gaga) so huge - that they
understood the "persona" of being a pop star is actually more
important than the music itself. And for some of them, you have to
give them credit - this "persona" thing can be an art form in itself.
I actually have some respect for Lady Gaga as an artist. Not so much
as a musician, but there is art to what she does.

I think Beck was the most recent time an artist I listen to won a
grammy, and it was one of his weaker albums. Unless Radiohead got
something for "In Rainbows". I pay about as much attention to the
Grammys as I do to the superbowl.

Regarding experimentalness - it exists in most genres of music. The
genre known as "Experimental/Avant Garde" is actually an umbrella term
for 5 or 6 major branches of very different music, and a lot of
subgenres. It probably has more groundbreaking work than other genre
titles, but still more than 80% of the practitioners are working with
very specific ideas that have had success in the past. I admit I love
a lot of that stuff, but I can't pretend that it's more "creative"
than pop music.

When I can do so without sounding like a pompous ass, I try to push an
idea of "personal music". That is, the musician focuses on distilling
the elements that make them unique as a performer from the
expectations that come with their genre or their gear. They work with
the rules that they want to work with and ignore the rules that they
don't want to work with. It involves constantly asking the question,
"What does (your name here) REALLY sound like?"

-- 
Matt Davignon
mattdavignon@gmail.com
www.ribosomemusic.com
Rigs! www.youtube.com/user/ribosomematt