Shereen Ali
Published:
Friday, October 2, 2015
THE BUSINESS OF MUSIC: Part 4
What makes for great music? The answer is as diverse as the many forms music can take.
Music preferences can vary by taste, cultural background, social context and education. Music has been described as “an art form whose medium is sound and silence.”
The word music comes from the Greek mousike—art of the muses. Its common elements are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm, dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. And although types of music can be divided into genres and subgenres, these dividing lines are increasingly blurred and open to personal interpretations.
Music may be composed, performed and listened to as an art for aesthetic pleasure, as a gateway for spiritual, religious or ceremonial reasons, as a form of propaganda, or as an entertainment product to just relax, have fun and dance to.
When it comes to the idea of a T&T music industry, music takes on another purpose in addition to all of these: it can be a means of earning a living, and a revenue-earning sector of diverse music goods and services.
Quality first: Create a good product
Belmont-born calypsonian David Rudder, a T&T singer/songwriter based in Canada, rose to local fame in Trinidad in 1986 and has been creating thoughtful, varied music ever since, in a successful music career which has drawn from a range of music influences and fusions, including Shango Baptist chants and rhythms, pan, pop, folk rock, jazz, blues and calypso.
He has been described as modern calypso’s most innovative and poetic songwriter, a bridge between the storytelling/commentary of old-time kaiso and the soca dance music of today. He has worked conscientiously to refine his songwriting craft as well as market and perform his songs regionally and at international venues.
In an email interview with the T&T Guardian, he shared some views of what it takes to succeed in the music business.
Creating quality music must come first, he says: “First of all, the artist would have to produce work of high quality, work that’s appealing. We should start with making music for all times, not just for a season.”
Even in an era of ubiquitous music piracy, streaming music platforms and technological changes in the industry which can make it a challenge for artists to earn fair revenues, Rudder believes it’s crucial to “make good, high quality music. Make music that appeals to a broad spectrum. High quality always sells—slowly, yes, but constantly.”
Need for stronger skills, wider music knowledge
In this view he is supported by Caribbean/World Music specialist and T&T Guardian columnist Simon Lee, a passionate indigenous/creole music advocate who’s also a writer on Caribbean cultural and literary matters.
A London-born, Trinidad-based, self-described “Jewish Creole,” Lee believes too many T&T musicians and music-makers of today are restricted by their lack of skills, their insular, limiting view of music, the temptation to follow foreign trends, and a basic ignorance of the immense creativity and diversity of Caribbean-born musical forms.
A deeper awareness of our own region’s music can help enrichen and distinguish our own T&T music creations in a global marketplace, he believes.
“Since the 70s, TT has not been listening to the music of the region. Before that, you could pick up Latin, Cuban, Venezuelan music on the radio,” says Lee.
“Contrast the music sector in Trinidad—with lots of potential—with Cuba—which has got it largely right. The young generations of musicians in T&T, by contrast, are appallingly ignorant of what is going on, beyond reggae and possibly zouk. Too many of them cannot write well, and cannot create quality music. If you’re not listening to what others are producing, you are incredibly limited (as a music artist).”
This view is echoed by calypso-jazz pianist Rafael Robertson, who feels that some young people in the music sector today have an unrealistic, even lazy attitude to funding and training for their career. He points to the state of near-poverty of many Cuban musicians, who nevertheless produce great works of art due to their initiative, hard work and a superior music education: “Look at what they are able to produce with nothing.”
Robertson also gives the example of El Sistema, an internationally celebrated music programme in Venezuela that aims to lift young people from poverty and into orchestras. Set up 40 years ago in 1975 by José Antonio Abreu, a musician and economist, it is a social programme to enrich children’s lives and promote social mobility.
Since 1975, when it began with 11 musicians in a garage in Caracas, it has placed more than two million children into orchestras and has inspired branches in many other countries. Robertson is pointing to music as an organised, systematic tool for empowerment and education—music as more than a business, but as a development tool which can improve and transform lives as well as teach youth a useful skill to earn a living.
Rootless, mass music, or unique cultural music?
Simon Lee returns to the issue of developing local quality music that is unique to our space: “With globalisation, we’re being exposed to mass culture, largely US, and the trend to ‘follow fashion’ is a huge mistake. I mean, I love local rock bands, but you don’t carry coal to Newcastle. It’s arrogant and stupid. You just can’t cut it with the competition out there.
“The music of a place is its character, it’s an organic product,” believes Lee. “What makes a music distinctive is that it is rooted in its environment: that’s what makes for a unique form. If it cuts off its roots, it becomes a synthetic product. If you are marketing bubblegum and popcorn music, that is not the type of music that is enduring.
