DOING THE BUSINESS

Big Georges Guide To Commercial Success: Plan Of Action Part 2

Published in SOS October 2000
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Music Business

Continuing from last month's rant, Big George wants to know how you've done so far.

Ask not what your industry can do for you; ask rather what you can do to your industry. Last month I gave you a blueprint plan, guaranteed to change the music business as we know it in favour of the people who actually make the music in this country. So, have you done anything about it yet? And if not, why not?

The music business is (or should be) yours and mine, not the property of a handful of media tarts and their accountants, or the High Street retailers and their mail-order counterparts with their bland stock, or the FM radio stations whose only interest is advertising revenue. The music scene in this country is in the pocket of the wrong people and it's high time we reclaimed it.

The chances are that you're a brilliant, tortured, but lazy artist sitting around waiting to be snapped up by a multi-billion-pound conglomerate which, at this very moment, has legions of scouts out to track you down. It's not that you like the music business being run by a select few, it's just that you can't be arsed to do anything about it yourself. Or is it the fact that you don't think your work is quite ready to be heard by the world at large?

The last suggestion is a very common ailment suffered by many producers of music. The symptoms are being scared that people won't like your work, and thinking that the longer you spend refining every aspect of the piece, the more people will like it (and you). This is, of course, total bollocks. The only treatment is giving yourself an imminent deadline to meet — a bit like it is in the real world.

Until you've been under commercial pressures it seems that the longer you spend in the studio the better the result will be. But ask any music icon and they'll tell you that their best material didn't take them an age to complete and most definitely could have had better production values. The one thing that hours (sometimes thousands of hours) of refinement won't enhance is the immediacy and excitement of the work — two vital ingredients which are needed to catch the attention of the unsuspecting punter or potential employer.

Of course, there are examples of artists who spent weeks recording a track which went straight to number one — step forward Frankie Goes To Hollywood. But was it really the painstakingly laborious choice of bass samples that made them the household names they were, almost two decades ago, or was it their notoriety? In the history of music sales, no-one has ever not bought a record because the snare drum needed a little boost at 12kHz or there was a slight lack of density in the reverb. So why spend more time on these meaningless aspects of the recording process than it took to create the music in the first place?

Perfection in music is not something to be striven for. It's something to be avoided, at all costs. Personally I take the BTS approach to producing my work (Bash it down, Tart it up, Stick it out). I'm not saying that you don't need to make an effort to produce high-quality end results, but don't hide behind a lack of perfection. Believe in the work you create. If it's crap, no amount of toshing up with backing vocals or tracking of the guitar part will make a difference. The end result isn't judged by the things that you do to mask your insecurities about your work: it's all down to energy, inspiration or a toe-tapping tune.

The clock is ticking, and the more time you waste twiddling around with your music, the further away you will be from achieving any mark of recognition for it. Send it out now. Don't apologise for it. And demand a response. I want to know how things are going with your fight to make our industry a better one to work in.

It's Close To Midnight     The most successful album of all time is Michael Jackson's Thriller, produced by probably the most complete musician of my lifetime so far, Quincy Jones. It could also be argued that it's the most technically perfect album ever recorded, in terms of recording quality, production, pop songwriting, arrangement and performance. But if I was to sit down with Mr Jones, I could give him some production tips that would've improved the end result. The reason I make the point is this: if you become even moderately successful, at some point in your career an A&R person, promoter, or TV producer is almost certain to ask you (in a demanding kind of way) for an irrelevant change to your work. "Give it more of a country kick-drum vibe". "Make the keyboard sound like a Britney Spears track". "It needs a remix". (Don't get me started on the subject of remixes and their irrelevant place in modern music...) The easiest gig in the world is telling someone what would make their music just a bit more acceptable. People from a non-creative background seem to want to justify their existence by contributing helpful comments that you must agree with. Even 'perfection' can be bettered, but just how many extra records would Jacko have sold if Quincy had listened to my perfectly valid suggestions? Come back with that kind of observation if you're ever asked to make arbitrary changes to your music that you don't agree with.