bonzoboy Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Some of you may remember me lauding the virtuosity of my cousin's 11 year old grandson.I bought him a new Vox VT-20 and Squier Affinity Tele because he didn't have very good gear.His mother told me at the time that the music school charged him more because he was left handed and I went ballistic to say the least.The other day she got in touch with me and told me that she had confronted the music school about it and found out the real reason that he was charged more.It appears that this 11 year old kid is so good that the other teachers couldn't teach him anything that he can't already do or already knows.Consequently the only teacher left is their top teacher who usually teaches master classes to seasoned musicians etc..That's quite something for an 11 year old kid to accomplish.I'm glad that I helped give him a hand up because this young fella has the passion,talent,dedication and love for guitar that it takes to become a monster talent and hopefully a household name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaleb Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Good for him! I dunno about a household name, though. The industry is pretty screwed up. My favorite guitar players of the now are pretty underground. Hendrix had the benefit of being in that time frame. If he had just hit the scene today, he'd either be underground or join the Eric Johnson club. The closest thing to a "guitar hero" this generation has is probably Bonamassa, IMHO. Unfortunately, it's all about textures and "serving the song", so us cats that like to cut loose and wail away are left in the dust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonzoboy Posted November 21, 2012 Author Share Posted November 21, 2012 Hi Kaleb my using of the term "household name" was wishful thinking on my part.The music industry is the most intercoursed up it has ever been.When you see Bozos such as Nickelback and Justa Beaver getting all kinds of unearned and undeserved accolades while guys with monster talents still go slumming in sleazy dives for little more than pocket change there is something terribly wrong.It seems like they reward mediocraty.What we need is a Musical Renaissance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaleb Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Hi Kaleb my using of the term "household name" was wishful thinking on my part.The music industry is the most intercoursed up it has ever been.When you see Bozos such as Nickelback and Justa Beaver getting all kinds of unearned and undeserved accolades while guys with monster talents still go slumming in sleazy dives for little more than pocket change there is something terribly wrong.It seems like they reward mediocraty.What we need is a Musical Renaissance. Well, focusing on the hard rock/heavy metal community alone, the bigger bands with radio hits all sound the same and lack substance. There's great metal bands like Mastodon and Skeletonwitch (and of course all the European death metal bands, which I'm not really into) keeping Thrash and conceptual metal alive and well, but they're playing large clubs, theatres, and festivals. That's fine with me, cause' arenas are overrated. And then you get the bands that have been around for a while like Tesla, Y&T, and Pat Travers that should have been way bigger, but they're doing what Mastodon is doing (not musically). The biggest metal band today that I think has substance is Black Label Society. But if Zakk was never with Ozzy, BLS wouldn't be as big. Nonetheless, it's good. The wrong people are in charge. Thank God for Sirius Radio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bill Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Sadly, you don't have to be talented to be a "house hold" name. It requires something else that I cannot quite figure out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 I've made the point numerous times over the past number of years that nobody will be as famous as Glen Miller, Elvis, the Beatles and Stones, etc., and that you started seeing decreasing general public recognition of individual musicians/bands in the 1980s. That's when media splintering began with cable tv and such... then the explosion of the internet added to it. It's not talent, work ethic, musical style... It's that there is no longer a general interest medium that is capable of bringing fame (and fortune?) to much of anybody or anything. So where "everybody" recognized who Elvis was, and almost certainly his voice, the Beatles and company kinda followed the "Ed Sullivan Show" pattern at the end of the pre-cable television era. Once "we" found it possible not to watch an act on tv, we didn't. Yeah, it's an increasing challenge for musicians who wanna make a living at performing. Frankly it seems almost more akin to the early years of live radio and small regional audiences listening to this or that dance group daytimes and then dancing to them when they appeared for a local dance. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 All of this is true to a point but your all still missing the key point. Music is about demographics like everything else sold and teenage girls are the music industries main demographic, that's why, Justin Bieber, Nickelback, mylie cyrus and even Taylor Swift are such huge stars. Just like the Beatles, Elvis, Madonna, pink and about 90% of other big act pander to the young girls it's simple that Buy the music so they pick the stars! Your prodigy better get a cool hat cut, find a teen hook and start posting his chops on You Tube that's the highway to success of today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buxom Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 I'd say genre success also depends on region. My local area is where the scum of the music industry comes from. Someone like Gary Clark Jr. wouldn't do very well here. A lot of the local bands are punk, thrash, or hardcore, the music that has become ingrained in city life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenderGuy1 Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 And he owes it to you Bonzo, hell i'd like to see him play here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaleb Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 I'm sure all of you guys have it better than me....I live in Butte, MT....It's hell for musicians. No place to play, no rock/metal scene (if there's any scene at all, it's for blues, country, and bluegrass). Sucks, cause' there's lots of metalheads/hard rock lovers here, but the wrong people are in charge of the scene. And then there's the Emo/Goth scene among the teenagers....There's lots of Emo bands here (just like everywhere else)....Not exactly making it easier for the cheif headbangers around here (myself included). It sucks, cause' I like to play everything from Freddie King and SRV to The Beatles to Hendrix to Rush and Thin Lizzy to Pantera and Mastodon......And I have enough artistic integrity to not play in a typical "cover band", although I play covers that I actually like and that aren't exactly hits (I will not play "Sweet Home Alabama" no matter how much I love old Skynyrd). I mean, my group of fans that loves when I play blues and Hendrix/Trower-type stuff are lost when I play Rush or old-school Metallica. But my metalhead fans tend to dig my bluesy stuff, so....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 Kaleb.... Heck, Butte is a big city compared to where I am .... and where I played for money for years. I'm not saying to do what you consider wrong, but I enjoyed picking up new technique, new concepts. Oddly I'd say that playing rock that wasn't quite my schtick, and country that wasn't my schtick, was good for my playing and my perspective on music and performance. With that as a goal... I think you may find also that you can open doors both in your playing and for wider performance potential. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaleb Posted November 25, 2012 Share Posted November 25, 2012 Kaleb.... Heck, Butte is a big city compared to where I am .... and where I played for money for years. I'm not saying to do what you consider wrong, but I enjoyed picking up new technique, new concepts. Oddly I'd say that playing rock that wasn't quite my schtick, and country that wasn't my schtick, was good for my playing and my perspective on music and performance. With that as a goal... I think you may find also that you can open doors both in your playing and for wider performance potential. m Our population ain't what it used to be. I think our local economy is coming back up though. There's a new hotel being built so I took that as a sign. People are starting to come here cause' it's a nice place to live. And we're so different from the rest of MT. Being uptown is a trip: it's like a mini Manhattan with smaller buildings. Plus, we ain't as affected by issues as other MT cities. I sure hope we'll have a big boom again. I hope the US economy changes. I hope people can open independent businesses (including guitar stores!) without difficulty. I hope for factories to be here again so our people can have good jobs. Anyhow, to go anywhere with music, one must leave the state altogether. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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