Anyone work in the Music Industry?

What type of work do you do? Do you find it hard to relate to regular people/people in the real world/people with everyday lifes?

What do you do?

even now, 5 years after my last gig, I find little in common with
the day crowd. The lack of Art in their life saddens and appalls me.

I can't relate to people in the everyday world. The one Chef/Instructor at my Culinary College us to be a Ball Player and he can relate to my old life.

I am a TA in several of the baking classes and one day I was standing next to a lady and her voice was familiar. She use to do catering backstage at concerts and I looked at her and I asked her if she knew Ozzy just for the hell of it and she said yes.
I said Debbie do you remember me and we both started gabbing about The Who, Led Zepplin, Ozzy, etc and the class was looking at us like we were nuts.

I miss my old friends.

We are night people and that is what is different. Also artists have different personalities.

...it ain't no good life....

So why did you quit? And what is your instrument?

(Some of my truest and best friends are jazz musicians.)

but now I'm a law student.

big difference in lifestyles.

I cringe inside when I hear folks say (after hearing a lousy band)
"I really like their music" I want to say (in a nice way).."Man,,it's not THEIR music, it's the same ol' worn-out chord patterns and boring line structure that's been done for 60 years".

I think people have no idea that trained musicians know exactly what another player is playing. Not in a basic sense, but in a deep sense.
I mean, when I hear even a "New" band play, I know what chord the person is playing and the notes he/she is playing in the chord and
EXACTLY what's going on...and also what is coming up next....and of
course, I've been (and heard) down that same old road a thousand times before.

Don't mean to ramble...you know what I mean :)

And it's not!

I went to Roosevelt University for one year and I am singer. I have tried out for plays when I was younger and I have been in a few. I haven't mentioned this before but I loved that scene.

I am going to start trying out for plays in Chicago again.

but not as annoying as having every bride you've ever dealt with say "Oh! I love that canon in d song! Can you play that!? Is it hard? Because it's my favorite classical piece and I really want all my twenty bridesmaids to walk down the aisle to that!"

Man, Pachelbel sucks my ass. And talk about predictable! I, IV, V, I. Same chord structure as half the rock music out there right now. :-)

I've not heard any other Pachelbel, nor do I care to, but that song is certainly the prettiest little thing.

VERY IRRITATINGLY OVERUSED, but very pretty. I wouldn't ever use it for my wedding (well, I might play it in secret just for me!)...

It's simplicity and predictability don't detract from that, in my humblest of opinions.

Favorite classical piece, yikes though, that is kind of scary.

but my goal is to be a studio percussionist. BTW, my experiences with independent studios have all been nightmares-get it in writing, people--always get a contract!

the main difference is the hours worked and what that means unfortunately is measured in paying gigs or cd's recorded.

Artists that aren't working class may not share the work ethic though. Other than that it is the use of creative imagination and the guts to voice an inner vision that hits home IMO.

People are people in the long run anyway, the music business is part of the entertainment industry lol.

I only worked at the music company for a short time, but I acted for a good couple of years.

TOTALLY different with "regular" people.

In show business, there's ALWAYS something changing or going on. You're with one project for a while, and before it gets annoying, there's another one. You work with creative people who know how to have a good time, ALL the time. I have not seen any other industry where so many people LOVE what they're doing, and it is a delight to see (and when there's a "creative conflict", watch out!) People *happy* to be where they are is very satisfying. I never had a dull day back then, and if it were more stable, I'd be back there in a heartbeat. I loved the life, and I loved the people (even the egomaniacs I talk about below).

But, there's an inordinate amount of ego stroking, grandstanding, politicking, and false "deepness" in those industries. The egos are out of control (and not just the conceited ones, the needy ones, the insecure ones just as bad). So dealing with 'plain', honest people was kind of a relief sometimes.

I'd like to also say here that "regular" people don't appreciate the real WORK that goes into putting a movie/play/show/song/album together. That's one thing I find annoying in general.

They use to call me the one with the dimples. Get the one with the dimples for that scene and it was never by my name. It was always the one with the "Cute Dimples". One time I told them that I had a name and they said no you don't you are the girl with the "Cute Dimples" and we want you for the Retail Clerk scene. I was always being placed in the Blue Collar scene. Hmmmmm maybe I have that look?

I was working on Crime Stories one time and we were filming a bar scene in Bridgeport and I got stuck in the bathroom and I kept hearing that same old line "Where the girl with the dimples" while I was banging on the door to get out. We worked 15 hours each day and we had to go to sleep with our hair wrapped in toilet paper for the next day's shoot.

but it didn't have anything to do with acting.

LOL!

singer-songwriter, performer/sideman/session player, producer, music publisher, run a music education company and an online independent (musical) artist community, starting an "unlabel."

I find it equally hard to relate to everyone regardless of how "regular" they are. I don't know why, but finding common ground with others is a growing challenge. Being a hardcore night person makes it harder to connect with my "day-job" friends to some extent, but I find many of them to be very culturally aware and articulate.

I don't really share some of the opinions in this thread.

First, some of the most musically knowledgeable and passionate people I know are "regular" non-musician (or hobbyist), day-job-working folks, who it seems constantly turn me on to new music or expand my knowledge of a particular genre, or push me to be better. Yes, there are too many people in America (musicians included) who are culturally bereft, but if there were no music fans in the general public, this business would be pretty lonely.

Also, I heartily reject the implication above that "complicated" is synonymous with "better." The late Harlan Howard, a great songwriter, famously described a great song as "three chords and the truth." I-IV-V is not the problem. Having nothing interesting to say is the problem.

