{"id":423,"date":"2010-02-18T14:24:14","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T14:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp\/?p=423"},"modified":"2010-02-18T14:24:14","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T14:24:14","slug":"everything_good_needs_replacin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/2010\/02\/everything_good_needs_replacin\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything good needs replacing"},"content":{"rendered":"

I went to see Parsons Dance<\/a> at The Joyce last night with co-AJ blogger Judith Dobrzynski<\/a>, and was immediately brought back to a simpler time when the last Parsons piece, In The End<\/i>, opened with Dave Matthews Band’s Satellite. <\/p>\n

<\/i>You know a band’s popular when even I–no older siblings, ballet, harp, matching colored socks to turtlenecks, Star Trek<\/i>, Boy Meets World<\/i>, the “Disney Afternoon”, Narnia–had a copy of Under The Table and Dreaming. <\/p>\n

<\/i>\"UnderTheTableAndDreaming.jpg\"A quick gander at the actually not un-cool Dave Matthews Band website<\/a> and the full-page ad for a Citi Field concert in this week’s Time Out NY <\/i>would seem to prove that “DMB” is still touring quite successfully. But do you remember<\/i> how famous they were? Throughout the Parsons piece, I thought about all the bands and songs I was “obsessed” with ten, fifteen, years ago.  To name a few of the most embarrassing: EV\u018e 6 (“I burn burn like a wicker cabinet”)<\/font><\/font>, Guster (“She comes from far away, and gets closer everyday”), Splender (“The world seems bigger than both of us, yet it seems so small when I begin to cry”), and Fastball (“If you’re sad then it’s time you spoke up, too”).  I refuse to include the Gin Blossoms (“’cause all I really want’s to be with you and feel like I matter, too”)  in this list, because I Stand By that obsession. <\/p>\n

Sure, plenty of artists who were unbelievably successful in the 90s still are today–Madonna, Radiohead (against any kind of odds or trends), U2, Pearl Jam (after a break, which is an important point, but perhaps for another blog post), The Beastie Boys (I guess?), Green Day (again, after a break), Weezer, etc.–but what of Hanson, Spin Doctors, Hootie & the Blowfish, Barenaked Ladies, Meredith Brooks…I mean, Marcy Playground? Chumbawamba??<\/i> And these are the, for lack of a better word, over-ground bands; we haven’t even gotten into what will become of “underground”–that is, “not on Z100”–bands like Yeasayer, Frightened Rabbit, and The Dirty Projectors, in ten years. About four people made fun of me for going to a Clientele concert last summer. They were JUST TRENDY! How are they already been doomed to indie rock Splender-dom?<\/p>\n

This is perhaps, an apples and oranges situation, but let’s see how we do:<\/p>\n

It seems to me that while you have less chance of a meteoric rise to fame as a classical musician, there is more opportunity for a 40-plus year career than there is in rock and popular music.  We can all probably name the, what, 20 (?) rock and pop artists with 40-year careers, while hundreds of classical musicians have achieved this. Sure, less people may have bought a classical musician’s albums or heard him or her perform live in any given one-month or one-year span, but after decade upon decade of performing all over the world, even to perhaps not-capacity crowds, classical musicians reach a lot of people. They also reach a lot people over multiple generations, whereas if someone under 20 can sing through Heart in a Blender <\/i>with me right now, I’ll eat my hat. (Wait – do I even have any under-20 readers?) <\/p>\n

But if every musician of any genre was given a genie in a bottle (Christina Aguilera, 1999, 5 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100), which would they choose? 40 years of consistent fame to a small percentage of the population, or a handful of years of fame to billions and then obscurity? What Would Joshua Bell Do? What Would Chumbawamba Do? And if we think that every musician would choose the long-term fame option, then why are so many so eager to do all the press and get all the exposure they can right in this moment, without so much as a glance toward longevity? <\/p>\n

You discuss, because I have to go download “Sex and Candy” now. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went to see Parsons Dance at The Joyce last night with co-AJ blogger Judith Dobrzynski, and was immediately brought back to a simpler time when the last Parsons piece, In The End, opened with Dave Matthews Band’s Satellite. You know a band’s popular when even I–no older siblings, ballet, harp, matching colored socks to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}