Posts by Simon Grigg
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It wasn't really a barbed aimed specifically at you but, to echo an earlier post: people who don't like the current, quite commercially oriented system need to explain what they think would make things better, and most importantly what their desired outcomes are.
I think I did that in response to Neil's question. I don't have the same opinion on this as Rob does..we've talked off line in the past (if its the same Rob I think it is)...I just think the current system is proving detrimental to the industry as a whole, its less than beneficial....but...as I said earlier... I need to edit myself here, and will, at least on a public forum...
We're all tossing around terms like "real New Zealand music" without really explaining why we think Split Enz (who, let us note, Neil Finn re-formed without once touring New Zealand on their most recent gigs, and spent a significant portion of their time in London and Australia when they were active) are "real New Zealand music" while elemenop or whoever aren't.
I didn't say either of those things, but Enz were smart enough to be where they could make a living. There is no imperative for NZ musicians to live in a shack in Bluff. Australia too, gave them their break, and was where their record label was
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As is your explanation of why it's naive to think people are forced, as at gunpoint, into changing the style of music they produce.
with respect Roger, I don't think you have perhaps dealt with a major record company, or seen a recording contract with such....
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Radio stations ultimately make the final decision about who gets NZOA funding,
and regardless of what Brendan does, that is wrong wrong wrong....do we honestly think Split Enz or The Clean or OMC would have had any funding if radio programmers had their way. They should be, more or less, kept out the loop totally until they are presented with finished product.
Radio is shrinking anyway....in the centre anyway...so its getting more and more academic.
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And mainstream radioplay does help anyone who gets it in a material sense: that of APRA cheques.
agreed but see my edit correction...I love mainstream radio performance income
Why do we think that NZ can produce world-class examples of both artistic and commercial success in the film industry which is not replicated in music?
I think we can, it's just that the media are just looking in the wrong place...Russell pointed out a few. Forget Brooke Fraser (who ain't doing so well in Oz right now...they have a dozen acts better in the same genre) and the like...look a little deeper. The artists to watch are doing quirky live to air shows on the B-Net, or sitting at home like Greg Churchill..who is putting vocals on his tracks for his UK labels, and had a UK top 100 single, but has always been turned down by NZOA.
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Mainstream airplay in NZ doesn't really help the industry longterm....
whoops...I meant "obsessively targeting mainstream airplay..."
dunno what happened there..it was on the preview but went back to my first edit when I posted
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What you can say is that the bands who target themselves at radioplay aren't the ones who succeed at any level overseas. Even Evermore - who always get left out of these discussions - seem to be doing their own thing.
Absolutely.....so one must question the value of all that money tossed into all those other acts, esp since it's not even giving most of them sustainable careers. Mainstream airplay in NZ doesn't really help the industry longterm.....the likes of FFD and SJD do.
Wonder what Dei Hamo is doing now....