Thoughts on Green Day and the Lonely Silence that Accompanies Music Blogging

It has been three months since my last blog. Forgive me readers, for I have let you down.

Here's the problem, though. To use the plural word, "readers", is to exaggerate the nature of my blog, which I suppose is partially what led me to not writing any entries. I kind of alluded to that in my last entry as well. Life is not sunshine and lollipops for musicians or budding music journalists.

So I stopped, which is something in my last entry that I said I wouldn't do. But what can you do? I've done a lot of things I said I wouldn't do. I remember thinking the high-and-mighty-colllege-graduate thought, "Ha! I'm so glad I'll never work at a restaurant ever again" as I left a part-time serving job to pursue substitute teaching full-time, on the road, to what I presumed to be a long and fruitful career as an educator. Fast forward a decade and I've been working at a restaurant longer than I have worked at any teaching job, or any other type of job for that matter. Oh well.

And then there was the whole swine flu scare (sorry, H1N1--although I find it a lot harder to channel my hypochondriac fear and anger toward the letters H and N and the number one, than when I could blame it all on pigs. The only imagery H1N1 brings to my mind is the game Battleship, which I have nothing but fond feelings for. Sigh!). I had been battling what was presumably bronchitis for quite sometime, but it wouldn't go away and I just wasn't feeling up to doing a lot. Just about the time I was ready to shrug it off as a particularly virulent cold, the whole bring-out-your-surgical-masks-and-bathe-in-purell-and-don't-watch-cable-news-channels-unless-you-want-to-be-convinced-that-you-are-going-to-die-a-horrible-black-death-esque-death-flu-scare came along. But it turns out I'm ok.

What's my point? I don't really have one. I'm basically justifying the life of a lazy writer. I mean, I don't get paid for this. I don't have a deadline. And readership is way down. Not that it was ever up. How does this relate to music? Bands are going through many of the same feelings of inadequacy and frustration. And maybe they are also going through bouts of hypochondria as well, but I don't have any solid evidence of it just yet.

What I do know is two things are clear with the music industry. One: There are too many bands vying for attention in a marketplace that isn't what it used to be. I can't imagine promising bands being able to realize their full potential, what with the lack of label support, the recession, and the millions of other factors that make it damn near impossible to make long term plans for your band's development.

Two: Bands with money, label support, and marketing campaigns are more visible, it's true, but seem just as clueless as the rest. I'm going to take Green Day as an example. Here is a band that's been around a long time. Who would have imagined this band that came out of the '90s post-punk pop-punk revival, along with the likes of The Offspring, Rancid, and Blink 182, would still be around to make a record called, "21st Century Breakdown".

I think the title is supposed to refer, at least partially, to the mess we are in as a country right now. But it would be an apt description of the music industry, as well. The money machine that was the record industry is broken and I don't think anyone knows yet the right way to fix it.

How has Green Day made it so long? Here's a band that once sang, "I've got no motivation". Seems like they've found a whole lot of it somewhere along the line. And indeed, they found the motivation to change their sound, which has given them the staying power to become veterans of the industry. Some would say they sold out, which, yeah, I think that would be somewhat fair to say. They always had pop sensibilities, but they gradually shed every ounce of punk street cred in favor of songs like "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and the ultimate cringe-inducing radio hit, Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) (please, oh please, when I die, I really don't care what music people choose to play--well, ok, I kind of do--but I'm going to put it in writing for all to see right now: Do Not Under Any Circumstances Play That Song At My Funeral. Over the past decade, when someone dies, you get the inevitable montage of someone's life backed with that horrible song. That is not a tribute to that person! In fact, to me it shows a laziness towards respecting someone's memory that someone would choose a song, so generic-sounding, which really isn't that profound a statement on living or dying, rather than a song that has specific meaning to said departed person's life. Why don't you just play "My Way" while you're at it for God's sake!).

But whatever your opinion on Green Day's career decisions, they've done just fine for themselves and are still around--everywhere, yes EVERYWHERE--with their new album.

This is where the whole "visible, but still not knowing what's going on" thing comes into play. It's the philosophy in today's music industry to find clever ways to insert a band's music into people's lives since no one listens to the radio anymore and MTV hasn't played a video in probably 20 years. So you get music in commercials, on tv shows, in ringtone form...basically blaring at you from every direction. But does it help?

Somewhat I think. Feist was certainly helped with an iPod campaign. Iron and Wine, Joanna Newsome, and even Bob Dylan, have watched their sales jump a bit after a particularly memorable commercial (made memorable perhaps because of the music only). But here's my question: When is it too much?

