It's been a week since the INCREDIBLE
Jam Cruise, one of the greatest times of my life. It was one of the few occasions where musicians and fans were on equal footing. On this one occasion, free access to every major and up-and-coming musician that was able to join the cruise made it more of a convention than a festival. Forget autograph sessions (even though they existed); one moment you are watching Jeff Coffin of the Flecktones sit in and deliver a killer solo, the next he's at the pool having a conversation with you, and in another, these great talents are dancing with everyone on the disco floor in complete celebration as the sun slowly comes up over the ocean. For four days and nights, a big family emerged in celebration of great music and great times.
It was sobering upon leaving the boat (and before getting on), for I felt, thanks in part to the Bush Administration and their authoritarian policies, and the corporations they befriend and of whom are submissive to Bush & Co., that the music business is not only going to continue to face hard times, but it could get worse.
For this Jam Cruise, before we boarded the cruise-liner, we not only had to pass through a variety of checkpoints (not unexpected), but we had to deal with drug-sniffing dogs. How many cruises have had drug-sniffing dogs present before boarding? I could be wrong (and I'll humbly recant if so) but to my knowledge, not many if at all. In addition, I have yet to hear that any such dogs were present for the next batch of cruisers to board the ship we were leaving, especially considering they were boarding for a.....wait for it.....a Baptist revival convention.
Possibly discrimination? Likely. Whether or not it can be dealt with in a court of law remains to be seen, but while some could say "hey, it's a jam music fest, you bet there will be dogs there," or "Well, they had it coming," it is stuff like this that will force many people to not bother coming to see music shows or other forms of entertainment. The Jam Cruise was an easy target for some bureaucratic government official in securities to get a good score for his boss. Easier to snag a few people with illegal controlled substances than to snag a terrorist with the intent to blow up the boat and the many great people and musical talent that existed on there. Thankfully, that never happened, but as Jim Baker would say: "Fuck 'em, they don't vote for us anyway."
Still, nobody likes it when people are constantly looking over your shoulder, or who are intent on strip searching you just so that they can impress their boss with how many people they busted. In the end, some of the greatest musicians who don't care what other people do to themselves as long as they don't hurt anyone else are bound to get hurt by this.
The new fad for the past two years, in addition to cracking down on "indecent" and "obscene" music, television, and films (which continued with Fox's "censoring" of an animated posterior, which normally wasn't done five years ago), has been to seriously crack down at Phish and Widespread Panic shows, as well as other festivals (Bonnaroo this year is likely to get a massive shakedown because of the two deaths that happened last year). It hurts these bands that are trying to make a living playing music and who don't want to inhibit their fans from having a good time. These festivals, for instance, are some of their only means of getting new fans to dig their product. But, it also forces corporations, who are tightly embedded with the government and indebted to them because of their tax breaks, to refuse to hire these folks out of the fear of being associated "with that scene."
And what do you get? The Orange Bowl Halftime Special.
Tell me that you didn't hear those boos from the crowd after the music performances, especially after Ashlee Simpson's dreaded act?! It was horrible and the people knew it. But, you still have corporations putting up artists that they feel the fans should care about, but really don't, and turn away real good musicians and performers for reasons stated above.
The whole concept of "who you know not what you know" has been severely tainted with the promotion of "artists" that are "in the know" that do not have the talent or appeal that people care about (I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe Ashlee Simpson didn't get a recording contract because she was Jessica's sister). In the end, thanks in great part to the declining economy, people will stop coming to see these shows, and everyone & everything - the fans, the musicians, the corporations, the venues, the bars, the record stores, the art - will lose.
The undoing of this business, which I'm afraid has long been happening, is based on three things. First is the endless greed for the bottom line, which I have repeatedly discussed. Second is corporate laziness. If there was one general adjective to outline the eventual downfall (however small or big it will be) of this nation it would have to be laziness. Laziness by our press corps to search for the truth; laziness by the people to not make the effort to think about right and wrong; laziness on those who do not want to go out and search for different things; laziness on corporations who want to use the same tired models of success because they simply do not want to work and would rather spend their days basking in their wealth.
Our collective laziness has allowed the rest of the world to possibly advance in ways that could take a generation or two for us to catch up. Thank God that I made myself work my ass off in high school to get where I'm at today, because it now comes naturally to me. There is so much musical talent that's out there filled with folks who really want to work and are able to work, possibly even the next best thing, but those who control the flow of music don't want to look. To them, that's hard work. While that may keep the aura alive for those who do not want their favorite talent to become popular, it will only hurt the business more when ticket sales for "established artists" continue their decline.
Lastly is the endless quest to appear moral and clean, what will surely speed up the undoing process. This desire by our government and others who wish to preach and oppress upon us their moral superiority will want to ensure that we only see what they want us to see, and do what they want to do, no matter how much it sucks. Just because something has the best intentions does not mean that it will sell or that it doesn't suck.
The moral superiority complex is what resulted in the drug-sniffing dogs at the cruise entrance - a music festival, on a cruise ship, DRUGS!, better get the dogs out, easy arrests aplenty. That may be all fine and dandy, but what will that say to everyone else? Granted a good amount will smile at the fact that troublemakers won't make their way onboard, but who wants to deal with that stuff? Nobody wants to wait in line to be sniffed by dogs - it's like waiting to go to prison. Are there drug sniffing dogs waiting for people who go to the mall? No, because if there were, people would make a huge uproar about it. For folks, it would feel like they were being violated, and nobody wants to be where they feel violated.
A lot of it stems from the fact that most of these folks that perpetrate such actions are among those that "missed the boat." Though they won't admit it, I believe a good deal of them didn't experience the good time or the fun that many others did when they had the chance. Now having gained some power, while using morals as a crutch, I bet you they feel that if they couldn't have the fun, no one could - this need for control is just as dangerous an addiction as drugs and alcohol, and is as much damaging to the music scene as are fans who have too much of a good time or musicians who fall too far into that "invincibility" mode.
When I left Jam Cruise, I felt like I left behind a family. In the end, that's my main purpose of being in this business - to build a family of music lovers, who appreciate art, no matter how much it may aggravate or offend others. So much love and music happened on that boat, and having to come back to the reality is nonetheless painful. So what is my point?
My point is on that weekend, I found a great deal of loving, caring people, people I would love to call my extended family. And just like any family member, when a member is threatened, you feel personally hit as well. Just today, an article in the Washington Post talked about rock radio's demise. While radio has lost its luster for iPods and XM & Sirius, what the article fails to mention is that it's rock, in general, that is in decline. Rock has been and always will be rebellion against the status quo, the widely-perceived standards of society. Rock radio is on the demise, but it's Corporate America's rock radio that they are talking about. It's Rock generated for the bottom line that people aren't buying anymore.
So many artists and musicians are writing music and joining causes that go against the status quo of Corporate America. That makes them, like the rest of us here in Kosville, easy targets - of intimidation, of oppression, of moral authoritarianism. Unfortunately, since money is very much finite, it's lose-lose for Corporate America, as the more artists they shun and oppress, the less music that people would like to hear gets lost, the less money bars and venues make, and the more places that close down. Jam Cruise taught me that we, artists and fans, are all in this thing together, that the actions of a few affect the masses greatly. I'm honored I started the next phase of my music career with what Ron Johnson of Karl Denson's Tiny Universe called "a good investment," and I intend to make it all its worth.