Tech consultant for Olympia, Lacey, And Tumwater

Sometimes I’m full of crap!

No, this isn’t some lame “You’ve been punked” garbage. I just want to make it clear that you should never take anyones advice on anything without question. This is the music industry we are talking about here people! If anything is “voodoo magic” it is the music industry. I have watched bands get millions on promotions spent on them and they still fail miserably. Remember the band RockStar Supernova? They had a prime time television show behind them on a major network. Other than the singer it was a super group. They still failed to embarrassing levels. Then you have some goofy song put out on some YouTube channel that gets millions of hits and kick starts a career for some no talent hack.

So is all this advice and trying to help bands in vain? Not at all. Just like with anything in life you have to take everything everyone is telling you with a huge grain of salt. If something sounds too good to be true ti probably is. Many bands think it would be great to win some Battle Of The Bands style reality show and be handed a major contract on a silver platter. However, stop and think for a second. How many bands have had long term careers after wining a reality show? Or even being on a reality show for that matter. Not one band that was on the Ozzfest Battle Of The Bands has amounted to anything. They all have either broke up or are unsigned. Once you do that kind of thing you loose all respect of the fans of that style. So all the “advice” your friends give you that this is a good idea is obviously wrong.

Now, most of my advice doesn’t sound like a get rich quick infomercial. At least I hope it doesn’t. My goal is to point out that making it will take a ton of work, a little money, a little luck, and some talent. I like to make it clear that this will not be easy. If it is easy you are doing it wrong! But just because what I am saying isn’t the easy path, doesn’t mean you should take everything I say as gospel either. If I say something in this blog that you are 100% sure is wrong, don’t listen to me. However, what I’d like even better is for you to tell me why you think I am full of crap in the comments. This way I can either clarify or learn from your knowledge. Then we can all figure out this magical voo doo that is the music industry.

So this is sort of a follow up to yesterdays post. This is also going to be one of the very few “band advice” articles I will post that have nothing to do with tech. Instead I am going to talk about one of the biggest mistakes I have ever seen a band make. This is a mistake I have seen over and over again with no sign of slowing down. In fact this mistake gets more and more popular as time goes on it seems. This mistake is following trends. Want to know the worst time to jump on a trend? When it seems that style is unstoppable and has totally taken control over heavy music. That is when that trend is about to die and become next years “scarlet letter”.

Remember a few years back when Ozzfest had their Battle Of The Bands “reality show”? Some may not know this, but there was a little controversy that plagued the contest. Many say that is the reason the contest was not made into an annual part of the tour. The representative of the wining band was Ozzfest alumni! The contest was promoted as something to find new talent. Why do I mention this? Well, this guy has become the perfect example of why you shouldn’t just jump from trend to trend. Marc Serrano’s first band Unloco was a Korn & Coal Chamber style Nu-Metal band. Unloco played Ozzfest in 2003. They were playing a style that (at the time) looked like it was so big that it was never going to go away. Of course we all know this style suffered a backlash of hatred and disrespect shortly after. So Marc Serrano started a Metalcore band. That was the new style everyone was jumping on. His new band A Dozen Furies broke up about 6 months after they finished their tour with Ozzfest. From second rate Mallcore to third rate Metalcore. Marc Serrano spent so much time jumping from trend to trend that he never was able to get even halfway decent at any of them. This is why he failed!

Young musicians want to be Rockstars. They want to be “cool”. Their impatience is what guarantees they are neither. In 2005, Time named author Malcolm Gladwell as one of its 100 most influential people. In his latest book “Outliers” he mentions the “10,000-Hour Rule” many times. Basically saying that anybody can become and expert at anything if they put 10,000 hours into mastering it. How do you become a master at playing a specific style if you keep jumping from trend to trend? To make sure you can get your ten thousand hours in, pick a style you are passionate about and stick with it. However, if you are passionate about a style that is becoming (or already is) the next big trend, pick something else. By the time you master any new trend it will be too late. Pick something that has not been the hot trend in at least a couple decades. Either that or do something totally new and different. The best way to be the king of something is to be the only one doing it. If you master it after investing ten thousand hours you will be able to give it that extra something that only the greats have. You might be able to give it a fresh new spin that no one ever thought of. The trick however is to put in the time. So go buy a copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers”, stop being impatient, and above all stop being lazy! Now get to work.