Laughing City

How do you feel about the entertainment industry's impact on modern culture?
It doesn't Exist, Art Imitates Life.
0%
 0%  [ 0 ]
It's minimal at best, People should be able to think for themselves and tune it out if they don't like it
25%
 25%  [ 1 ]
It's having an impact, Life Imitates Art.
0%
 0%  [ 0 ]
It's as it should be. We Get the Art We Deserve.
0%
 0%  [ 0 ]
It's having a negative impact and It's hard to avoid because it permeates everything.
25%
 25%  [ 1 ]
It's ruining society by promoting the lowest common denominator, Monkey See Monkey Do.
50%
 50%  [ 2 ]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHVKndMZIwI
0%
 0%  [ 0 ]
Total Votes : 4

Author Message
wilsmith
Vintage Newbie


It's a line from a Tribe Called Quest song I loved when I was 15 years old Check the Rhyme

The Lyrics are as follows:

"How far must I go to gain respect? Um.
Well, it's kind of simple, just remain your own
Or you'll be crazy sad and alone.
Industry rule number four thousand and eighty,
record company people are shady.
So kids watch your back 'cause I think they smoke crack,
I don't doubt it. Look at how they act."


Pete Townsend was interviewed for The History of Rock* in 1995, and VH-1 aired it and used clips for a series of poignant promos. I saw the one that featured this:


QUESTION: Pete, tell us if you would, because it's something we really need said and you say it so well. Is rock reinventing itself?

PETE TOWNSHEND: I think maybe the most interesting view to look at is the one that we've just passed through: Grunge ... which has been an obvious harping back to an earlier style of rock. Not just about the sound of the bands, but what it means to the people that are listening to the music and the significance of Kurt Cobain's death. You start to get a sense ... what actually happens is not that Rock 'n' Roll reinvents itself, but that human beings don't have very many ideas and they tend to do the same thing over and over again, behaviorally. Individuals will always make the same series of mistakes again and again and again. The day I die, my parting words will be, "Please God, in my next life, will I not do that every day of my life?" We all get caught by the same problems. Since the second World War, certainly in America and in Europe, you've seen groups of people form themselves into generations. That's a big mistake. That's wrong. And that's why Kurt Cobain is dead. But then there's people that think, "Ah, we've learned from this." But they haven't. They've not experienced anything. The people that have learned the lesson of Kurt Cobain's death are really just a handful of people that are very close to him. Ms wife, his poor little kid ,who's going to grow up in the spotlight without a father, and the other guys in the band. Look at my generation. How did that work? Jimi Hendrix. Brian Jones. Janis Joplin. Keith Moon. The list is f***ing endless. They're dead people. My life is full of dead people. My friends are dead. My friends. They n-dght be your f***ing icons. They're my f***ing friends. They're dead. Dead people in my life. Lots of them. People that I knew, f***ed, loved, played with, grew up with. Now, we have Generation X which is responding to this big significant moment, which is Kurt Cobain committing suicide, and I just think this shouldn't happen again. It will happen again, but it shouldn't. In the 60s, we really thought that we were changing the world and we didn't. When we got college degrees and jobs and became lawyers and politicians, then we started to change the world. If you want to change the world, you have to get out there and change it. Music is not going to change it. Music changes the way you live, in the world. It changes the way you see it. But it doesn't change the world itself.



I heard that at 19 years old, one year after Kurt Cobain was dead. Floored me and totally reoriented how I felt about Rock Stardom. Hip Hop was deep in my heart, especially the early 90's "conscious rap" that was more artsy and political. But the one thing it had in common with Gangsta Rap was all the artist felt they were getting ripped off by the Industry with bad contracts and business relationships. So, with Pete Townsend pointing out the cultural flaws in the industry citing the legends of his time, so of which I had discovered and grew to love in my teen years, I was on my heels.

So, when my 90's favorites and familiars started ODing, dying from reckless misadventures, or got killed I developed a strong distaste for the "Old School" practices of managers supporting artists habits. You see, it's easier to control someone when they have a dependency, or desire they want fulfilled that may come with negative consequences. Keeping people around who "do your dirt" for you only leads people down darker paths and worse habits. Everyone becomes an enabler. And why do people have these habits?

Self-Medication, be it emotional, sexual, chemical, is a common way of dealing with stress and self esteem issues. Anyone who is contractually obligated to create from their heart, or at least to reach the hearts of millions, and perform, is going to be under some serious pressure. And when they are rejected for not being talented enough, pretty enough, cool enough, young enough, escaping is an easy way to cope without coping. All this leads to people adopting attitudes that might help them deal with the stress, like a F' it all, Live for the Moment/ Live fast, Die Young, leave a pretty corpse - type mentality. That just becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy, just like the starving artist who is alienated from people, and then is angry because no one appreciates their work for what it truly is. The irony is poetic and embarrassing.

So yeah, I hate that the world coerces people to make lives of giving us the dark things we would never want to give to someone else without first being manipulated, or pushed to the edge. Then tears them apart and shames them for selling their soul. So when these people get alienated and dismiss the machine that made them, and descend into whatever purgatory they must endure to find a life apart from the spotlight, it's no surprise the come out with wounds and confusion. Sometimes they are forgiven, but the camera doesn't lie, and it never forgets. So you never live your past sins down in the Industry, they just find new ways to monetize them. The whole thing is pretty vile.

if it takes pain to make a poet, I have no problem singing Mantras instead of poetry if it means the world has become a genuinely healthy and happier place.

* all the episodes are on the user's channel since the related/ other vids set up is a wreck since youtube updated their site.

_________________
yup, that's my name.

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