Re-Ezrin

right on!

Chris Spector

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I think I can distill Bob Ezrin's comments a bit further. It seems as if many of us have lived through an artistic Renaissance into a period of "Dark Ages". It may not be "just" music, but music is the best example. Sad...

Jimmy Fox

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.......yup......(when I began to read this I thought it was your setup to the ezrin letter, only to find that IT WAS the ezrin letter........the two bob's speak the truth!)......

Tommy Allen

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Amen

Joe Weinstein

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Re: Bob Ezrin

Amen.

Desmond Child

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Bob Ezrin is a genius and a brilliant human being.

He produced a record for me for no charge. The record itself stands as something I'll be proud of for the rest of my life but, more importantly, what he (and GGGarth Richardson and Moe Berg) taught me about honestly creating art and always seeking true creative expression and committing oneself to striving for greatness literally gave me a better life.

Being generic is a CHOICE you do not HAVE to make.

Thank you Bob Ezrin for not giving up the good fight.

And thank you Mr. Lefsetz as well.

Rock on guys.

Robin Black

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Word!!

thanks for posting!

Malcolm Clark

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After the letter from Ezrin, I wanted to re-familiarize myself with some of his work.

I bounced around a little and then found myself going through his work with Alice Cooper.

This led me to finding out the the song "I'm Eighteen", was first released as only a single, which peaked at 21 on the charts. This convinced Warner Bros, that Alice had the 'stuff' and would be worth investing in and an album including the song was recorded.

Tell me in today's world, would a single peaking at 21, garner an album release? Zero chance in my opinion. We have no more artist development, everything is just instant gratification.

So many classic bands would have been killed off after album 1 didn't hit #1. No one wants to invest in the long term, just cookie cutter song writing.

Cheers

Mitch Nixon

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He must have been hiding his true feelings while collecting his own checks from Clear Channel, Live Nation...

Michael H. Burnett

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Powerful and succinct . BUT there are those who follow the old model and are sadly not embraced by the current industry.

Sent from BOB JAMES

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Kids today! Turn that racket down!

The battle cry of the old geezer complaining about modern music. A battle cry almost as old as music itself.

With bonus points awarded for being a white boy complaining about white boys.

Alec Bennett

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The demise of popular music has never been more eloquently described, nor more accurately.

Frank A. Gagliano

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Thanks for the reminder. I always forget that this generation is the first to sing self-centered songs and have to deal with frustration with main stream materialism.

"I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no satisfaction
'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can't get no, I can't get no"

Stephen Chilton

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talk about hitting the nail on the head!

Joey Carbone

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I love you, Bob Ezrin.

Marthe Reynolds

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Spot on Bob!
you hit the nail on the head!!

Pat Lancia

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Wall Street helped create the flattening of music. Numbers became the primary decision controller.
Nashville wins since songs and Performance are still the creative driver. But there it sounds like McDrums create the grooves. Most records use the same samples. That drummer is really busy

Elliot Mazer

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um, this is coming from the guy who brought us the best of Kiss & Alice Cooper? a little before my time, perhaps, but aren't those classic examples of the hedonism (i.e. "me" culture) the 70's are renowned for? and not examples of the "intricacies...subtleties...mastery...high-mindedness...meaningful work" he's boasting of?

not saying anything is better or that much different now, but once I looked up this guy I was a little galled he's pulling the "back in the day" card so hard. I always tell friends that's how you know you're getting old, when you start bitching about the kids today and how much better it was when you were a kid or young adult. Obviously things are different in certain ways, as you constantly point out, but to make a blatant value judgement like this is crass, blindered, and a bit on the grumpy old man tip. Which is too bad, because he seems like a generally positive person....

chris henry
missoula, MT

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Oh yeah, Bob Ezrin because Alice cooper is more than three chord dress up rock? This shit has always been the same. Now all of you old people want to blame us for the talentless pop easy three chords?? Blame yourselves!! YOU ARE THE OLD PEOPLE WHO HOARDED YOUR MONEY and signed your nieces and nephews. Talk about the me generation... It's all of you old people selfish victims while you steal from your own children.

