Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Out of the Groove

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  • Heather Gaye,

    and regardless of what Brendan does, that is wrong wrong wrong

    who's decision was it to let mainstream radio programmers pick who gets funding anyway?

    The name of the organisation is NZ On Air. No point funding music that's not going to get played. That's their mandate.

    I do, however, agree that we're well overdue for a reassessment of whether we actually need this particular funding model at all. I believe the original idea was better kiwi mainstream music than imported. It was purely about the business. It's a lot more expensive for a major label to record a kiwi act than just importing sure winners from the UK or US. The funding acted as an incentive (and some grants are loans, nominally at least) for the multinationals to invest their money into local acts. However, now a significant proportion of funding now goes to independent kiwi labels. It's likely the funding doesn't really make any difference to the amount of kiwi music being played any more.

    Personally I say hand it all over to CreativeNZ. Get some ballet out of it, oh yeah.

    Morningside • Since Nov 2006 • 533 posts Report Reply

  • merc,

    If you do it for the money, you're never going to earn enough.

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Llewellyn,

    Hamish/Heather

    I didn't realise that you were both Everton fans - been a tough week, eh? Off to Athens we go.

    Just for you I've changed my Gravatar - best footy chant I've heard for awhile, sung to the tune of 'Yellow Submarine', "We all live in a Robbie Fowler house, a Robbie Fowler house ....)

    Mt Albert • Since Nov 2006 • 399 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Whoever edited those ads must really not like Dave Gibson. I'm very suspicious that he's not as much of an idiot as he's made out to be.

    He's not. He's a very clever guy - and one who had 10,000 MySpace friends before most of us even knew what MySpace was. When they toured Australia, they had those people out bill-postering and pestering radio to play the records.

    I'm with Heather on this: you might not like their music, but Elemenop are pretty real people.

    We do also tend to forget how bad "industry" bands used to be. Remember Auckland Walk? Sorry if that brings back troubling memories.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Llewellyn,

    Hmmm, my very little football joke would be much better if my Gravatar had actually changed. Nee mind.

    Mt Albert • Since Nov 2006 • 399 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Llewellyn,

    Gawd, I've even got Zamora, Hammers and Everton mixed up. Time to go to the pub maybe .....

    Mt Albert • Since Nov 2006 • 399 posts Report Reply

  • hamishm,

    Er,Richard we are Westham supporters, as well. Sorry.

    Russell concerning Auckland Walk, I have a troubling memory of a lot of curly hair. Is that right?

    Since Nov 2006 • 357 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    The name of the organisation is NZ On Air. No point funding music that's not going to get played. That's their mandate.

    if we are going to let radio programmers have any say in the music that is made then we're stuffed..sorry.

    Throughout my career large numbers of perfectly playable. well made, pop records were turned down by radio in NZ....Don't Dream Its Over and How Bizarre are just two examples (the biggest)...only Mai would play How Bizarre until it was a hit, and nobody would touch Dream until it was a US smash. And now these same people are making the decisions on what gets funding....excuse my bahasa, but they can totally fuck off

    The only reason they play NZ records at all is because Labour has a stick behind them...if it went tomorrow then so would the airplay.

    It's a lot more expensive for a major label to record a kiwi act than just importing sure winners from the UK or US.

    they generally don't now...it's licensing.especially after they got burnt so many times by bands with tracks that got huge radio play releasing sales turkey albums...but whose fault is that.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Llewellyn,

    Yeah sorry Hamish/Heather - in my anfield glee I was way too eager to look for Everton fans to rib - props to the Hammers and hope you live to fight another day.

    Mt Albert • Since Nov 2006 • 399 posts Report Reply

  • Heather Gaye,

    Hamish/Heather
    I didn't realise that you were both Everton fans

    *coff* are you taking the piss? I can't tell..

    Morningside • Since Nov 2006 • 533 posts Report Reply

  • Heather Gaye,

    ..oh, ok

    Morningside • Since Nov 2006 • 533 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Llewellyn,

    Nah - not taking the piss, for 'Hammers' my glazed over eyes read 'Toffees' - apologies.

    Mt Albert • Since Nov 2006 • 399 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    We do also tend to forget how bad "industry" bands used to be. Remember Auckland Walk? Sorry if that brings back troubling memories.

