Get yourself a fashion coach!

 No change in musical style will survive unless it is accompanied by a change in clothing style. Rock is to dress up to.
Frank Zappa

If you want to be the next big star, you’d better wear the right shoes. That’s the message I heard from one panelist at Atlantis this past week. I’m personally not much of a slave to fashion, but I’m not looking to be the next John Mayer, either. It was interesting to study the panel audience at the conference; the rappers looked like rappers, the heavy metal bands looked like metal band members, and the singer/songwriters looked like regular people.

The fashionista on the panel encouraged them to find fashion coaches to create “images” for performers. It’s all about branding and marketing; are you unique enough to be your own “brand?” Is your guitar sending the wrong message to your audience?

I hear the same thing over and over; the record labels are looking for market-ready material. You need to be so very market-ready that the A&R guys look at you and see dollar signs. Maybe you need new teeth. Or as Erykah Badu said on BTMD, “get yourself some butt implants; –that’s the new thing.” Got a good look? You’ll be a star.

How many people shop for new artists by going to concerts anymore?  In my town, the only place to find new music is at Walmart or online…

Is the label’s focus still on the superstar?  What sells? What is the expected life expectancy of said product?  Look at the product formerly know as the Artist formerly known as Prince:  –he’s still making albums (and money) but his last 2 releases have been steady but unimpressive in market sales.  Why (you may ask)? 

Because we don’t support musical steakhouses the way we used to.  We opt for musical buffets and listen to our customized list of MP3s.  We don’t listen to CDs the way we used to;  we instantly rip them up into single files and never relisten to 90% of the tracks.  We want a new buffet of new music (cheaply) every day.   Trouble is,  emphasis on quantity over quality is disturbing, both for artistic merit and for the long-term health of the industry.

Will fickle consumer demand yield many musical superstars?  I doubt it and that’s a real shame.  The labels developed, groomed and revamped careers.  We may be bypassing their artists, but at what price?    Maybe I can’t see the future of the forest for all these shiny trees in my way, but I’ll always believe that there’s something universal in quality that can withstand the test of time.  And quality is something I’m missing in this dearth of music that floods my present day plate.  I could go for a good ribeye right about now…