Grow up.

Everyone stopped believing the journey uphill both ways to school decades ago.

-mike loy, a nobody

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amen!

Michael Leon

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God you old timers are depressing.

If I was to believe everything I read in your emails, I would have given up a long time ago. I understand you are paid to provide opinions, but this problem of 'things ain't how they used to be' has been a recurrent theme throughout the arts, politics, culture, sport etc for decades....hell, even real estate has the same gripes (New York 'hasn't been how it used to be' for about 100 years). It's called generational change.

Good work can rise above all that, or at least be outside of it. Maybe you are trying to filter the greats, the people who have grit and can fight, from the people who are battered by the tides of the times too easily. Or maybe you're just paid to have a black-and-white view of the world and put it in words. Whatever it is, your emails can be infuriatingly negative in your assertion that the world just isn't the same and good art doesn't exist anymore. However, many times they have provided me with the fuel to keep going, as I want to prove that assertion wrong. I am a nobody right now, but I will keep going until I prove naysayers like you wrong.

Matthew Campbell

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Fuck you Bob Ezrin! HAS BEEN!
YOUAREOLDANDIRRELEVANT

theundergrounddivas

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100% correct - and if continue to allow the dumbing-down of just about everything around us . . . music is, sadly, no exception

Roger Maltby

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As far as I'm concerned as a music producer since 1979...
the "click track" has killed the music industry.
That stupid metronome that makes it all perfect.
Line it up and nobody gets hurt.
Took the soul right out of music.
THE NEXT BIG THING ?
Broadway Musicals ?

Christopher Dwight Harris

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What if there was a pop artist that told ya upfront "I'm in it for the money" and with that honesty, was able to lace in sociopolitical truths so the "me generation" tunes in? Sorta like on The Walking Dead how they don't trust you're a good person unless you admit what you had to do to survive. Art at its greatest is a mirror held up to society that wakes them to the truth.

Cole Thomas

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THAT'S SOME GOOD SHIT - WORTHY OF BEING PASTED AND POSTED ON EVERY LAMP POST, CLUB BULLETIN BOARD, SOCIAL MEDIA SITE, ETC.

Tom Cartwright

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Coming from a guy who has spent the last 5 years working with Swift, The Darkness and Phish and Fefe Dobson? If anything it's guys like Ezrin who should be leading the charge, not following suit and then complaining. Easy to bitch when you were once the cats meow and now are working with sub par acts for a ton of money...and by the way most of the artists I know are not looking for fame and fortune, they're looking for a few grand in royalties so that they can stop working 20 hours a day and start working 15 so they can have a bit if time to have sex with their partners and catch up with old friends.

Zach Sutton

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It saddens me to hear that someone as esteemed as Bob Ezrin feels that way. However, I am one of the many that is in it for the art, in it for the music! Yes I have to make a living, but I make music not money!

Michael C. Ross

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Hi Bob -- these days I buy a lot of music at Goodwill.

Used CDs priced at 99 cents.

I visited Goodwill in Milwaukee today -- walked out with 28 -- for essentially the price of two new CDs.

Great music -- Aretha, Keb Mo, three Clapton albums, Willie Dixon's Columbia album, Frank Sinatra's Reprise work, soundtracks from Trainspotting, Stand by Me, Elton John's Aida, Yo Yo Ma, Dylan, Norah Jones, David Bowie, Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris, more great stuff.

I love music. I listen to music. This is the way to collect it these days.

Ezrin is right.

Jim Charne

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Thanks Bob Ezrin for all you've given us, and thank Shep Gordon too!

Rodney Rowland

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Yeah, the music! Bob Ezrin was always a music hero of mine and I was just so thrilled to be able to meet and work with him when I was Gene Simmons' personal assistant in the early '90's. The real deal, Bob Ezrin.

