Sometimes I Wonder, Just Musin'

17 years ago

About that devil marriage betwixt music and business. I know that they need each other. But each participants aims are usually diametrically opposed to the other. It seems to me a waste that an artist is at the whims of the industry executives. Makes me wonder how many artists and bands are out there who have it all artistically, but don't have someone in the music industry that will support them and give them the marketing exposure that the industry is capable of doing, whether because the exec doesn't see the potential in the particular artist or group or has another artist or group that the exec is hoping to make his/her forturne on.

Case in point. I have seen this band in Nashville and other places for the last 15 to 20 years or so. I don't suppose many people have heard of them. But I think they had and still have the potential to make it big.

Anyway, here's the Cowboy Junkies.

Just musin'...

Elia

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Comments (5)

suzanne_il
17 years ago
I've seen the Cowboy Junkies listed as favorite musical group on many, many, many a blog and they have been a regular fixture on college radio stations for a long, long time. They sure seem to have an underground following and that might not be a bad thing.

Maybe they've decided they don't want to play the corporate music game, but at lease one of their albums was produced by Geffen. Perhaps because they're a band that's not easily pigeonholed and their music is so eclectic. Probably a marketing directors worst nightmare. What are they....they're blues, soft jazz, pop and country. And the name. They didn't start out as a country band, that music crept in later.

I've mentioned before that I went to school with John Prine. He's not a household name but he's made himself a very successful career and has a big following without the flash and bling of say a Bob Dylan. I'm not sure if it's of his own design or that some exec decided he wasn't pretty enough or marketable enough, but that's the way it's played out.
Embothrium
17 years ago
I've heard of both many times. I don't think either are obscure. There are various levels of success below sales in the millions. Most book authors don't have best sellers whose publication was paid for entirely by a publisher either. 'The Godfather' manuscript was passed over more than thirty times before being picked up. Likewise the system here in the USA is for the band to underwrite the cost of the album production and related expenses with the record company taking a big share of any profits there may be. That's surely why some highly successful new artists like Hendrix or Prince soon built their own studios. Nevertheless, maybe the Junkies and Prine are comfortable with their existing sales and income levels. It's probably pretty nice to have built a fan base and have a comfortable income (if these particular people all think they have one) without having paparazzi and autograph-seekers flocking around you every time you step out of a car.
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beanmomma
17 years ago
The Cowboy Junkies are great. I love their cover of Blue Moon.

A very interesting write on the perils and pitfalls of making it (or not) in the music industry is a book by a very talented singer -Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be: A Rock & Roll Fairy Tale -by Jen Trynin.

Aimee Mann is another fantastic artist and she basically got shafted by the industry.
beanmomma
17 years ago
Oops, Jen Trynin is a talented 'artist' not just singer....she plays, sings, and writes -lyrics and literature.
andie_rathbone
17 years ago
There are zillions of talented people and groups out there who have a large following locally or even nationally underground. DH & I have often wondered what makes a group or a single artist rise above the pack & really make it to the big time, as many who do don't seem to have half the talent of those who don't.

DH says that the people who really make it big either have tons of chutzpah to not take no for an answer & push themselves forward, or the sense (or luck) to latch onto a manager who will perform that role for them.