Income Inequality 2
How do I get paid?
That’s the number one e-mail I get. From both wannabes and stars. Could it be that they’ve been duped, that they’re part of the problem instead of part of the solution?
I just read an article entitled "Of The 1%, By The 1%, For The 1%", by Joseph E. Stiglitz in the May issue of "Vanity Fair".
It cites the now well-circulated, but not well-circulated enough, statistics that the top 1% of Americans make almost a quarter of the income and that this same 1% controls 40% of the wealth. You know it. Because you want to be just like Bill. Or Warren. Or Lloyd. You too want to be rich. But statistics say it’s not going to happen.
At least if you’re well educated, you’ve got a change of getting a gig at Goldman Sachs, or at a Silicon Valley titan. If you’re not, if you haven’t got a highfalutin’ CV, you become a musician. You want to be a star. That’s your road to riches.
Think about this.
Did Ahmet want to become rich? Actually, he came from a well-to-do family. The pioneers were all about the music.
If it’s still about the music would Jimmy Iovine be mentoring lame wannabes on "American Idol"? Come on, Jimmy knows talent. And those acts ain’t got it. But marry the exposure with one of Jimmy’s producers and you might end up with some money. Ironically, less than there was in the pre-MTV era.
And all the businessmen are bitching about it.
Have you thought about this? Didn’t the labels say that Napster would kill all incentive to make music? There’s more music than ever before. It may be an indecipherable landscape, but the main flaw in the sphere is not monetization, but content. Who wants to follow people kissing the ass of corporations who are beholden to bucks themselves?
Think about that.
A hit means less than ever before. Britney Spears couldn’t even sell 300,000 albums. Radio’s a joke, going on the Cee-Lo track months after it’s a hit online. But Rebecca Black illustrates that you can achieve national consciousness overnight. She did it with train-wreck. Could you do it with quality?
It really comes down to power. The rich use their money to gain power and keep it. But their power pales in comparison to that of music. Music can reach more people and make more change than a dollar ever will.
Yes, we’re ripe for revolution.
Because no one’s got anything.
Talk to recent college graduates. You can’t get a job. Stiglitz asks if what happened in the Middle East can happen here… OF COURSE IT CAN! If a fruit vendor can topple monarchs in the Middle East, imagine the power of a musician, tapping into this same distress and unrest of the proletariat.
In other words, don’t tie in with brands, RAIL AGAINST THEM!
Take a stand. About moral injustice, about financial inequality. Don’t worry about pissing people off. If you’re not pissing people off, you’re not doing it right.
Look at it this way… You can get musicians to fundraise for Japanese tsunami relief, but you can’t get these same people to lower their ticket prices so the poor can see them perform. You can’t get these so-called artists to take a stand for health care reform or education improvement or just about anything that might piss a section of the public off. Come on… Do we really live in a completely homogenous society, when Britney reaches 275,000 people in a land of THREE HUNDRED MILLION?
This is the issue of today.
Don’t get confused and line up with the Republicans. Because they’re owned by the corporations. Can you say KOCH? They get people to vote contrary to their economic interests by focusing on social issues like gay marriage and religion. They’ll have you believe the economy has been toasted by TEACHERS!
Only independent voices resonate. Only people not beholden to special interests. That used to be musicians. It can be again.
Take a stand. Against the baby boomers who remember Woodstock but want to relive it on DVD in mansions behind locked gates. Against college graduates who go into finance for the money. Against rich people who spew disinformation about taxation of the rich hurting the poor.
In the sixties, music blew up because it was on the right side of the Vietnam War. I.e. against it.
Music will triumph once again when it’s on the right side of economic injustice. That’s the unifying issue of America today. What’s all this hogwash about needing personal guns to combat a wayward Administration? Guns played no part in Egypt’s revolution. It all took place in the mind. Where music exerts its greatest power.
We don’t have great music because there’s not enough money in it. Study economics, you’ll get it. And it’s not about finding more ways to make musicians rich, it’s about righting the injustice of economic inequality so that the best and the brightest will see music as a viable career path.
All it takes is a few talented figures with motivation. Just like that fruit vendor in Tunisia
Are you with me?