    Or Flight X7, or......yes there were many...the difference is now they'd be getting Phase 4 grants and then $50k each to sit in London for a few weeks.

    Dave Gibson is a lovely guy...never liked the band but they had a post Exponentism about them.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Heather Gaye,

    if we are going to let radio programmers have any say in the music that is made then we're stuffed..sorry.

    ...And now these same people are making the decisions on what gets funding....excuse my bahasa, but they can totally fuck off

    Yeah, I'd tend to agree with that. I still have a few unresolved issues about mainstream radio, but they've mainly been put to rest by attending a lot of good gigs with fun people whose complaints about funding have pretty much dwindled to tokenism.

    Morningside • Since Nov 2006 • 533 posts Report Reply

  • Neil Morrison,

    Simon, who would like to see making these funding decisions? This seems to be an inherent problem - some people have to be set up to make decisions about taste and merit on behalf of others (i.e. the public).

    Since Nov 2006 • 932 posts Report Reply

  • robbery,

    The name of the organisation is NZ On Air. No point funding music that's not going to get played. That's their mandate.

    that would be nz as in new zealand at the front of their name. no point in funding stuff that isn't like us.

    part of their job was to lobby radio to get more nz stuff played,

    they kinda found a way around the whole our voice our people thing by just pushing a voice that lives here kinda angle.

    e minus, must try harder

    new zealand • Since May 2007 • 1882 posts Report Reply

  • Joanna,

    This was a while ago, but in response to:

    d then showed a little kid presenter saying 'blah blah blah'.

    The Smailly Scmoo! That Dimitri Martin piece about Youtube that played on March 22 was my most favouritest corrospondents' piece on the Daily Show for a very long time, short of anything with Jason Jones, and of course when they go to their "Senior Black Corropsondent" for an opinion...

    I have many thoughts on NZ music as well, but mostly keep them to NZmusic.com.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 746 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    Neil, honestly I don't completely know, but I think radio should be kept out of the loop. With perhaps the exception of B-Net, who are not primarily thinking of easily commercial outcomes to the decision and smoothing off any barriers to their ratings. Also it needs to be de-politicised...and I'm not talking about the folks in the Beehive

    I do think though that it's a bigger issue, that a bigger step needs to be taken, a move back to reflect and that some radical reform is necessary. The last 18 months have seen the biggest revolution (or at least the beginnings of it) in the delivery, control, promotion and production of musical culture since the shellac disc turned up, and radio arrived. The most important radio station on the planet right now is a small coloured box made by Steve Jobs, Creative, Nokia and Sony-Ericsson, and we have just begun. NZ on Air is, for music, philosophically rooted in an era that is passing.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Finn Higgins,

    My take is simply that far too much funding and attention is given to matters of promotion and distribution yet virtually zero to the fact that it's nigh on impossible to learn your craft to a world-class level in NZ as a musician. The teachers aren't there. The paid gigs to keep you going while you cut your teeth aren't there. It's very unlikely that a country unable to produce world-class musicians is going to be able to produce a consistent stream of world class music, regardless of how heavily its pop culture is hyped.

    NZ music at its best and most successful is Peter Jackson sans 20 years of professional development, back when he made Bad Taste - a labour of love and inspiration that shines through a lack of experience and technical background, not to mention world-class experienced people working with him. The reason NZ music can't make the next step that Jackson made and actually achieve world class success is all because of structural problems that are entirely fixable if people want to take their eye off the pop culture ball and start thinking about music and the fact that as well as being pop culture it's also a very high-level skill that needs to be developed with education and practical experience.

    Wellington • Since Apr 2007 • 209 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    I'd be far happier if he dropped most of the correspondent reports (tiresome and painfully American, almost slapstick) and just focused on exposing the lies and interviewing

    I don't agree with this. The whole point is that Jon plays bemused everyperson (ie us) to their overblown idiocy. The correspondents are, scarily enough, almost exactly like those on the 'real' news, so their 'painfulness' has a bit of a satiric zing to it as well.

