mmmmugspace. a muso rant.

Nope, the likes of Dragon, Icehouse etc got popular using the pub-rock scene. Which, due to various reasons, isn’t that strong any more.

So, when old methods of marketing yourself disappear, you need to work out new ones. For some reason that nobody quite understands, the myspace thing seems to be something that the music industry is taking vaguely seriously (possibly because the people most likely to buy music are teenagers – just as, Dragon, Chisel et al probably did very well off a number of teenagers who weren’t really meant to be in a pub but were anyway).

I’d also guess that music industry execs have worked out that you afford about the same amount of cocaine and hookers off a rotating series of flash-in-the-pan groups as you can off a long-term successful artist, with the bonus that each of the flash-in-the-pan groups won’t ask for as much money as a long-term successful artist will.

You think the likes of Dragon, Chisel, Aussie Crawl, Skyhooks, Icehouse etc got popular using myspace ?

Theres no substitute for hard work – no not even myspace.

In my opinion – myspace is majorly populated by teenagers “emo’s”, swingers and peopple of loose moral fiber (Make of that what you will) and a scattering of child sex offenders thrown in. No place for any grown (sane) adults.

In saying so – I have a myspace if people want to be my “friend” – its address is lahh dee daah……not……….

Well, the laws of supply and demand apply here – far more people want to be artists than are really supportable by those willing to pay for their art – so music/painting/theatre/filmmaking ends up being, for a lot of people, an expensive hobby, rather than an actual career.

I’d be guessing on rates of return, the pokies probably do better than an artistic career…

So the moral of the story is don’t get too fussed about it.

True but those buggers get paid. Not being an artist I can harp on about artistic integrity but most of the artists I’ve met (and that is a few) do like to be able to eat/pay rent/etc, etc.

myspace friends will have nothing to do with popularity of your band. if your band is good and works hard then how many friends you have on myspace will mean less than nothing. The only things to come out of myspace are that shitful band arctic monkeys and that even more shitful chick who sings that awful punk flower hair song.. so the standard of bands coming out of myspace is less than average anyway. So the moral of the story is don’t get too fussed about it.

Get that harry potter geek to help you out…

Thanks Mymercia. I guess I just grew up listening and learning to sing listening to a lot of blues & rock music….way way way back in the day as a teen in the 80s…way before Missy Higgins, the Waifs (and what you might call the strine accent became popular or even heard on popluar radio). So I guess, as a muso I wasn’t nutured in that environment…its bit late for me to change my style now, I think it would sound a bit phony if I suddenly started singing with an aussie accent. Plus I think there are some really great local singers with that natural Aussie lilt in their voices…The Cashews, Matty Ellis come to mind.

And JB, don’t think it hasn’t crossed my mind! although I should have used the collective power of the Teenagers at my highschool to win ‘unearthed’, although i admit, i didn’t enter.

As you can tell by my myspace rant, i’ve been living in the technological dark ages for some time now.

cheers,
blair,

I feel your pain Mr Randall…and agree 100%.

Nice music. I like the trad jazz/Cuban flavour. But why are you singing with an American accent?