Cathy Goodman

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Nice note from Bob, Bob. I see that he's worked with 30 Seconds to Mars, another one of those exceptions. Jared Leto is one of those amazing artists we all wish there were more of. Between his music and Dallas Buyers Club? Forget about it! I guess all this means is that we're going to hopefully appreciate the true artist when they come along. Because they will be few and far between.

Regards,

Chris Beytes

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Music back then was a seen as form of terrorism, to the same elite
that have a combined wealth of 3 Billion. Rock n roll didn't die. IT
WAS MURDERED!

Write about that!

Steve Cooke

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The protest songs no longer exist in the white world, because student loans replaced the time to protest.

Annie Roboff

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so, does that mean the world needed to
stop circa 1979 with THE WALL?

do you think our generation has not been an inspiration
and that what is now here has not been built with our seed.

what does moaning and groaning about the good old days..
accomplish?

except make you sound like a moaning, groaning,
old man that needs to be in assisted living.

with that thinking i guess the covered wagons would still be around.
of course, bob doesn't fit in nor understand the new paradigms╔
he didn╒t create them..

and yes, it IS all about the money
and it is going to CONTINUE.

respect what is out there and focus on your moments left on this planet
so you can die with a smile on your face knowing you did it╔
anything else is a waste of energy on your part.

with love, respect, and hoping you can see how lucky
your life has been╔.

marc brickman

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Can't disagree more.

1) The golden era of meaning that you guys cherish lasted a tiny amount of time in the life of pop culture.

2) There are always those who miss the good old days. But the same complaints were made even then. Ezrin's comments could have been (and were) directed at Elvis and The Beatles. And who was more alarming to 1960s white people than James Brown? Talk about a lack of melody.

3) Pop is always nonsensical around the edges. Those who disdained rock's infancy preferred the meaning and melody of "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?" I'm skipping across eras but you get the picture.

I guess somebody needs to get off Bob Ezrin's lawn.

Michael Olsen

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hey Kids !
Get OFF my lawn !

K Bonson

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And until someone sings from the heart of the ╘me╒ generation and challenges the narcissism that has taken over society then this shallow music will continue it╒s reign. Today╒s biggest stars are about as deep as paddling pools.

Ben Carter

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Oh for goodness sake - is there ever going to be a generation of grumpy old men that does not embark on all this "back in my day......." and "we used to have principles" wittering? I say this as a devoted fan, admirer and friend of Mr. Ezrin and as a member of the same carping generation. But it has always been thus.

We look backwards and we only remember the good stuff - thankfully we forget all the dreck (and the arrant commercialism) of previous decades and just complain about the dreck we hear now. There are so many extraordinary musicians and songwriters out there today. So many virtuosi, great players both jazz and classical - and yes hip hop and pop as well. There is no sound reason to believe that the ratio of people only in it for fame and fortune to the number of real (and even idealistic) creators is any different now that it has ever been.

Yes the "rhetoric endures" - and the same old complaints come round every generation, the same hyperbole and the same self-congratulation. Come on Bob! Which mountains did we "literally" move?? And from where to where? I need to see a map.

I remain eccentrically optimistic - and send my very best wishes!

Peter Asher

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Didn't he just produce a phish album? Wtf bobs

Alex

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That Selma song sucked.. So does kendrick's new album. The Ultimate 'bitch don't kill my' vibe killer.

When I hear 'pop' music from the 60s and 70s its just as bad as anything today. When I hear 'protest' music then it just sounds like guys that want to get high and get laid. So what's changed exactly?

Music today has much more diversity than anything before it, it caters to much more discerning ears and you have to be culturally inclined to understand it.

Im 34, connected and well versed in the nuances of inner city life.. but I still don't get all of it.

Face it Bob (and Bob) you're both too damn old to understand any it. you'd be better off just admitting that then trying to knock what you don't understand. That just makes you sound like a hater.

If you don't want to alienate whats left of you under 35 readership you need to teach those ears to do a few new tricks..