    When Colbert was a correspondent on the Daily Show, lo these many years ago, his loud abrasiveness was really much the same as it is on his own show now - in fact, I think most of the current correspondents are trying to fill Colbert's huge shoes. (With the exception of Samantha Bee, who is one of my favourite people ever. Oh, and yes, Dimitri. That little 'youth' intro for his segments always kills me.)

    Besides: a) I don't know what 'painfully American' even means in this context and b) there's really nothing wrong with slapstick. It's a maligned comedic art form. Silent comedies are filled with it.

    Agreed about America: The Book. It's fantastic. And weirdly informative! (And, um, available on bittorrent.)

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Rowe,

    With respect, that's bollix, or at least an observation based on a very narrow window of kiwi music

    Well, you're right that if you're prepared to look outside the mainstream you'll find something you like (loving Samuel Flynn Scott's clips on Alt-TV at the moment).

    I guess that after being away from NZ for a long time I was starved to hear NZ stuff. I came back and was quite excited to hear so much of it on TV or on the radio. Unfortunately I quickly realised that radio hadn't embraced NZ music, NZ music had produced a brand fluffy enough for radio to touch. The alternative scene was still out there doing what it alway had.

    And no, criticising a band's music isn't criticising anything about them as people, or their goals, it's just about personal preference. Graham Reid's site has a story about how Billy Joel was one of his favourite interviews - didn't like the music, but that didn't matter.

    Lake Roxburgh, Central Ot… • Since Nov 2006 • 574 posts Report Reply

  • rodgerd,

    that's a bit naive.

    You use that word, but I don't think you know what it means.

    We've all got choices but the overriding insentive is that if you want a crack at doing this for a living you better tow the commercial line

    And so what are you proposing? Depositing taxpayer largesse on people who make music New Zealanders don't listen to?

    We already have the NZSO for that.

    You're putting a lot of erbiage into attacking the current system, but I find myself wondering what you'd replace it with.

    if you don't want to do that feel free to continue being poor and sooner or later having to devote less and less of your time to making music, till you completely stop. that's the message that is being sent.

    Really? I thought it was "if you want to be a commercially succesful musician, we'll give you money, if you want to write and perform music soley for your own pleasure, that's a hobby you can pay for."

    Again, I'd love for people to be clearer about their view of what "real New Zealand music" is. As a Taranaki lad I had very little interest in most of what Flying Nun churned out in its supposed golden age when I was growing up; jangly guitars and shoegazing arn't generally my speed, and the popularity of the Mushroom Ball would suggest I was hardly the only one. Yet the more-or-less official history of NZ music is that the Dunedin Sound was Kiwi music, alpha and omega, when I was growing up. In my neck of the woods you'd have got more mileage out of suggesting throwing money at Sticky Flith.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

  • rodgerd,

    Unfortunately I quickly realised that radio hadn't embraced NZ music, NZ music had produced a brand fluffy enough for radio to touch

    You know, I don't much like hip-hop, but I can see a pretty clear difference between the generally locally-focused, not horribly mysoginistic stuff that I've seen on NZ music shows for the past few years from the revolting crap that we see from the States, and I'm not talking about the difference between a hip-hop intellectual (for want of a better term) like Che Fu, I mean the difference between "Stop, Drop and Roll" and, well, pick a random collection of "bitch" here and "ho" there.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    he reason NZ music can't make the next step that Jackson made and actually achieve world class success is all because of structural problems that are entirely fixable if people want to take their eye off the pop culture ball and start thinking about music and the fact that as well as being pop culture it's also a very high-level skill that needs to be developed with education and practical experience.

    bang on....which is why the level of songwriting craft that sneaks thru onto 90% of the Kiwi Hit discs appalls me....

    there are obvious exceptions......

    And so what are you proposing? Depositing taxpayer largesse on people who make music New Zealanders don't listen to?

    Nobody is suggesting that Roger...or at least I'm not. Enough of that goes on with the current system. Part of the problem seems to be that New Zealanders, if sales are anything to go by, don't want much of what is being played on the radio now.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • robbery,

    that's a bit naive.

    You use that word, but I don't think you know what it means.

    in this case, simplistic, not aware of or not taking into account all the facts and factors.

    new zealand • Since May 2007 • 1882 posts Report Reply

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