PATIENCE, MY FRIEND
Aug 1, 2006 12:00 PM, Kylee Swenson Remix Editor
I just got back from our Remix Hotel event in NYC (more about that in our September issue). During the 5 million panels — okay, 15 — we had going on over the course of the three-day event, the same point kept coming up.
A handful of the artists, producers, DJs and industry experts intermittently said something along the lines of, “If you're going to pursue making music, it's not a race; it's a journey.” Sometimes artists adopt a desperate attitude toward making music because they think time is running out, like if you don't get your CD pressed and in the hands of everyone on the planet this minute, your career doesn't stand a chance.
And who could blame us for that rush mentality? Ever since I can remember, I have watched hundreds of pretty 17-year-old girls crop up with their pop images and their two-times-Platinum-selling albums produced by the hitmakers of the moment. Sometimes these “superstars” stick around, and sometimes they fall by the wayside.
But we all know how manufactured that teenage-pop-princess image is. It's a mathematical marketing equation: If the trend of the moment is blond girls with brown eyes and button noses, then all the labels invest in a teenage girl who looks like that and can kinda sing. Then, they get her in the studio to record 12 tracks by the six hottest producers, throw millions of dollars into promotion and press campaigns and expect to see x amount of record sales. I don't fault labels for thinking like this.
But that objective is not for us, is it? If you're reading this magazine, it's unlikely that you're going to win the pop-artist lottery and become an overnight sensation. First of all, if you're not a subscriber to Teen Vogue, then you're probably too old to be plucked from obscurity and made into a shiny, pretty pop star. But more importantly, you've been working at your own thing for too long to allow people to mold you into something you're not. (Although, I suppose we all have our price — I'm talking to you, Liz Phair.) And 17-year-old pop singers generally have a short shelf life, anyway, unless they're really doing something unique.
For the rest of us, making music is a way of life for the long haul. It's true that the recently reunited artists in this issue, the Brand New Heavies and Tha Dogg Pound, have experienced success early in their careers, but they never stopped when things got rough. I've met producers and artists who have racked up some pretty amazing achievements to make mom proud, but most of them have been at it for a good 10 years.
I get this feeling that people out there think, “Okay, if I haven't done this and this by the time I'm 40, I'm throwing in the towel.” Why is it not okay for us to be 50 or 60 years old and still releasing new music and touring? Most of us have to build our careers over time. If you chip away at it every day and make well-informed, business-minded choices (thanks for the advice on “The Spin Cycle” panel, Jazzy Jay), what you're so desperate to achieve will come. We just need to stop putting an expiration date on making art.
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