I got an idea; twist one, turn your stereo up and go listen to Young Thug on soundcloud. Channel your inner Iovine and get with the program

Josh Berman

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"...or whines in hardly rhyming verse about their sad little white boy or girl life". Woah get in there! That is spot on Mr Ezrin, spot on indeed, the post Coldplay/Snow Patrol emasculated male is so drearily wet and ....well, dreary. What to do, the majors love that schtick!

Steve Allen

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Right on, Bobs!

Ted Myers


There are pockets of great music all around us. It just may not be in the commercial scene. Kooper's Super Session will not happen again on the same level but nevertheless the faithful will seek and find meaningful music.

My son is 28 and finds great music frequently and shares it with me. The bands may not become future Fleetwood Mac's in a commercial sense but they deliver what you say is lost....connection and emotion.

Sad to see you allow those with a "name" to create a negative spiral for the faithful. Reach out to the younger generation who go and discover new music and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Bill Powell

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I can't thank you enough for articulating what I have felt.

I am trying to build a group from Manchester that says something, that is connected to its time and to its community.

You, and Kendrick, have reminded me, or at least given me faith, that people are still looking for that. That they know that's what they need.

I will send you some material when it is ready soon. I know you must have a thousand similar emails clamouring for your attention; but for my own peace of mind I shall send it anyway.

Thankyou,

Rich Reason

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Of course Ezrin is correct, except, as I always try to remind people it's mainly with regard to the major artists signed to major record labels and receiving airplay on corporate radio stations. It's now just the same as the film industry, where Hollywood moguls - money men, not the old style creative people - control what is made and sold to the masses.

And yes, there's a lot of copycat rubbish amongst indie artists and unsigned artists as well.

But there are still good musicians and songwriters - it's just that they are no longer acceptable to big, money-oriented business.

So you have to look for them amongst the ordinary workaday artists who ply their trade or for whom music is just a hobby. For every Bob Dylan there are a hundred, a thousand Steve Forberts, and a million amateurs who are just amusing themselves and a few friends, which is OK, that's cool too.

But we don't have a John Hammond any more who can dig out the geniuses and sign then to big companies.

What we need to do is simply give up on the global corporations and the Top 40 - forget them, they're irrelevant, they're pulp.

The real artists, no one will bring them to you, you have to go and find them.

- DC Cardwell

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BOO HOO

Art Polhemus

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People have been saying this since Bob and Kiss released Destroyer.

You need to know where to look.

IF you're looking to find it.

GB

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Hi Ez: Well said. In the sixties and seventies music was the jet fuel for revolution and progressive change in America. Today, it is merely grease easing the transition from one app to the next.

However, as Paul Simon said,"every generation puts a hero up the pop charts." What we are experiencing now with EDM is what we called "disco." The kids will get over the drugs and beats and turn to the most sophisticated musical form. The will seek message and inspiration from their music.

After exploring every style of music on YouTube, for free, they will be the most musically educated generation in history. When no genre is ubiquitous, all genres are viable as the source of the next big thing. That will lead them toward the most evolved musical form, Jazz.

The precursors are already here, alive and well. Adele, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones and Esperanza Spalding are leading the parade. The rest are sure to follow. Music will be bigger and better than ever. But, it will be a cottage industry owned and controlled by those who make the music, not trans-national corporations. The criminal conspiracy we call the postmodern record business will crash and burn. Good riddance!

Rock 'til you drop.

John Hartmann

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I agree. But anyone under thirty will think 'out of touch' and 'sour grapes'.

Tom Quinn

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This, from one of the founders of Corporate Rock? You all live in your own little world of self importance and self delusion. Yes, you made gobs of money and sold gobs of tickets and records, but don╒t for a minute try to convince me it was for, ╥the art╙. I lived through that transitional period in the early 70s, when music went from being exploratory and challenging to becoming sales driven. Your rationalizations to justify your life╒s work as something other than what it was are pretty disingenuous. Be happy living in your fog with your amphetamines and your pearls, but know that a lot of folks see through you.

tom kennedy

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Bob Ezrin NAILED it ... Period!

