Chopped Teen Tournament

http://bit.ly/1kn0QUE

The judges talked shit.

Why is it that everybody believes their kid is a talented musician deserving the accolades of everybody and no one will tell a wannabe he sucks to his face?

Felice is addicted to the Food Network. Because of my ongoing ass problems, I've been unable to exercise, so once again I found myself lying next to her watching ten o'clock TV, in this case the "Chopped Teen Tournament."

What I loved was the passion. These kids had been cooking for years! And no one said how many followers they have, Facebook and Twitter didn't come up at all! You see it's all about the food, although presentation does count, and the penumbra is irrelevant.

Kind of like in music. That's what no one likes to admit, that it all comes down to the music. They believe if they're pretty, if they've got a kick-ass YouTube video, if they've got lots of friends, then they're entitled to success. But the truth is it's in the file. Music is something you hear, that goes in your ears, everything else is secondary.

So do you pick up an instrument and play it for years?

Sure, you can sing cover songs. But have you been practicing in obscurity, trying to find your way?

These young chefs have. And what stunned me most was their ability to improvise on the fly, their ability to take mystery ingredients and concoct a meal in thirty minutes, with no prior preparation. This would be like having "Idol" contestants write and record a song every episode. Would that song be good? Probably not. Not all of the meals were good. The meat was undercooked, the couscous sticky. But did the judges say what a fantastic job the young contestants did? NO! They spoke honestly, told them the truth. Something we all know but never say out loud, especially in the music business. Yup, we'll talk behind someone's back, but tell them right up front they and their music are not good enough? Never gonna happen.

There's a fiction that young people can create at the level of those who are mature. But the truth is almost all of the teens with success in music are working with adults, oftentimes middle-aged adults. Yup, if you think it's a youth business, you're wrong. Youth are just the front. Max Martin is the star. And speaking of presentation...

Presentation does not mean you're beautiful, it means the production is seamless and enticing. One kid got chopped because he forgot to put sauce on one of the judge's plates. Everyone agreed his meal had fine elements, but you just can't succeed if you don't hit the notes. Sure, you might have written a good song, well, probably not, but is it produced in a way that most people will enjoy it, people who consume music every day?

And there's no fiction that these teens will open a restaurant at the end of the episode, that they're ready for prime time. They're fighting for scholarships, they need more education.

Now rumor has it that Linda Perry's got an honest show on cable. I've yet to see it, maybe she's turning the tide.

But the truth is music is hard to do, at least very hard to do well. Most people will never make it. Insiders know this. But the truth is not usually on television and baby boomer and Gen-X parents believe their kids are perfect and entitled to success.

Success is always the same, it's about hard work and practice, and inspiration.

Yes, it's about passion. And the passion of these young chefs on the "Chopped Teen Tournament" was palpable. It wasn't about fame, it was about food!

What a concept.

It's a lesson we can learn in the music business. That music comes first. And it's hard. And it makes no sense to instill false concepts into the makers. Those who continue to succeed have talent and desire. You can only be the front person for old men for so long. We're looking for acts that last. Because unlike food, great music is forever!


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