This Green Day album has been shoved down people's throats for quite some time now, particularly the track, "Know the Enemy", which is a decent, kind of Clash-ish sounding track (it even contains one of those non-sensical noises that punk/ska is famous for--you now, along the lines of, "Oy,oy,oy!" or "Ay oh let's go". It sounds kind of like "oh yeah", but slurred so it comes out like "ahhyeawwwll" which makes me think of struggling to get a bit of phlegm out of your throat, or maybe the sound you make right before throwing your guts up. I'm not sure. I'll let you know when I find out for sure. It may be that it's an actual lyric. I'm too lazy to look up the lyrics), but one that I am now thoroughly sick of, before I even felt like it occured to me to buy it. Not only have they played it on the traditional late night circuit, but it's on Comcast On Demand, they played it constantly on ESPN last month to promote the NBA Playoffs, I think they have a deal with Verizon too. I'd say Green Day has found the motivation they lacked in the '90s.

I see what they are trying to do, and I don't know, I'm no expert, maybe it'll work. But is this what it has come to? Not having any other options to expose people to your music other than ramming it down their throats 24/7? To me it smells of desperation and a certain sense of cluelessness. Is that the best the music world can give us? God, I hope not.

As I said earlier, Green Day has already given up most of their punk credibility, but when a band is so over-exposed, it's hard to take them serious when they stand up for a belief like the one they expressed on their appearance on The Colbert Report. The band will not be selling their album at Wal-Mart because of the censoring the notoriously conservative big-box retailer would do to the album. I can respect that on the one hand, but on the other hand, you've let everyone and their second cousin use your song in every possible way. You're in a cell phone campaign. It almost seems a little silly trying to make a stand against big 'ol mean Wal-Mart when you've let your music become so corporate already.

But what's a band to do? Green Day has made it this long, so they must be doing something right. Maybe this is how it has to be done. Maybe our twitterized culture is so attention span-less and distracted by so many other things, that the only way artists can have a chance is by metaphorically smashing people in the head with their music until the public finally says, "Ok, ok I'll buy your damn song as long as you promise to make it stop!!!".

The song is pretty well smashed into my head, but I still don't have that much desire to buy it. I get the feeling that's what a lot of people are saying about it. "Know the Enemy"? The music industry is its own worst enemy right now.

Does anyone care about music anymore?

I just finished watching "Almost Famous" for probably what was the 10th or 11th time, maybe more. Besides the fact that it has a great soundtrack, essential to a good film if you ask me, it captures the joy and passion of rock and roll. It speaks to what it means to be a fan of the music, first and foremost. It also captures a time that doesn't exist anymore. It's the time when people still cared about the music.

One of the funnier segments has the rock critic Lester Bangs (played flawlessly as usual by Phillip Seymour Hoffman) declaring rock dead. This is set in 1973 mind you. William Miller, the Cameron Crowe character, replies that at least he's there for the death rattle. So if 1973 was the death rattle, what does that leave us with in 2009? The rotting corpse?

That would be fitting, considering the times. Every industry is feeling the recession (which by the way, when does a recession become a depression, please let me know). But the music industry's been suffering pretty consistently for years now. I'll spare the details. We know them all by now. I watched the concert scenes in the film and thought to myself, "That's when rock and roll was what it was all about." Kids went to rock shows. They played rich vinyl albums. Yes, full-length albums filled with texture on so many levels: sonically, lyrically, spiritually.

I feel like music is kind of an after-thought now. People have their iPods and listen to music, I don't doubt that, but these days, it's like you're sharing a secret language when you find someone who wants to talk music. I'm not referring to talking about the artists who make the Grammy cut or who came out of American Idol, I'm talking about really talking about the MUSIC--underground bands, cutting edge artists, experimentalists, those who really know what it means to produce amazing works.

I worry about the future of rock and roll and popular music in general. It's fine to me when the major labels start to go under. I tend to feel like, "Well serve's 'em right for ripping us off for so long!" But when I hear about indie operations, like Chicago's Touch and Go, having to cut back, I cringe. If the indies can't make it, who's going to befriend the real artists? If it really takes 10,000 hours for anyone to become proficient at anything (see my previous post relating to the book, Outliers), how can anyone make it that long if there's no viable way to make a living?

Real fans of music are the ones who need to save it. I've said it before and I just said it again. We can't let it die. I'm not so naive to think that it will ever be like it was, but if those who care about good music just stand by and do nothing, I think things can only get worse. What does that mean exactly? Hell if I know. Maybe we should buy more music and see more shows. With what money and what time, though, right? I'm a firm believer that when something captivating comes along, people will support it. But then I come back to the question, "How can up-and-coming musicians make a living?"

There are billions of bands out there. But 95% of these bands are either really crappy or just doing this as a hobby and will quit after a short amount of time, after making the realization that they can't get gigs, no one's buying their cd's, and no one cares about their myspace page. Maybe with time they could get better--to the point that they can make quality, captivating music, but there are careers to think about. Rock is dead. Music is something you listen to, not do for a living. Maybe it never was actually, but now it's harder than it ever has been.