George Miller

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Reading this from Ezrin is so disappointing.
So nostalgic, the sweeping generalizations. Your subj line is also disappointing, as though we're now hearing from the authority on the subject - someone nearly 70 lamenting today's music. Like getting a lecture from my grandfather, God rest his soul. Maybe when Alice and Floyd made albums that mattered, but everyone has their time and it doesn't last forever. Ezrin's ode to the past reminded me of this.

Dave Morris

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I saw a young banjo player at the Detroit Banjo Convention yesterday. He was probably the only one singing his own songs. No one really cared. The crowd wanted those same usual banjo songs that everyone always plays. The crowd was made of 50+ year olds. They were people just like me and you, but they just wanted what they already have. His songs were somewhat history lessons and proverbial. No one will ever hear of him. I approached him with a list of coffee houses and folkie hangouts that will embrace him in and around Detroit. He plays what he loves and it's meaningful and fantastic. I think my generation destroyed the essence of what rock and roll and great music once was. Our kids didn't do it. All we have to do is look for the great musicians and support them. They are there.

regards,
Bogdon Vasquaf

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Hear Hear!

Ed Gardyne

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Excellent.

I've had these thought for years. Where is the next Fools Overture? The next Kashmir?

Things of that quality aren't being made any longer.

Depressing. What's worse, look around. The mediocrity is everywhere. There are exceptions...

Hope its all good there, Bob

Chris Branson at The Shop Radio

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Am I the only one that finds it ironic that Bob Ezrin dismisses current pop music because it's all about 'shallow nursery rhymes about partying, trucks and beer or bitches and bling'?

Back in the day Bob Ezrin produced albums by KISS, a band that built a career on songs about partying, cold gin, bitches and bling. Hell, he even co-wrote some of these tunes. And we all know what drove KISS from day one: money.

And what exactly was 'uplifting' about the albums he produced for Alice Cooper or Lou Reed?

Please don╒t get me wrong, Destroyer, Love It To Dead and Berlin are among my favourite albums, just like others classics that Bob Ezrin added his magic to. I just think it╒s wrong to assume that most music from the sixties and seventies had substance, was uplifting and had a profound message, while current music is lacking in that respect.

I agree that the mainstream ╨ magazines, radio, television ╨ have surrendered to fast food culture and easy money. But there is still great, meaningful music begin made. Allow me to give one example:

My favorite album of this year so far is Hand.Cannot.Erase by the British musician Steven Wilson, formerly of Purcupine Tree. It╒s a concept album inspired by the true story of young woman living in London who dies in her apartment and no one misses her for three years, despite her having family and friends. It╒s a heart wrenching theme that Wilson used to reflect on current society, where we are online all the time, but real human contact has become rare.

And the music ╨ it╒s labelled prog rock, but I don╒t think that label is covers the wide spectrum of styles ╨ is absolutely gorgeous. Well played and well produced.

Steven Wilson has a unique sound, he is in it for the art and he has something to say. And there is an audience for it. He just finished a sold out European tour, playing large venues.

Pop music didn╒t die. There is still great music being made. We just have to look harder.

Robert Haagsma
(Music journalist, Holland)

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What about D'Angelo's "Black Messiah"? What about John Legend w/ The Roots "Wake Up!"? Allen Stone's songs about everyone loving one another and all that, Tedeschi Trucks Band...

There are massive amounts of recent albums that have meaningful messages, and the music/writing is GOOD. They just fall by the wayside because culture and society have evolved as such that people could care less about these albums as far, as the mainstream world that is. Well, and there's just too much saturation. But my point is, the music, the messages, and the quality are being recorded and thrown into the world just like the old days.... It's people (therefore the business) that have changed. I get that you're writing about mainstream/pop culture, but seems as though you're missing the whole other world one or two levels lower than "mainstream". There's a crap load of amazing stuff being put out that's giving bands/artists solid careers with decent enough fan bases. I don't think the best of them aren't famous because their music isn't good enough... there's just too much music in the world now because ANYONE can start making albums and putting them out. I could write and record
the equivalent of the White Album and put it on spotify and promote the hell out of it... that doesn't mean I'll become famous. Buuuut I made a really really good album!! What's the deal?

