Each day I get just a little more amazed by the experience here. This is “music city”, right? Well, I was confused before I came here, but not in the way that many people are. I knew the politics of the music industry, and I knew what the potential was for the political crossing between “Church politics” & “industry politics”. I knew what the upside potential was, what could be if the industry was deserving of the type of money and cash flow that was being attributed to it, but I didn’t know if they were actually doing the things that seemed obvious to me. I knew that my musical friends in Los Angeles – where I’d been involved enough in the music & religion mix in the 1980’s to understand what I didn’t know – weren’t going to be interested in changing something because it was the right thing to do, the moral thing to do. I don’t mean that in a bad way, it’s just real. The money in the Los Angeles music scene is driven by the money and the money only, and moral attachments are a question that just aren’t linked, unless they are linked [primarily to income stream], but that might be another question, depending upon whether you have a patent or a valid copyright on that process to make money [in which case, we’re all ears .) ].
Music is viewed as a disposable income business by people outside the industry itself. This is news to those who are making money in the business, but the distance one is from the music business, the more disposable the product is, particularly when it comes to the question of say eating or paying for housing, or music(?). “Why gosh, I’m broke with no place to live, I think I’ll spend my last $100 on a new Epiphone guitar”. The question regarding “why is the music industry worthy of any income stream” is a valid question, except for those who sit in the mid-levels of a protected space in the music industry. In the beginning, music was worth something because it was worth something – even for those to whom it was just a job that fit into their lifestyle when they didn’t know what they were going to do with their life, [and even more so “to honor God”(?)]. Non Christians generally might miss the “in the beginning” part there, but I’m fairly certain those who have at least read the Bible know that “in the beginning” was a major story told twice … .
Really, what is not a disposable income industry in cities? People get lost to the idea of how hard it is to feed, cloth and house billions of people on Earth year after year …. So what good is music? Sure it’s nice entertainment. Entertainment is not enough. The entertainment business has to be something more than just keeping eyes glued to the latest marketing gem or the worst rated network talk show in prime time on cable …. There is a network, and a product, right? Only we lose sight of that product the deeper we go into the cities, and the bigger the city is, the harder it is to see out into the rest of the world, where there is simply no interest in that product [name whatever product you want]. Music without music education is just more marketing noise; but that’s what is driving “Music City”, no?
What is music? It seems like a simple or an idiotic question at first, but like I said, I‘ve not been confused by the same things that others have been. I thought that music to a lawyer for instance was billable hours …, or for a Surgeon Doctor a long but simple surgery …. Music for a Church Music Director is apparently entirely involved in the Church Choir, unless you happen to choose a “contemporary worship service” where the music could be on your k-fish station [or possibly your k-frog syndicate, unless cancelled by Marrissa Mayer in her attempt to drown Yahoo in so much debt and confusion that nobody can figure out why the Yahoo pages and services aren’t as good as they used to be]. Launchcast, gone because it isn’t turning a profit? Music is many things, have a baby, send the baby to a swing set a few years later and see if that doesn’t create some music …. “Swingtown, Wi-eee!!” [I don’t want a divorce, Susan]. Happy or sad music director at the Church? I moved to Nashville, “Music City USA” because there is only one place in American Music development where the crossroads between God & Music as Industry cross with the outcome being Music no matter what happens. Music is the noise that makes you happy while you try to swing over the bar on the swing set.
I keep hearing the haunting echoes of the last few weeks of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson – and that would be either the Johnny Carson who worked beside Mr. Ed McMahon, or the son of the father of a child born while John F. Kennedy was President – and I know that something is missing. I loved the education I received from “Johnny Carson”, all the way down to the night he brought the silver anniversary show to Burbank, and considered announcing his retirement live on the air as a surprise gift for NBC …. And then there was the chance to do it again, “just for Hollywood”. I know, I was there, I saw the light. “Here comes that rainy day”?
So what stopped Johnny Carson from stopping the show right then? I thought they’d know when we found the Nashville Rescue Mission, but apparently, well, there you go again [local]:
“People Of Earth” … ….
