It's come to this -- Even "Indie" rock is getting government subsidies:
For the first time, the U.S. government’s trade arm is stepping in to help the music business, funding trade missions to Brazil and Asia in recent months for the heads of a dozen independent music labels, which make up one-third of the U.S. music market.
[. . .]
“We need to find new revenue streams,” said Rich Bengloff, president of the American Association of Independent Music, whose idea it was to apply for the grant. He led the trips and arranged meetings with local distributors, mobile-phone carriers, booking agents and ad agencies. “We now need to adjust to a smaller monetization at home.”
Guess they ain't rebels without a cause anymore, now that they've found "a new revenue stream" and adjusted to a "smaller monetization." Rock on, music outlaws out there on the fringe!
Nick Gillespie of Reason magazine states the obvious in his reaction to this "revolting development":
You know what was one of the things that made rock and roll (and pop music, broadly defined) so freaking great? Precisely the fact that it not only developed without the sorts elite, class-based subsidies lavished on opera, ballet, later jazz, etc., but in spite of them. And to the not-inconsiderable role rock and pop played in defeating international communism, it's worth noting that pop music was constantly under attack both in the "free" world and behind the Iron Curtain.
For god's sake, even the major record labels hated rock (prefering the phony folk music parlayed during the '50s and early '60s) for the longest time. And now, indie rockers are the new cronies.
Oh, well. Any day now I expect to see Boy Dylan belting out "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" for a funderal hime commercial.
In related news, here's another "well, duh" study for you:
A French study that was just published suggests women are more attracted to a guy hefting around a guitar, and that supports another study published in Israel last year.
[. . .]
Specifically, researchers took an incredibly gutsy 20-year-old actor and had him introduce himself to 300 young women between about 18 and 22, say "I think you're really pretty," and ask for each of their numbers. One-third of the time he was carrying a guitar case, one-third of the time a sports bag, and one-third of the time nothing. About 31 percent of the women gave him their number when he had the guitar, compared to nine percent when he had the gym bag and 14 percent when he was carrying nothing.
Women are attracted to musicians? I suppose next you're going to tell me they fall for bikers. I was going to say I should have taken a different career path, but then I read that "you don't actually need to play the guitar, apparently. Just carry it around with you . . ." Women, I can tell you, are not that impressed when they see a guy carrying around a dictionary and a grammar book,