But hey, I could have a career at least. That didn't use to be able to happen! You were famous or you didn't have a music career at all. I guess I'd actually take modern times over that.

I blame the world changing, not less good music. There's plenty of it, it's just in different places than the equivalent of what being on the radio used to be. Problem is we see the "losers" conforming, we yawn, and then it's easy to just say "well that's how things are these days". But there are artists who are the real deal going unrecognized/unappreciated by the masses and the industry.

The world of music today is a big shitty ocean that has some decent waves, they're just a little tough to find. Or you know, some other metaphor like that :)

Dane Farnsworth

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The internet and cell phones has made it way to easy to push the moment and not care about the real people in your life. TV is another problem, way too many choices and now the average parent would rather let the kids watch it and or play related games. There needs to be a country where you can go and just spend time with the family. No internet, no phones, nice beach, just hang out and get to know the most important people that you have in your life and generally ignore because your just to busy. It's kinda funny, but as you get older you realize that this is just one long and interesting learning experience. And as you get nearer the end you really see how the next generation is kinda repeating exactly what you did...except now they have access to way to many things and tend to ignore the people that made it possible for them to be on the planet in the first place. So...you're born, you have an adventure, get married, have kids and then it's over...really makes me wonder what's
next...????

rgrinter

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The music that my friend Bob Ezrin talks about is indeed missing in action, vaporized from the larger perception, seen as fiscally imprudent and creatively irrelevant, but is not actually gone. It's minimized, Balkanized, ignored, dismissed, sloughed off, patronized, even ridiculed, and starved out by an industry that has lost the plot, even as it holds catalog that will never disappear.

In my small world, it's all gone underground, below the radar, residing in the niches, seeping into the cracks, built one supporter at a time, in real time, on the ground, and has drifted, necessarily, to a domain where "indy" doesn't just mean "independent" but "individual".

It's in the persistent energies of hundreds of artists who own their own "record companies" and publishing, write meaningful songs that only scratch the surface of radio, who sell nowhere but at gigs, who tour largely alone with guitars in cars, often booked without the aid of an agent, in a hopefully endless stream of one nighters in church halls, coffee shops, house concerts, small festivals, tiny clubs, on StageIt and ConcertWindow, and a multitude of vehicles that do a simple single thing: bringing music to a starved audience, and a forum to a challenged group of creatives who are willing to work extra hard to say their peace, if given the chance. The presumption that, be caseu of that status, they must not be any good is, simply, specious.

Most of them go to Folk Alliance, most of them generate subsistence income (if that), most of them are not looking for a handout from industry or government, even as we try to correct some of the injustices that have been perpetuated in the area of copyright and royalty distribution. Most have taken responsibility for their career and artistic choices, and are looking for satisfaction and a shot at a living, not fame or fortune, because there is none. How do you make a million bucks in the niche markets? Start with two million...

I?m not saying Bob is wrong, not even a little. He is dead-on, as usual.
Presciently, incisively, alarmingly accurate. I'm not saying it's OK, or
acceptable, or that everything is fine. It's not. It sucks, hard. And I
believe our entire society suffers when meaningful creations are
impossible to find, invisible to the eye and ear.

But I'm grateful that a small group of dedicated artists and audiences are supporting a world where, however minuscule, the desire to move and be moved still reigns, every day of every year, for less and less money and attention, but greater and greater commitment and fullfillment.

Those are my people, and we do exist.

