Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU.UUCP (12/04/86)
Really-From: Jim Hofmann <hofmann@nrl-css.arpa>
Lionel Richie: "I measure success by only two thing - record sales and
concert revenues."
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
And now for something complete different:
"...they basically want art that can be nicely translated into object for sale;
they want art that doesn't upset any kind of world view which is that simple
consumeristic approach. [Mayor Edward Koch] will support anything that he
thinks will get him votes, especially with the rising upper middle class. The
middle class has been disappearing in the United States. You get poor
and rich people, and the number of poor is increasing because they used to
be middle class.
As this area is filled more and more with people who are more and more the same
all the poor people, ethnic people, Ukrainians, Puerto Ricans, Haitians, old
Jews, everybody who made up this population on the lower East Side, as they're
forced out by the real estate people you get homogenized white life - this kind
of "art culture" which to me is really lacking. When I came here it was really
exciting to be walking around and smelling all the different ethnic cooking,
hearing music of all kinds in the air, not just MTV-style new wave bullshit
you hear in all these stupid little cafes.
As there is less stimulation people will find less reason
to do art, and if they *do* art it will, to me,
lack content and expression. It's coming from a different
place...They only want safe culture, culture with a capital "K,"
things that can be easily sold and that preserve the
status quo. And if they can encourage enough people to
play the role of the bohemian artist well it's good for
the city: the making of an art product that is saleable"
Elliot Sharp on the New York City
(lower east side) "art" scene.
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"Running an independent label just doesn't work for me. The distributors
are really dishonest or just too slow. When you're an indie you're
not treated too well by the distributors or the radio stations. I've been
ripped off for thousands of dollars worth of records: it either comes out of
my pocket, or from musicians in other bands who have put records out on Zoar
or from certain people who have been helpful in lending money, not
expecting to make money, planning to get their money back, and in
some cases not even that. It's just the incredible greed you see
throughout the American merchandising system...getting back to the
whole point about radio stations, there are a lot of college stations,
and you hear people bragging "Oh yeah, I got those records for free,"
and then they take them into the store and sell them, or put them in
their private collection, and it gets to a point where you can't send
every independent stations records."
Elliot Sharp on the pratfalls
of self-production.
And so it goes...
P.S. to the Knightrider: All's fair in love and war or so they say.
P.S. to Andrew Maverick (IED): What does IED stand for anyway? And I don't
know if your ears are ready for a female
bolero version of "Running Up the Hill"...
much less Wicwimpski's hardcore thrash version.