Quote of the morning, from "Modeling Authenticity" by Michael Coyle & Jon Dolan in "Reading Rock And Roll", editors Kevin JH Dettmar & William Richey:
"Moreover, as it represents a primarily visual medium designed to sell recordings, MTV's semiotic promiscuity has made obvious a condition that the acolytes of rock tradition have only recently begun to acknowledge: that is, unlike jazz (at least until recently), rock is primarily about recordings and not performance. Whereas early jazz musicians made records only to boost the price of their personal appearances, rock musicians tour to promote records".
Anyone generous enough to have taken an interest in my commentaries on the life of a working musician, over many years, will recognise in this an academic articulation of a recurrent Crim point: where performing / touring is set up as a promotional activity, the audience is insulted, the music obviated & the performer's role undermined. Actually, the only opportunity for a player to take charge of their life (to quote a leading public speaker) is when they walk on stage. The record company & producer are not able to censor, direct, control, neuter or paralyse the performer during the performance moment - unless the performer allows it. Despite all attempts to cripple the act of music, the potential available to the event remains available.
Yesterday: I was reminded of an offer which came through a few months ago, to contribute a soundscapes track to the soundtrack album of a movie. The idea was this... the film has no music in it, but at the beginning of the action several college students are listening to tapes of scary music. And then, they go off into the woods. The soundtrack album was of the "scary tapes" they were listening to. The proposition struck me as bogo-to-the-max. Soundtrack albums "inspired by the movie" don't convince me conceptually, so this seemed even more bogo and I declined the offer. In this way soundscapes did not become part of the "soundtrack" allbum of "The Blair Witch Project".
17.13 David & Robert are back at the hotel with dribbling psyches after a very good day. We have been Chez Rieflin presenting DGM Live to several local artists.
"If we can define our aim, we are halfway to achieving it."