Dan Navarro

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it will never happen again. we have 6 media conglomerates who own 90% of everything and they wont let a "freedom fighter" with a strong message thru to the masses. It goes against their business policy of perpetuating the "me me me" culture so everyone focuses on themselves. You cant sell masses of crap to masses of people who are informed about the masses. Plus it's threatening to the status quo who own everything. They learned their lesson with John Lennon and artists who slipped thru and had such a huge following as to actually affect political change. They don't want another Lennon. It's bad for big business. And there is WAY more negative world issues for artists to write about / protest today then there was 40 years ago. Pick your fight: Monsanto, Middle east, petrodollar, federal reserve, GMOs, axis of evil, big pharma, big oil, tar sands, the music industry itself. It's easier to grow young kids into hungry consumers when they are focused on "me me me" as opposed to looking
out for "us", the collective group, which is who the freedom toting artists of the past could appeal to and reach before the mainstream was locked down and sewn shut.

Of course freedom exists on the web, its one of the biggest things on there, but the web is still one device removed from our TV-centric living-room lifestyle which still perpetuates the culture of division. Theres a million channels on the web, but only about a dozen (that people regularly watch for information) on TV. Its still too easy to control that handful of channels to perpetuate what people see, learn, and adopt without questioning. It is that culture which permeates the souls of young aspiring musicians and guides their writing to the only thing they know: "me me me". Hence that's all they write about. In a sense it's not their fault. I'ts all they've been exposed to. Chances are by the time they are 30 and have had a chance to look around then they will see what's really going on and that's when their writing might start to change to reflect more world truths, but by then they're too old and won't get major labels behind them who can get their faces on National Morning TV
to spread their knowledge. Of course there are well-informed young artists out there too who do take on social issues but again, are they trustworthy enough for the major media to let them have an international voice that reaches everyone without threatening the system in place?

Good music used to be about addressing those things. Who are the biggest artists today? Do they have any songs that threaten the status quo? Anything that resembles something as articulately assembled as carry as much impact what John Lennon, Joni Mitchell or Bob Marley could (and would) write? They are the biggest BECAUSE they don't threaten anyone, hence they are given a voice and if they abuse it, they are cut off and their entire team loses. Do you want to be the huge popular artist who says the wrong thing and puts your friends and associates out of work? There's a lot of pressure there and usually no one has the balls to break that cycle. Its expensive, isolating, and the end of good times as you know it.

Nope. Both Bobs are right, its all about the money. Keep it safe, keep it controlled, and it will keep coming.

Thanx

Murray Atkinson

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A solution is needed... And that solution lies in education. A mindfulness of what is actually happening psychologically in the individuals behind all this madness and in our selves.

We can only hope that the music industry will begin to go through what the food industry is beginning to go through (albeit slowly): Where a more universal knowledge of what foods are empty and unhealthy is more widespread.

How is corn syrup and other artificial sweeteners any different than most corporate financed and A&R'd pop music? They both serve to give people the same relatively empty yet short lived hyper-sensory experience.

Our culture's current state pushes us to forget that art is nutrition for the soul.

Arts, due to their innate power, have been hijacked by the most intelligent, driven and greedy people and are now most often used as tools to pry money out of our pockets rather than effect the soul in a meaningful way.

Does pop music taste to the ears just as good as corn syrup does to the mouth? Yes. The effect and its intent is exactly the same.

In the end, pop music is often just as unhealthy to the human soul as corn syrup is to the human body.

It's strikingly simple: the love of money created corn syrup just like it created pop music in the rapidly meaning deprived form we find it in today.

On a deep level we crave money because it offers us two key things, power and safety.

And beneath our craving for power and safety lies our constant subcontinent knowledge of, and fear of our own demise. Our fear of death.

This deep fear of death, when left on the unconscious level leads us down a dead end street. We forget that we are living NOW. Art feeds and nourishes the human soul NOW, in the present moment. It soothes this fear of death in a meaningful way through excepting the beauty, meaning and transient nature of life, which is the opposite of what our love and craving for money does, which is keeps us running like rats on a wheel, going nowhere fast, heart racing, mind numb.

My hope is that those of us desiring to make meaningful work and do good business seek to be mindful of these ideas and help change the world around us for the better.... To ingest what makes us healthier, more connected, less fearful and more alive.

Adam Watts



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