“You can see that with calypso, prior to soca. It was distinctive. In the 50s for a while, it even looked like calypso would become the most popular music. Calypso is the Trinidadian form. And in Tobago we also have the jigs, reel, bongo and limbo, part of the Tobago Heritage Festival. All these forms are part of the musical heritage here that is abandoned…There’s a good deal of (musical) ignorance here by way of apathy and neglect of our own forms.”
Be open...learn from everywhere
DJ Chris Leacock, aka Jillionaire, of a younger generation, is not as critical of local musicians and music-makers. He thinks TT is producing some excellent music, which just needs more exposure. He is not married to strict definitions of music genres—“Death to genres” he says— as in his business, the mixing and fusion of multiple styles speaks to an entirely different sector of the music industry—music as pure entertainment, for the dance crowd.
Leacock is a DJ from Chaguanas, Trinidad who’s now based in Los Angeles, and part of Major Lazer, an electronic music group which plays to sold out party crowds internationally. They’ve created some big indie dance/house hits and collaborated with several major artists, mixing electronic, dancehall, moombahton, reggae fusion, rap and other music influences. Created in 2009 by Mississippi-born record producer Wes Pentz (aka Diplo, short for Diplodocus—Pentz likes dinosaurs) along with English DJ David “Switch” Taylor (who later left in 2011), Major Lazer’s other current member is Jamaican DJ Leighton Walsh (Walshy Fire).
Leacock questions traditional definitions of what constitutes “local” music, pointing to TT artists working across different international music categories: “Orange Sky and JointPop are my favorite rock bands. Kes makes radio friendly pop and reggae music. Sef Gaines, Vetta and Chromatic have been making rap hits for years. Maximus Dan has been dabbling in EDM and was recently credited on [platinum selling] Jack U’s Jungle Bae.”
“I think we have excellent quality records out there,” says Leacock: “They just need greater visibility. Trinidad isn’t just about soca hits and struggling rapso artists anymore. Jus Now have taken their blend of Trinidad percussion and UK drum and bass to Glastonbury and the BBC Radio One playlist. Bunji Garlin enjoyed regular rotation on New York’s Hot 97. If we want to sell more music we simply need to create more music. You don’t need an album deal to put your songs on Soundcloud...or iTunes for that matter.”
• ON MONDAY, THE BUSINESS OF MUSIC CONTINUES BY LOOKING AT SOME OF THE GREAT CARIBBEAN MUSIC SUCCESSES.
Sidebar:
ARTISTIC ADVICE
Singer/songwriter David Rudder :
“Keep your ears and mind open always, good songs are everywhere—in a bar, on the street... all over. Don’t do things that weigh heavily on your spirit; even if it comes from the label, you’ll probably regret not listening to your heart.”
Pianist Rafael Robertson:
“No matter what happens, you have to stay positive, and keep doing what you do. People who persevere, end up succeeding.
“Always learn. It is part of the whole universe that you are influenced by other things. Technology has brought us closer in some aspects: you can go on YouTube and hear anyone.”
DJ Chris Leacock / Major Lazer:
“Just keep going. Don’t let anyone tell you to give up, or change your style, or forget about it. Rembunction recently did a feature with New Zealand’s Weird Together. By the time this is published he’ll probably be in Japan shooting the music video.
“Secondly and most importantly of all, the internet is your friend. Every DJ and producer and singer and musician ever is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Soundcloud, Snapchat and so on and so on. The same way we discover artists from Russia to Mexico to Africa, is the same way that artists from Trinidad will be discovered.”
Music writer Simon Lee:
“Listen to the Caribbean region’s music and learn from it. Don’t be restricted; and don’t be too easily influenced by global pressures. Of course you can compete in the global music market, but you also have to be real, to see the music from its own place…You have to work from where you are, and who you are, before you can take on the world.”
Jacob Edgar, talent scout & music critic:
“Just make great music, have a cool style, be creative, and you will find an audience.”
PULL QUOTE
Contrast the music sector in Trinidad—with lots of potential—with Cuba—which has got it largely right. The young generations of musicians in TT, by contrast, are appallingly ignorant of what is going on, beyond reggae and possibly zouk. Too many of them cannot write well, and cannot create quality music. If you’re not listening to what others are producing, you are incredibly limited (as a music artist).
Simon Lee
lifestyle
David Rudder believes that local musicians should start with making music for all times, not just for a season. Musicians must continually hone their skills. Education is something that Raf Robertson feels strongly about. Simon Lee believes the younger T&T artistes should listen to a wider range of music from the region.