From: Nancy Young, nydrummergirl@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: brothers and sisters ...
Date: 2/23/2002 4:29:39 PM
To: Salonen@aol.com
kevinlanekeller@hotmail.com
seance@lists.no-fi.com


As much as I like my rock n roll bands and hope that
they can make ends meet, stay solvent and find that
making records and touring is worthwhile to stay in
the business and not take up day jobs and do music on
the side, the thing everyone seems to be over-looking
is that the music business is indeed a BUSINESS. 
Record companies, large & multinational, or
independent & hand-to-mouth are in business to make a
profit.  They are in retail and instead of
manufacturing rolls of toilet paper for $0.50 and
selling it for $3.59, they are manufacturing CDs at a
cost of about $0.80 per unit, selling it for $18 and
giving the band less than $1.00 from that. This much I
learned in my short-lived stint as the drummer in a
Josie & the Pussycats type ensemble when we wanted to
release a record.  It is quite an unfair business.  We
opted out and still play for fun and entertain our
friends at parties, weddings and bar mitzvahs.

AINT NO WAY an organization like the NEA types gonna
DONATE money for a profit making buziness even if we
think it is culturally relevant.  Its commerce.  YOu
don't see the NEA and NEH giving money to Sony Music,
do you?  And you won't in the USA.  This isn't France
with a Ministry of Culture that has a popular music
division.

As much as I like the Church and for all the joy they
bring to me, when I consider the reality of life --- I
work in the County Medical Examiners Office in New
York City ---- the Church really amount to the crap
between the cracks in the sidewalks.  I have spent the
past five months typing and filing autopsy reports on
bodies found in the rubble of the World Trade Center
site.  It puts a perspective on "art," "culture" and
this business of music.

If private people want to give money to their pet
causes, whether that cause is a rock band or the
research of cloning techniques, that's the prerogative
of the private investor.  Should there be more of
them?  Yes, why not?  

I'm happy to pay my hour's pay towards a CD and hope
that the cost of marketing the band doesn't eat into
their share of the profits.  I"m happy to hear the
music that distracts me from the horror of my day job.

But jeezus, people, get real!

Nancy Young, unlurking for a moment

> In all seriousness, Kevin brings up an excellent
> point. We talk about the NEA 
> and NEH and private donors funding the arts
> (museums, symphonies, individual 
> artists) all the time in classes at my school, but
> come to think of it, I 
> haven't heard of anyone backing a rock band. Let The
> Church be the first!



--- Salonen@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 2/23/02 4:28:27 AM Pacific
> Standard Time, 
> kevinlanekeller@hotmail.com writes:
> 
> 
> > In terms of benefactors, I actually am 
> > surprised that there aren't more of them out there
> for rock bands.  It's 
> > common for other arts organizations such as
> symphonies, opera houses, 
> > theatre companies, etc. but perhaps for obvious
> reasons, that hasn't 
> > happened with rock and roll.  I think it will
> happen eventually, 
> 
> Hey! I was thinking, in addition to my teaching, of
> taking a 
> fundraising/grant writing course at UCLA. Perhaps my
> first grant will be 
> written for the Church, to the NEA (of which of
> course, I am a huge supporter 
> of, as an art historian.) Sure, it'd be a little
> tricky explaining why I 
> needed about $500,000 from the GOVERNMENT to fund
> the tour and the next 
> couple of albums, keep the guys in good with white
> pants and some, um, 
> fun-making plants, ; ) -  but I am a very good
> writer and have a very active 
> imagination. ; ) I could also just randomly hit up
> rich people. ; )
> 
> In all seriousness, Kevin brings up an excellent
> point. We talk about the NEA 
> and NEH and private donors funding the arts
> (museums, symphonies, individual 
> artists) all the time in classes at my school, but
> come to think of it, I 
> haven't heard of anyone backing a rock band. Let The
> Church be the first!
> 
> I just read an article about some dude named William
> Pope.L (yes that is the 
> correct spelling) who apparently wants money and
> backing from the NEA to 
> crawl 22 miles from the Statue of Liberty to the
> Bronx dressed in a Superman 
> costume. I think the NEA is still debating this one,
> but man, now THAT'S 
> weird. : )
> 
> Denise
> 


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