I've just read two well-written articles on music.
The first is called "Swedish Pop Mafia", and is written by Whet Moser. It's all about how the Swedish government tried to kill The Bad American Musical Influence in the 1940s, and accidentally ended up creating the perfect climate for Sweden to take over the pop world as we know it.
The article lauds Max Martin, songwriter and producer extraordinaire. I mean, the guy's written Backstreet Boys' "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely", Britney's "...Baby One More Time" and Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl".
From the article:
By the 1990s, Ace of Base had taken the torch from ABBA, and the heart of the Swedish music scene was Cheiron Studios, co-founded by Max Martin’s mentor, Dag Volle, a.k.a. Denniz Pop. A latter-day Stig Anderson, Volle developed his ear for hits by working as a DJ, honing his sense of what moved people on the dance floor. “His theory was that the song has to be something that people know right away,” Max Martin told Time in 2001.
Volle also presided over the creation of an early, all-important pipeline between American starmakers and Swedish producer-songwriters. In the mid-1990s, the great American art of teen pop was being reinvented in Central Florida. The Backstreet Boys, ’N Sync, Britney Spears: All these acts came out of Orlando, through various connections to Walt Disney World and the manager Lou Pearlman. But their hit singles came out of Cheiron. The days when “I Want It That Way” and “…Baby One More Time” dominated the American charts marked the onset of what became known as the Swedish “music miracle.”
It's an inspiring and fun read!
As sharp contrast, Michael Grace Jr. has written an article called "RED WEDGE VS. ORANGE WEDGE: SXSW & ART IN THE TIME OF DORITOS", which is mostly a comment on how company money shouldn't rub up on artists, and vice versa. It reminded me of what dear ole Bill Hicks said:
Here’s the deal, folks. You do a commercial - you’re off the artistic roll call, forever. End of story. Okay? You’re another whore at the captialist gang bang and if you do a commercial, there’s a price on your head. Everything you say is suspect and every word that comes out of your mouth is now like a turd falling into my drink.
It's personal politics versus corporate politics. Should you take cash for doing artsy stuff for companies, and is that bad? Grace Jr. writes of how Lady Gaga got 2.5 million USD from Doritos for "being bold" and how the SXSW "SUPER SPONSORS" list (that solely consists of commercial companies) casts a shadow of confusion over the festival: is this really about the companies wanting to make the artists look good, or about making youngsters eat more saturated fat? Everybody knows.
But Niklas, is there anything we can learn from comparing these articles? I hear you hollerin'. Hell yes - I think! ((Can anything ever be learned where music is concerned? Shouldn't it be all passion? Hm.))
The town of Providence in USA has spawned a great number of bands, especially noise bands. The reason for this can be debated, but judging from interviews that I have read with bands like Lightning Bolt and Les Savy Fav that are from Providence and know a lot of musicians there, the reason to why a lot of people do a lot of shit, especially while ridding themselves of conventions, is that they feel free to do so. If there are no boundaries, there are no rights or wrongs, and people start doing their thing, shedding themselves of conventions.
However, do you think the Doritos corporation would consider to re-hire Lady Gaga if she were to wipe her ass using a bag of Frito-Lays while singing "Paper Gangsta"? Prolly not. So go forth, read, make music and be happy! Or make money, if that's your thing. You could do both. Just don't sell your soul. Like the Beastie Boys once said: "Be true to yourself and you will never fall."