"Rockstar" TV show - Dave Navarro losing all music cred?
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Artist:
Former guitarist for Jane's Addiction and The Chili Peppers, Dave has been generally regarded as a kick-ass guitar player and respected as a rock musician.Then he married Carmen Electra and had a reality show on MTV similar to the Newlyweds. And now, similar to the Newlyweds, Dave and Carmen are splitting up. Yeah, I know - who cares? I just brought this up to make a point - at some level, this was all painfully predictable, no?Well, Dave Navarro has a new band called the Panic Channel, which has not released any music yet....I am hoping it rocks. But to get to the meat of the motivation for this somewhat rambling post, he is also the host of the show Rockstar, which is currently in its second season. The first season of Rockstar conducted a competition to select a new lead singer for INXS - you know, that band that had a lot of hits a really long time ago. This time, the band looking for a singer is a new band called Supernova, made up of Gilby Clarke (formerly with Guns N' Roses ) on guitar, Jason Newsted (ex-Metallica) on bass and Tommy Lee from Motley Crue on drums. Now none of these guys is known for writing great songs, or any songs, really. In fact, Tommy Lee's music career after Motley Crue has been a failure so far. I wonder where the songs for this new album are going to come from? Will they be any good? My expectations are low at best.Now, I'm not saying that I don't watch the show, of course - being a rock singer I find the show riveting. But the first season with INXS set the tone for this series - while it does provide an opportunity for unknown singers to join a band that has some industry backing, it is more a vehicle for washed-up has-been bands/musicians to attempt to get enough hype among the mindless TV watching masses to hopefully support one more album and tour. I imagine that the network must own a huge chunk of any proceeds, and whatever mobile carrier did a deal with the network gets to plug the shit out of themselves. Anyone associated with the show, outside of the handful of contestants that are truly talented performers, is basically admitting to being devoid of any real music cred or throwing away any that they may have had in desperation. This is way beyond selling out - this is whoring.So while Dave Navarro seems like a guy that would be fun to hang out with over a few beers, I have to wonder if this is a good career choice for him if he wants to continue being considered a musician...Thoughts?
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