I go back and forth on the complexity question. On the one hand, as you note, the "truth" of the song is what should predominate. Woody Guthrie used to say, "If you're playing more than three chords, you're showing off!"

On the other hand, there are a couple reasons why I tend to avoid three chord monte, starting with a basic craving for novelty! I want to hear new techniques, new styles, new modes of expression. I loved progressive rock when it first came out (King Crimson, Yes, Genesis), and then I got tired of it when the techniques that were originally radical and experimental got to be tried and true (Marillion, Dream Theatre). I got big into "World Beat" in the '90s, and then I got out again when it started to sound like Peter Gabriel was producing everybody's records.

And certain kinds of statements require distinctive presentations. I've got one song I wrote, in the key of D, but the chord change is quite complex. There's a point in each verse where I contradict what I've said up to that point, and the chord that accompanies that point is an E flat-- which is just about the most startling dissonance you can do in the key of D. (For those of you keeping score at home, only A flat is worse.) I felt real strongly that the drama of the song required a harmonic slap in the face right there-- although I didn't quite realize how severe it was until I played the whole song through for the first time! But I'm sinfully proud of that whole modulation.

And on top of that I have a problem with simplicity as a cult, or a fealty to folk or blues purity, especially by people who come from a more heterogenous environment. Not all blues is I-IV-V twelve-bar: I love Skip James's elaborate changes, and I also love some of John Lee Hooker's one chord tales of regret and revenge. But people who think every blues has to sound exactly like "The Thrill Is Gone" rankle my ass.

I guess for me the distinction isn't between musicians and laymen as much as it's between people who embrace new kinds of information versus those who never want to have to change. There are examples of both sorts of people among both musicians and civilians.

as long as it is true to the song.

the only "rule" is make it work.

And you definitely have to keep yourself interested. Sounds like you've had some interesting musical journeys.

as long as it is true to the song.

the only "rule" is make it work.

******

couldn't have said it better myself.

i get just as much applause/reaction playing 2-chord jams as i have playing intricate stuff, being a bluesman, i get sick of people looking down on my preferences for "simple" music. it taks just as much skill to make simple music interesting as it does to make technical music listenable.

there's a reason you don't hear yngwie malmsteen on the radio.

I like most kinds of music. I try really hard not to sound like somebody's parents, so I even try to be patient with the preponderance of contemporary music that sucks.

Just like the people who think that people are below them.

We are all equals no matter what kind of job we have.

it's hard to say if I work in the music industry or not. I'm a guitarist/bassist/singer/songwriter in two different bands, but I still have to do some outside freelance writing and photography in order to make ends meet, and even then they barely do.

I do find it difficult to relate to "normal" people. Finding someone that I have something in common with is usually next to impossible to do. I think most creative people have this problem. it's made me quite cynical, and maybe a little bit of an asshole.

I try not to be, but when I see some suit driving down the road in his new Lexus, and you realize that his entire world could be a couple of shades of gray and he'd never notice, and you just know there's some "sounds of the 70's" radio hit crap in his CD player it just turns your stomach. They're type of people in the bars that want you to play nothing but cover songs ranging from Play That Funky Music to Freebird, and it just drives me nuts. I get the feeling that these people could have about 5 mix CD's in their whole collection and be perfectly happy never expanding their horizons with something new.

Sorry for the rant, but I feel better now. :)

(pardon the selective snippage)

<< ...some suit driving down the road in his new Lexus ... his entire world could be a couple of shades of gray and he'd never notice ... there's some "sounds of the 70's" radio hit crap in his CD player ... They're type of people in the bars that want you to play nothing but cover songs ranging from Play That Funky Music to Freebird ... these people could have about 5 mix CD's in their whole collection and be perfectly happy never expanding their horizons with something new.>>

is the fact that they are also, often, the guys at the distributors, bars, record stores, radio stations and record companies who make decisions about what the rest of us can buy, hear and play. The consumer is only the weakest link in a fairly disgusting carnival of unimaginative suits who keep music bland and unadventurous.

(Brief cred check) ex-wife of a sound engineer, here -- only had much experience with local bands and musicians, but really the biggest difference between the people I knew and Jimmy Page was millions of dollars. They did the same thing, wanted the same thing and, on their own much smaller scale, behaved and misbehaved in many of the same ways.

The sad thing about it is, these guys are the leaches that live off of the artist's creation. Not a talented bone in their bodies, but for whatever reason they dominate the music world.

"(Brief cred check) ex-wife of a sound engineer, here -- only had much experience with local bands and musicians, but really the biggest difference between the people I knew and Jimmy Page was millions of dollars. They did the same thing, wanted the same thing and, on their own much smaller scale, behaved and misbehaved in many of the same ways."

You're right on the money here too. It's all just music are really we're all basically the same.

I didn't mean to imply that 3 chords is corny or "not as good" as
more complicated stuff. The "Crusaders" with Joe Sample and
the gang put out some wonderful stuff playing just a few chords...as
has hundreds of other groups.

I guess it's the narrow-ness that bugs me. I mean, if you asked most people
what they like to eat, they certainly won't say "Well I just eat hamburgers and Pepsi and everything else is "over-doing" it.
....Or even colors...."Naw, Blue is king and all the other colors suck ass"

Geez, I love to play rot-gut Blues in a smokey bar at 1:00AM in the morning but I also dig Brubeck "Blue Ronda ala Turk. :)

Just another feeling in the river of life...