[NewMusic] Ribot rant and subsidized spaces in Europe

[David Slusser]

I should stay out of this - but I've always maintained that Americans
are really going out to see celebrities when they are ostensibly going
out for music or anything else.  In George's case, if this arts council
person thought artists are really cool, he should've kept his mouth
shut and gotten some nookie instead.

On Apr 7, 2007, at 8:34 PM, Matt Davignon wrote:

> On 4/6/07, Jacob Lindsay <jacobmakesnoise at yahoo.com> was like:
>>
>> Obviously,
>> according to laws of the market if Madonna makes 10
>> million times as much money from her music as you do,
>> that means that her music is 10 million times better
>> than yours.
>
> Well, in regards to the musicians that make money in America, it's not
> really the music that's being sold - it's the appeal of the lifestyle
> and image of the musician. In the cases where a song gets popular
> because of the music, the 'artists' have very little to do with
> whether the music is good or not. Thank the unnamed songwriters and
> producers for that. I don't think many Americans buy music anymore.
>
> Then George Creamasci was all:
>> I once went out to dinner with a member of a local
>> city arts council, who admitted not really knowing anything
>> about art or non-pop music, but she really really thought
>> art and artists were "cool". She then went on to say that she
>> never voted for any projects that didn't have a social dimension,
>> like school or prison outreach. She then ended the evening calling  
>> me,
>> and abstract music and art in general, "elitist".  Why should we give
>> you money? she said - no one cares about what you do, you're
>> not helping anybody. This is the person reviewing your application,
>> folks.
>
> Well, if we're going to ask for grants and stuff, we have to be ready
> to answer that question: What value does our music have for people who
> don't make our kind of music? I've been trying to answer that one
> myself, but everything I come up with sounds even more elitist. (Our
> music encourages people to be more open minded, and appreciate things
> that don't come in sterilized little packages.)
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