Re: 3 million hits with livelooping

[Matt Davignon <mattdavignon@gmail.com>]

Hi Torben,

I'll agree with you that there's a certain level of jealousy from us "folks who've been around for a few years", but my take on it is a bit different than yours.

If someone is successful because they are talented and hardworking, I think most people (except for trolls) are ok with that. However, if you're someone who has put some years of work into learning your craft, and someone gets successful at it solely on the virtue of being young and "hip", it gets a bit harder to get behind. It's a frustrating statement on the world of public taste that most listeners don't always flock to the highest quality work - they flock to what is trending.

I see this video and I see a couple college kids having fun, and I don't begrudge them for that. However, if this suddenly became the #1 clip on youtube and people started going to looping shows and saying "That's awesome - it's almost as good as that clip with the guy who wears sunglasses indoors and does a silly dance! Wow - now that guy is a talented looper!", I'd start to get depressed about it. 

It's kind of like the "Girls and Ukeleles" phenomenon. If you want to be an internet hit, be a cute girl between the ages of 16 and 23, and spend 10 minutes learning how to play something on a ukelele. Post it on youtube. Boingboing.net will put it on their blog and you'll instantly have lots of views. However, women and men who strive to develop an actual talent with their instruments have to work much harder to get noticed.


--
Matt Davignon
mattdavignon@gmail.com
www.ribosomemusic.com
Podcast! http://ribosomematt.podomatic.com

On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 5:25 AM, Torben Scharling <torbenscharling@gmail.com> wrote:

So without mentioning any names, or quoting anyone, what I meant was:

I see a lot of jealousy, insecurities, hatred towards other people, who are more successful than you. Perhaps even worse musicians, but way better at giving audiences what they want/something they find interesting enough to wanna share with their friends (and share on a mailing list).

This guy is a "like", "share", "subscribe", "click on my ads" kind of guy. He thrives on that - good for him. Doesn't mean you have to do the same, just respect the fact that he's successful in doing what he's doing. (And no, I'm not a fan of his btw.)

I mean, it's not like this guy is a phony or a con artist. I'm sure he works hard with what he's got. He probably realized that he's not a super-musician, and learned to draw on other skills.

Bashing creativity, entertainment, and quite frankly something that you, unless you pull the same kind of views or at least returning subscribers, have no clue how to do yourselves - then I think trolling is the appropriate word for it.