[Ed. Note: The article below is reprinted by permission, and comes via bowel-joster, Tom Wheeler's new rag Rabble Review...go to Zines to get the Beef Pot Pie.]
An Open Letter of Advice to an Idealistic Major Label Employee by Bill Barbot
My career advice for you: ABANDON SHIP! Let the fat cats go down in the whirlpool. Get your ass in a lifeboat and get off the Major Label Sea of Despair. I know that is easier said than done but I believe more now than ever before that major labels are not killing music; they are just ambulance-chasing lawyers looking to capitalize on its natural death as a saleable commodity.
"Art" and "entertainment" are mutually exclusive concepts, I decided today as I walked the dog. The nature of entertainment is the sale of itself, and whenever sales are involved, you must have a marketable product or idea. Marketability requires a priori a market, which by economic definition is a group of people with a common interest, need or goal. The goal of entertainment is to seek out an existing market and provide a novelty item which will encourage that market to part with its hard-earned money. Entertainment seeks to provide something different enough to be eye-catching, but familiar enough to make people feel comfortable. Art, or at least good art, seeks to define or identify the chinks in the armor of the market, and like a funhouse mirror, reflect an exaggerated, embellished version of that market back into its face for the purpose of commentary or criticism. In other words, good art should make people feel uncomfortable. In my opinion, good art can't possibly be marketable as its overarching purpose is to subvert the market. There is always a lag period between when good art can be marketable and when it becomes self-defeating: to wit, the Beatles, Sex Pistols, Nirvana all made good art that provided enough novelty to the market that the market never knew that the art was critical of them. The same idiots described in Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit" or "In Bloom" are the ones who made Nirvana millionaires! Christ, Cobain is even giving everyone the finger in the liner notes! So there was a lag period between Nirvana's rise to popularity and their ultimate defeat by their uncomfortable status shift from being "musicians" to being "entertainers." I've always found it funny that Major Labels call their bands "artists" when what they want from them is not art but entertainment. Real Artists are doomed to failure on a major label; only "entertainers" can hope to succeed, and even their success will be fleeting. This is why Captain Beefheart left music for painting. This is why you must get out now.
This is all fairly obvious to a thoughtful person, but I felt the need to put it down in writing. The fact that [the major label where you are employed] is self-destructing on its failure to exploit successfully the entertainment market is a sign for you, who were hired to exploit a very specific niche of that market [to wit, "punk" rock], should get out now, as that niche is no longer exploitable on the level they would like it to be. You were hired for your taste in music and your easy rapport with the college radio Music Directors who ostensibly shared that taste. Now it seems that many MDs are shifting to another kind of music that is not offered by [your label], and your days are numbered. Many misdirected MDs just want your job. They want their piece of the pie, and whether they take it from you or [the label you work for] gives it to them, you should take the high road now and escape. Atlantic Records made our decision for us; don't let [your employer] do the same for you.
I understand money is an important factor for you, me and everybody else. But that is why it is important to keep what we love separate from what pays us the best. Be crass, be callous, but only take a job that either A) involves what you love but pays you little or B) pays well but has nothing to do with what you care deeply about. Sadly, this is the condition I foresee for 99.9% of thoughtful people everywhere. We would all love to work for Dischord and make $100,000 a year, but guess what: Dischord doesn't pay like that. I would love to make a living off DeSoto more than anything BUT IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. So I take a job working in the art department at a PR firm because it pays really well and I don't have to think about it. I'm doing graphic mechanicals on a fun but ultimately Lite campaign for a big client, but I CAN LEAVE IT AT WORK WHEN I GO HOME. The money I make being diligent, skilled but ultimately indifferent at work affords me the opportunity to do what I love in my free time. I stay away from entertainment; I make my money and then I do my art somewhere else. I encourage you to consider the same.
I know this sounds awfully bleak, but the writing is on the wall. I don't know what your ambitions are ... to stay in radio, to stay involved in music, whatever. Just stay away from Major Labels. We (Jawbox) thought we could change business as usual, but we couldn't, and we got burned. Business as usual will always win when you sit down to play by its rules at its tables. Choose not to play that game.
Bill was a former member of the now defunct DC band, Jawbox.
Author's note: This rant was originally written with the immediacy of the web in mind, so take it with a grain of salt.