I think one problem is how this country views the arts. In European countries, it's like a foregone conclusion that the arts will be funded. Here, if legislators call for increased funding for the NEA, there is an outcry like people are calling for the funding of puppy slaughterhouses. There is a view by many that the arts are a simply a diversion. What type of society doesn't value art? I know President Obama's got bigger fish to fry right now, but how about establishing a Secretary of the Arts cabinet level position, like Quincy Jones and many others have suggested? How about we look into ways the arts can help fuel our struggling economy? How about more grants for independent artists, whether they be rock musicians, writers, visual artists, conceptual artists, etc? How about we fund arts programs in schools for once?

Ok so I'm getting a little off point. I'm guessing the government's not going to step in anytime soon, even though I think President Obama cares about the arts and may pursue some arts funding initiatives in the future. The inauguration festivities are evidence of that. Where does the indie musician/average music fan/indie music business owner/indie music journalist go from here then? I think some collaberation needs to happen where the minds meet and a new paradigm is established. The rock/pop scene of the '60s and '70s is dead. You can't go back. But we can't just stand by, throw our hands up in the air and say, "Oh well!". To me that's like standing by and watching a good friend get continually beaten, but doing nothing.

The world of music is a big mess right now. Guys like Live Nation and Ticketmaster think they're the ones to save it by merging, but that's not going to help the average fan or average band. It's still the world of the big dogs, though. I know as someone who tries to be an independent journalist, I'm not taken very seriously. I applied for press credentials for this year's SXSW and was granted them, provided I pay $135 for a wristband, which is a "press rate". That's serious money for a guy with no operating budget. I'm just an indie voice. Tack that on travel expenses, recording equipment expenses, rental car, and food, and what you have is a very expensive trip. And your average band faces a similar dilemma. Yeah this is the place to be to get exposure and to network, but most bands aren't getting their way paid. I'm not sure if I'll be making the trip or not.

I'm not saying that SXSW will miss me, but it begs the question, "What happens when the indie artists, writers, labels can't afford to make it to these things?" It goes with the previous question about how one can make a living as a musician. What happens when producing art becomes a game of who has the most money, rather than producing art itself? Everyone loses, that's what happens. Especially when no one has money in the first place! Alternative voices and ideas get shut out. Then you're stuck with the same old tired voices that ran the industry into the ground and continue to do so.

I kind of think this is a test. This is a test for those who truly love music. How creative are those who love music willing to get to save it? I'm just one blogger/podcaster, though, who struggles to even get his friends and family to read/listen! It's a frustrating landscape and the situation is the same for bands. The market is oversaturated. Too many bands, too many bloggers. There's nothing new or interesting so I think people turn to other things, rather than digging for the new or interesting.

So let's review the situation: no money for musicians, companies supportive of indie musicians are cutting back or folding completely, an oversaturated landscape exists with thousands upon thousands of bands (mostly crappy) to choose from, no government help for artists trying to make a living, the big industry guys are consolidating their powers. Hey kids, wanna start a rock 'n roll band? Why bother, right?

I kind of feel that way about this blog sometimes. Why bother when thousands of others are doing the same thing, probably better than me? Why bother when sometimes I have only one or two readers at a time (thanks for reading, Mike!)? The answer is that I love the music. It's like how the "Almost Famous" character, Russell Hammond replies to William Miller's question, "What do you love about music?" He answers, "First of all...everything." It's an illness, it really is. But I heard too many Beatles records as a kid, have been to too many great concerts, have felt transformed by it all too many times to count. I love being around the scene. Hell, I even love the egotistical, self-righteous musicians who pour on the charm and make big promises to you, but just want you to make them look cool (that's another aspect of the music industry that "Almost Famous" captures spot on).

Chances are, I'll find a way to get to Austin. Maybe it'll be like going to a wake this time around, I don't know--celebrating what was, with all of the other people who love music just as much as I do. I don't think it has to be that way, though. It's time for the little guys at the bottom, though, to offer some life support. It's time to start thinking outside the box, to use a tired old cliche. I don't have the answers to the industry's ills, but I'm not willing to give up yet. There's too much at stake.

In the words of the great philosopher Anthony Kiedis...

I've been thinking a lot about what direction the music industry might go in. Honestly, I don't know. Things aren't great when you look at the big picture. CD sales continue to drop quicker than a Rod Blagojevich f-bomb. Digital sales aren't as big (yet at least) as the majors hoped they would be. And very few people are making that much money in the business.

That's the business end of things, which only matter so much. We have established, though, that an artist needs to make a living. "How?" remains the big question.

