Familiarity

I was born in 1980.  My childhood was filled with lots of great and marvelous new things like Transformers, G.I. Joes, Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Smurfs, the A Team, Star Trek, and the Karate Kid.

My son was born in 2006.  His childhood is filled with lots of great and marvelous new things like Transformers, G.I. Joes, Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Smurfs, the A Team, Start Trek, and the Karate Kid.

Wait, what?  That’s right, no one has thought of any new ideas in the last 30 years.  Could this be true?  Let me tell you my theory – people like what they’re familiar with.  They don’t like new things.  So, if you were making a movie, and you had only so much money to advertise and convince people to like your movie, what makes more sense – an action flick about soldiers saving the world called “Army of Awesomeness”, or and action flick about soldiers saving the world called “G.I. Joes”.  See?  You already like G.I. Joes.  Waaaay cheaper. People like things they’re familiar with.

Now apply that to the music business.  It takes a lot of listens for the average person to get a song familiar to them.  That kind of presence and exposure costs a lot of money.  Top 40 radio hits, if they’re not familiar songs, are familiar names.  And the big labels can only afford to make so many musicians familiar in a year.  Without naming names, I think if you put enough money behind mediocre talent, good technology, and a pretty face, then you’ve got a hit on your hands.  It’s marketing.  People like things they’re familiar with.

Outside of this big machine you have the artists, filmmakers, and musicians who make wonderful art that’s not as familiar.  Presenting new ideas outside of the machine of pop art has its own challenges.  I respect musicians that can package innovative ideas and musicianship into a familiar looking package that people are comfortable with.  Most of the people I work with struggle with “being true to themselves” and “selling out” (i.e. making money).

The next time you go see a movie, take a chance on independents.  The next time you see a concert, support a local musician.  Maybe, by the end of the show, you’ll be familiar with it. People like things they’re familiar with.

Instruments

There’s an old saying: “you can tell a man by the instruments he keeps”.  Something like that.  I firmly believe it to be true, at least for most of the musicians I know.  Instruments represent you, they become your voice, the natural extension, the physical tool that creates the fleeting sound that is your art.

And they’re just freaking cool.

Victor Wooten said once that he thanks his bass after every gig.  I like that idea.  You see, I have an idea, and my fingers transfer the message to the instrument, then the instrument has to do all the hard work.  And, somewhere along the way, the instrument adds something unique to the idea that I wouldn’t have expected, and I’m always surprised when I hear my idea back.  Sometimes it’s cooler than I expected.  Sometimes not.

Every instrument I own has a story behind it.  I’ve gone way out of my way to meet the people who have built my instruments, or I’ve tried to build them myself.  I’ve dinged and scratched and whacked and cracked them.  I’ve re-fretted, re-strung, re-wired, adjusted, polished, and babied them.  And, now, I’m thanking them.