So now you know the backstory of British popular music. And to accompany this, we have provided you with a handbook to help you travel through that hard to navigate world of British rock. So pack your tent and wellies, stick on your mp3 player, and catch the tour bus for an utterly galactic guide through the music industry!
Many blind and partially sighted young people thrive in various parts of the music world, and time and time again we see that quite often blind people do possess a rare ability in both the understanding and making of music.
It kind of started off with that ancient poet and bard, Homer. He was of course a poet, but more than likely he would have played some kind of instrument too. Not much is known about this character, or if his poems the Iliad and the Oddysey were actually from the same pen. What we do know is that he would have been a travelling bard of some sort; one who would have earnt his readies by touring far and wide with his hugely popular material that would go down well with even the roughest audience. Obvs televisions hadn't been invented yet to throw out of hotel windows, and come to think of it, neither had hotels or windows, but still, it wasn't a bad way of earning a crust...even if you did have to wear a toga and sandals.
Piano Tuners.
Busking!
Black blues musicians.
Not just great musicians, but also real innovators in their own musical spheres.Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder in Particulat Resources. Jobs in music.
So you wanna be in a band?
Well you're ruddy well in luck, because in actual fact you happen to be living in a country that is packed with the most concentrated music per square squillimetre. Yes Indeedy. Even huge international mega stars such as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Lady Gaga and Rihanna were to become household names after being broken in the UK. Because we have such great taste in music. So what do you need to do to start a band? You could perhaps learn to sing, or play guitar or something practical like this. But actually all you really need to be in a band to start with, is a name, somewhere to practice, and of course that essential but hard to find ingredient - a good drummer with their own transport!
So then lets start with names. How difficult can it be to come up with a band name? Well, actually, very. Unless you want to be considered a bit of an arse by your fellow band mates, it's generally not the done thing to dictate to everyone what you think the band should be called and if they don't like it they can blimmin well leave the band immediately! Sometimes singers/ frontspeople can suffer from this delusion. No, the preffered option is to take a more DEMOCRATIC approach. Get everyone to submit the names they like best, then you pick your favourite, and then tell them and if they don't like it they can blimmin well leave the band immediately! Either way you have to make sure you give this matter a great deal of thought as you don't want to end up with a rubbish name such as Oasis or something.
As for learning to play instruments, start with the basics. OK so learning to play Kumbaya from Bert Weedon's "Play in a Day" is the not the most glamorous way to start out, but just remember that many guitar playin' god-like-genius-types such as John Lennon, Jimmy page and Eric Clapton, got started by patiently working their way through this famous beginners book, and it didn't do them any harm! Just don't be fooled into thinking that you can actually learn to play the book in a day, it's impossible (unless you too turn out to be a guitar playin' god-like-genius yourself).
The Mechanics of the music industry!
Band structure, The studio. Production, A&R. The record label. Publishing rights. etc
Getting it out there!
bit of a backstory about British Broadcasting, history of the British music press, yoof tv, Myspace, and now youtube and spotify.
Festies.
Let's face it, we all love a good festie! It seems like they've been around around forever, but the first ones didn't really start to appear until the late 1960's (which to some people probably does seem like ages ago) Most festivals at this time were, shock, free!!! This was in the era of peace and love, and anyone who charged dirty nasty money to go and watch mind-blowing musical entertainment was working for the man!! (or basically, part of the system, dude).
Does indie really exist? Or has it ever existed? Where does the corporate end and indie begin? Is it possible to produce truly independent music in the 21st century, and if so, how?
No comments:
Post a Comment