[idm] Re: give me a fucking break, dave eggers is a genius, 'selling out'
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Hmmm, has anyone noticed these threads always seem to appear whenever a popular 'IDM' artist does a commercial - the last time was the Amon Tobin Coke advert I think...
On capitalism and socialism, I think Homer Simpson put it best - 'Maybe Lisa's right about America being the land of opportunity, and maybe Adil's got a point about the machinery of capitalism being oiled with the blood of the workers.'
On artists doing adverts though, everyone has their own idea of what constitutes 'selling out' or whatever. Thing it boils down to for me is artists making enough money to dedicate themselves to their music.
For example, I believe Autechre make enough money from their music to avoid having to take day jobs, and one of the ways they make money is by licensing music (they did a phone commercial that I saw at the cinema once, and their music always pops up on the TV). If Autechre adopted a complete 'no sell out' approach, then they would have less money - if one or more of them ended up having to take up a job as a result there would definitely be less Autechre music released. As an example there might not have been the money and time to put together the Gantz Graf DVD I would have thought.
At the moment I'm trying to finish an EP worth of music while holding down a 40hr a week job and it's taking me absolutely ages - if I was even able to take a month off I'd have it done in no time but as it is it's taking more like a year. I think any producers first responsibility is to actually get the music done and get it out there for people to listen to, and in order to do so they may have to compromise in other areas.
When the Rolling Stones are selling absolutely everything, including one of their best songs and even their own image (the Mick Jagger-esque red button on your Sky Remote singing 'you can get what you need' advert) when they really don't need the money I think that's terrible.
When 'Impoverished Artist X' is licensing a track for an advert so they can get enough money to keep them going for another few months and allow them to get on with making more music instead of pen pushing in a 9 to 5 then I say good luck to them.
Dan.
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