Bette Midler Says "MTV Ruined Live Music"... Is She Right?
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Artist:
Ms. Midler has a theory about why the public has grown fond of cookie cutter pop acts with questionable singing talents.......... MTV.
"After MTV came along, people were seeing their favorite singers in videos, and suddenly there was a certain vision of a song - how it should sound, how it should look. Then [in concert], there was no room for improvisation - everyone wanted an exact replica."
"They don't speak. They don't talk to their audience. They may say, 'Hello, New York 'Hello, Las Vegas,' in the beginning, and 'Thank you' in between songs, but they don't talk. They don't tell stories or take the time to make a connection, build a rapport. There's no emotion."
Do you think she has a point?
I'm always a little weary of blaming all the ills of society on MTV, but the culture the channel created DOES play into the current state of music to a certain extent.
Reading the last bit of her quote did remind me of "a post I made a few hours ago":http://mog.com/MrFrost/blog_post/177264 ... Kanye West delivered a bazillion hour speech during his concert... so maybe shes not 100% right.
"NY Daily News":http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2008/08/06/2008-08-06_bette_midler_mtv_turned_singers_into_vid.html
Comments (12)
I think she is right....Kanye is probably gonna get criticized for delivering his speech. Audiences aren't used to that.
I think the art of the entertainment aspect of music is somewhat lost, but I would probably say disco did more to harm live music than MTV. This was the turning point in which people started to pay to go hear records they already owned, played by someone else.
But good live music is not dead -the people who can do it right, still are keeping on. Go see the band Galactic, and tell me if live music is dead. They're one of the better live bands I've seen in a couple years.
Problem is that people who are "good" at it like Middler, charge a fortune for a concert, therefore no one but ther true fans sees it, and they don't appeal to younger audiences. You see this all the time with older bands. You can bitch and complain as an artist, but really, lower your ticket prices and show the people what you mean!
I dunno. At the Foo Fighters show, Grohl definitely did the talking part. You don't see it a whole lot in hip-hop either way. Honestly, I doubt that most artists have the charisma to talk the audience's ears off and get away with it.
Interesting how the artist tagged on this post is Jessica Simpson. Man, y'all sure give that poor girl a hard time.
I would say she is wrong. I think aside from the crap they are putting out right now, MTV did a lot more good than bad in their earlier years on air. I remember watching MTV for hours, and watching video after video of bands I would not have had a chance to listen to. I do not think these bands do not have to talk either. Some of my favorite memories from MTV were the interviews Matt Pinfield did with bands on 120 minutes, or the interviews Fab 5 Freddy, Ed Lover and Dr. Dre did with up coming rap artists. I think MTV lost a few steps with the birth of TRL, but all things aside I do not blame MTV for what transpires at a concert. I think when it comes to that the band is either good at it or they suck. Similar to how some people are when at a party.......... you have your clowns who just sit and make an ass of themselves and people who other people want to get to know.
What, "Hello Detroit! (or our cities name)" doesn't count as making a connection?
Dude, they said our cities name! Whoooo!
I don't think MTV killed live music, but it had a big part in killing the music business as we knew it.
Do you think if the music biz had stayed Single oriented, it may have been a more symbiotic relationship?
She comes from a different music tradition. In concert she and Liza Minelli and Streisand talk up a storm between numbers, to a level no rock musician I've ever seen begins to get close to. So the kvetching about not talking...did she never go to rock concerts? Hard to see if she's pissed that she's not seeing live music situations that rings her bell, or complaining that she can't go out and play.
The single held the power that was rock! Then rock became big biz with the album..MTV made singles big again to the benefit of many..but the single became firmly a commercial at that point. All the money went into vids and making the single, as a stand in for the album/CD. So the single became a thing of massive import, but then they removed the single forcing you to buy the album.
The single was supposed to be the gateway drug..making kids customers, so they would eventually buy albums. The greedy mf's decided to cut that step out and they are now getting paid back with a generation hooked on videos and singles and eschewing albums.
The biz put its promotional eggs in the MTV basket and MTV fucked the business by playing only 50 songs..you are right though..if the majors had kept he single the transition to digital and pairing w/MTV might have been a nice way to go.
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That's odd, considering how much she ruined live music.
If anything, I'd say MTV ruined Television. The Real World was cool, but now reality television is just way out of hand.