Several snippet posts seemingly back the idea that in order to succeed in the popular music industry and the entertainment business in general, one must “sell” his or her soul “to the devil.” That mind-set has been around many, many years but became a dominant theme during the period when rock music reigned supreme and continues even harder in these days of rap/hip-hop supremacy as rock seems to have faded into a background within the mainstream. For instance, it is getting harder and harder to find classic rock radio stations in places like El Paso, yet rap and hip-hop stations there are much easier to find. I have my suspicions as to why, but I won’t go into that here. Simply, it is the way industry moguls want it to be.
Interestingly enough, some of the more popular rock bands these days hail from Asia, especially Japan and Korea with J-Pop/Rock and K-Pop/Rock (the GazettE, a Japanese rock band, for example, is my daughter’s fave rock band, and they have toured the US twice on world tours…their record label is SONY as far as I know). Europe still has some of the more popular grunge and death metal bands, as well. So while rock is not “dead,” it isn’t what it used to be in the US.
These snippet posts don’t cover this notion, but do deal with how rock or any recording artists come to be targeted for fame and fortune in the first place. “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” was a saying I remember as a kid in the 50s and applied to many career threads or business success. In the 60s and 70s rock and roll era, it was obvious, as several friends (and including a band I was in for a short time) could verify that they wouldn’t become “rock stars” because they didn’t “know” the “right people.” They might know local bar or night club owners, but not any of the “big boys.” I did have a college friend that played in a band that performed in a large NYC pub venue, but that was as far as they got in the early 80s.
While the first novel in The Prodigal Band Trilogy, Battle of the Band, starts off with a “prayer” for success as the band Sound Unltd began its contest-winning national pub and small venue tour, it doesn’t really cover the “who” they “knew” aspect of the beginnings of their success. The third novel, The Prodigal Band, however, does begin with introducing the “who” they “know” people that helped create the group, including influencer parents and adoptive parents as well as ancestors. And these ‘parents,’ having been in the business themselves twenty years earlier, “knew” others, higher-ups so-to-speak, with more clout who would assure early success, and who “knew” others even higher up who would make sure they’d make it big.
All of the following snippets come from The Prodigal Band.
