Astrochimp

I’m enjoying the new Nine Inch Nails “Year Zero” album purchased in iTunes. I missed out on the thermo CD which changes color from black to white when heated, but CDs are a thing of the past for me. NIN is one of the few bright spots in the world of Rock which is in tatters. Sure there are plenty of great artist out there now that are easily accessible from website, myspace and the like, but they get zero help from major labels.

Canadian music megaproducer Bob Ezrin wrote a letter about the sad state of the music industry. He praises Trent Reznor for controlling his own destiny despite the major labels.

…Ezrin, who has penned a letter damning the lack of art and lust for commerce in today’s corporate music industry. The letter praises NIN’s Trent Reznor as the master of his own acclaim; a success nurtured seemingly in spite of the record labels. Ezrin remembers a time when the music business was built by “passionate amateurs who revered the artists, and who became their protectors, advocates and promoters.

“But now,” spits Ezrin, “the biggest part of the business is run by cold-hearted professionals whose reverence is for the bottom line, first and last.” (We can almost feel the planet’s orbit shift with all the simultaneous nodding from artists everywhere.)

Trent Reznor is a true visionary. He has broken and reinvented the rules of engagement on every level, from recording to touring to interacting with his fans.

He’s an intensely determined person—aware and on top of everything that happens in his name, from his music to his marketing. Trent controls all things Trent. Yes, he’s had help along the way, but he’s the captain of the Trent ship and his career is a product of his imagination and drive. He is not manufactured, homogenized, manipulated or packaged. He is Trent—and the rest of the folks get to react.

There’s a clue in here to how to run one’s life as an aspiring artist. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in situations where aspiring artists (as you know, I hate the designation but will grant it to a few sublimely talented folks like Trent) have created something and have had a vision that has not resonated with their “handlers” from management to producers, to the record company to even sometimes their lawyer—and have succumbed to the pressure to conform to the taste and judgment of these people at the expense of their own intuition—and have failed either immedately or ultimately because, in the end, they simply weren’t distinguished enough to connect to a large group of people in a lasting way. They may have produced a “hit song” but they typically did not create a career.

“Thank God For Trent Reznor” at http://www.torontoist.com/

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