Money hadn’t quite made it there originally but if there were to be a Rock’nRoll New Testament it sure as hell would be in there!!”
-Dani Diamond
Rock’nRoll has those vital idols. The monster that came to suck all the free love and love of music out of Rock is not drugs or alcohol or rave even. Its money. (Monymony! Monymony!) The simple hunger for money and being rich has well overshadowed the desire to rock and to roll. When kids think Rock’nRoll they’re thinking superstardom, mansions, big cars, golf courses, limos. Come on! There’s nothing Rock’nRoll about golf or a limousine! They’ve pretty much turned Rock’nRoll into the Kardashians.
Where’s the ‘we crashed in apartment blocks full of crack-whores and scabby-faced writers’ Ala Anthony Keidis? or ‘we shared one bed and didn’t eat because we couldn’t afford anything except our drugs and guitar strings’ Ala The Rolling Stones?
Still, the pivotal role of cash can’t be denied. Even Iggy Pop is drving jags and playing golf. Rock’nRoll is not just a genre of music anymore, It is an industry. It’s a business pimping brands, pimping merch, selling you a lifestyle, ideals and music. (Just threw that in there right at the end in case you forgot its about the bands and their music).
With the copying and downloading laws as loose as a pornstar’s vagina, musicians embraced the downloading trend. Billions of killer tracks are ‘illegally’ clogging up our PCs and being enjoyed by fans. The sharing factor has its highs though because through networks and easy distribution of illegal (and some legal) tracks, many more people are exposed to tunes by bands they haven’t heard before. Potentially this could be a great thing for bands all over the world.
With all the production, engineering, manufacturing, cropping, styling, designing and pimping involved in the grand money-making ploy that is Rock’nRoll, we are advanced enough to turn even shocking vocals into radio-play. We can all think of hundreds of examples… I’m tying to think of the one that is least likely to get me sued. I’ll get by with a little cash from my friends. Oh here's a winner: Joe from that reality show 'the real housewves of the Orange County' bought herself a recording contract:
With the copying and downloading laws as loose as a pornstar’s vagina, musicians embraced the downloading trend. Billions of killer tracks are ‘illegally’ clogging up our PCs and being enjoyed by fans. The sharing factor has its highs though because through networks and easy distribution of illegal (and some legal) tracks, many more people are exposed to tunes by bands they haven’t heard before. Potentially this could be a great thing for bands all over the world.
With all the production, engineering, manufacturing, cropping, styling, designing and pimping involved in the grand money-making ploy that is Rock’nRoll, we are advanced enough to turn even shocking vocals into radio-play. We can all think of hundreds of examples… I’m tying to think of the one that is least likely to get me sued. I’ll get by with a little cash from my friends. Oh here's a winner: Joe from that reality show 'the real housewves of the Orange County' bought herself a recording contract:
The Arts Industry in South Africa is quite neglected. It is much harder to write protest songs with a knife in your hand on a train than a pen in a limousine ala U2.
It is also much harder to write what you want as opposed to what people want to hear if you just need to make some money.
Cape Town is brimming with talent and culture but sadly not quite as much money. It is rife with opportunity. The small market for specific tastes and genres like metal and rock are hugely eclipsed by our highly praised trance scene for example. Yes, with our aids rate one might assume that the average joe was totally in to sex, drugs and Rock’nRoll, but no, in fact the average joe is digging Kwaito. Even pop people have banded together in the form of Idols SA to try and get all the local celebs to unite in support of one effort. The whole idea being that there would be more buck$ behind the brand.
Limited funds and resources in music is like a pizza with too little cheese. When its all piled into one place there will be dry, crusty bits with very little going on in other places! The alternative is a bit of an unappealing tasteless pizza with only a tiny bit of cheese on each slice and no one slice of thriving music industry. There are limited places for bands to play and limited funds to pay them. Quality musicians are driven overseas on a quest for money. Not to make starry-eyed millions (though I’m sure that would be epic) but even just to make enough to live with music as their job.
It is also much harder to write what you want as opposed to what people want to hear if you just need to make some money.
Cape Town is brimming with talent and culture but sadly not quite as much money. It is rife with opportunity. The small market for specific tastes and genres like metal and rock are hugely eclipsed by our highly praised trance scene for example. Yes, with our aids rate one might assume that the average joe was totally in to sex, drugs and Rock’nRoll, but no, in fact the average joe is digging Kwaito. Even pop people have banded together in the form of Idols SA to try and get all the local celebs to unite in support of one effort. The whole idea being that there would be more buck$ behind the brand.
Limited funds and resources in music is like a pizza with too little cheese. When its all piled into one place there will be dry, crusty bits with very little going on in other places! The alternative is a bit of an unappealing tasteless pizza with only a tiny bit of cheese on each slice and no one slice of thriving music industry. There are limited places for bands to play and limited funds to pay them. Quality musicians are driven overseas on a quest for money. Not to make starry-eyed millions (though I’m sure that would be epic) but even just to make enough to live with music as their job.
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