I'll just never understand what art and big business have to do with one another.  And I'm not speaking as a jaded musician who had a bad experience or as an indie rocker who's just too cool.  I'm speaking as a fan of music, an art lover.  To say that there is any need for major labels --corporate businesses who mass market and sell art as a product-- is to insult the people who truly love music on a pure level.  It's saying that we're not capable of seeking out art on our own and deciding for ourselves whether it is of value and relevance or not.  We don't need Billboard or MTV or the Grammys to tell us what is good, what we should spend our money on.  I don't know if many people realize this, but MTV, VH1 and 95 percent of all the radio stations in this country are all owned by the same company, Viacom.  That is the reason you hear and see the same horrible, watered-down shit everywhere --not because it's good, but because a corporation is attempting, and succeeding sadly to say, to manipulate the listening audience by repetition and advertising.

You don't have to be a fucking genius to figure out that the best music being put out today is not on the radio or the TV, but it's been that way for 30 years now.  We really just have to make a serious effort to seek out and support the relevant, pure art that is being made in our time and stop buying into the corporate bullshit.  I mean at least be aware of it.

Jason Trout
God Star Social

Reported by Jonni Stiles
Spark
Vol 2, issue 2
Jan 29-Feb 11, 2003
Knoxville, TN