Here's what you do first and foremost with your music: (picture first of all a drunken frat guy who thinks he's one bad-ass m-f-er, standing up on a table with a beer in one hand, sloshing profusely, trying desperately to emulate the trilling of Anthony Kiedis--it just makes it more fun to think about it this way...trust me) Give it away, give it away, give it away now.

Yep. All free. Or at least quite a lot of it free. People don't want to pay for music and really don't have to pay for music. Piracy is always an option. Yes, it's a crime, but I think to many people it's the type of crime that is equal to say-jaywalking. You know it's illegal (most do at least) but you do it anyway because it's far more convenient and self-serving to cross the street outside of the crosswalk's given perameters. And more and more, the industry is beginning to do what most cops do when they see jaywalking, turn away and kind of shrug their shoulders. The RIAA is backing off to some extent. But my point is this, if people want lots and lots of free music, give them lots and lots of free music.

So you are still not making money. Ok that's a problem. What to do then? Well if you get big enough or maybe even not so big, but write catchy songs, you could hand your music out to a corportation--a la Wilco to Volkswagon and Santogold to Budweiser. This does have it's drawbacks, but you get a paycheck and your music gets out there. I would argue, though, that sometimes it backfires. I can't hear Santogold (who is extrememly talented) and not think about those god-awful Bud Light Lime commercials. Maybe it annoys me too because the beers crappy as well.

Some say the money is now in ringtones and video games. I'll agree on this to a point. Video games have replaced music in the realm of "obsessions of youth". But you have games like Guitar Hero III which recently became the first game to hit the $1 billion dollar mark in sales, but also serve the duel purpose of exposing a new generation to classic rock anthems. So artists are catching on and going after deals with video game companies. This is not the be-all, end-all solution, though.

And everybody wants a cool ringtone, yes it's true. As much as I hate being on the bus and hearing a bad quality version of some Beyonce song that the phone owner decides to let play for awhile under the assumption that maybe we all want to hear this for some reason, there's money in this. But how much? And for whom exactly?

To me these are just quick fix gimmicks. You want to sell music and make a living off of it? Then you have to live it to be able to sell it!

If you are reading this via my Facebook page, may I direct your attention to a video I recently posted featuring author Malcolm Gladwell. Mr. Gladwell just published a book called "Outliers" whose main thesis is that most who are creatively successful are not so just because they are geniuses (although there are a few of those), but because they put in the time. It's the 10,000 hour rule. One must work on their craft for 10,000 hours before one truly becomes proficient at it. He uses Fleetwood Mac as an example. They produced 15 albums before they put out their classic masterwork, "Rumors". He also talks about The Beatles, who were really just an ordinary Liverpool pub band until they went to Hamburg and were the house band at a red light district bar--playing basically for 8 hours a night, every night. They honed their craft. They learned to eat, sleep (well maybe not much of this), and breath music.

This is what bands need to do as well. Of course the majors aren't going to wait around for 10,000 hours. That's not going to sell many ringtones. I think this becomes the job of the indie labels. Imagine this if you will...A label website dedicated to tracking the progress of their bands as they learn their craft. The bands could constantly give away what would amount to rough drafts and maybe even keep an online journal of their progression. A fan could watch as it all comes together (or not) for those dedicated enough to live the music to these almost fanatical ends. What Beatles fan wouldn't love to have every rough cut, misstep, and hidden gem from those early years in Hamburg? This would be in essence what they would be getting! I'm not saying that these bands who chose to do this would become the next Beatles, but maybe they would.

My point is that the industry is grasping at straws. If you are a true musician, a true artist who feels his/her craft in your bones, then you should learn it and do it and find others who will support you. Quality will always outdo gimmicks. But quality takes time and energy and committment. Of all those who have become chess grandmasters, it has taken them at least 10 years to do so, except for one (the anti-Semitic, creepy Bobby Fisher, who just recently died) and it took him 9. 10,000 hours is roughly 4 hours a day for 10 years. Maybe then you'll have a killer track ready for Guitar Hero 27. Give it away until you do. Oh and find a day job you can stand because you may need it for awhile.

I think people are smart and discerning. And I also think people will always love music. If you give them quality, they will reward you. If you give them crap, they will abandon you. That's what you've got going on for you there, music industry geniuses. You dug your own grave. You want to see proof of quality outdoing mass produced drivel--vinyl sales are up for the first time in nearly 20 years! People crave things that sound good, whether it be a format that sounds good (and nothing sounds better than music on vinyl) or music itself that is well-crafted and that inspires and/or touches some nerve within them.

Calling for patience in the era of sound bites and short attention spans is practically revolutionary in its tone. But I think Malcolm Gladwell's on to something.

www.aiga.org/content.cfm/video-gain-2008-gladwell