Vocalists/Musicians Wasting Their Talent


Since music is now much more about achieving a high publicity profile and making money than making great records, as the ascendancy of artists like Eminem (is that how you spell it?) demonstrates, I wonder if anyone has any opinions about any artists of today or the past, singing in whatever musical genre, who have consistently pursued the almighty dollar instead of maximizing their talent to sing great, memorable songs? I wonder why the recording industry continues to push artists to put out crap when SOME of them are capable of great things? Also, I wonder why artists with great talent and great power in the industry to control their own destiny continue to accept it. Examples and comments are appreciated.
rayhall

Showing 1 response by adamanteus

Wehamilton,

Very good post. Think you've hit the high spots. I offer just one amplification: since business, especially the music business, measures things in picoseconds these days, the pressure on studios, and therefore the artists, to crank things out quickly becomes overbearing. As you rightly point out, that will allow people who are camera friendly to market pablum or worse and still make a ton of money. That's all the business side cares about. Artists ( and pretend artists ) being human, want to make money and you can't really blame them. One other poster wrote that he chose commerce rather than academia so he could make a more lucrative living. Who am I to say he's polluted his ideals by "selling out"?

It's a whole different culture. Most of the serious talent still goes into classical because they have to - it's the only medium that fires their muse.