Ellis Paul Discussion

Folks,

Please take 3 minutes to watch a 3-minute video introduction to Before the Music Dies on the film's website. This really looks like something I'd like to see. (It's really funny at the beginning of the little 3-minute introduction the interviewer asks a couple young girls if they had ever heard of Bob Dylan and they answer "no.")

Before the Music Dies documentary website

Here's a list (dates and cities) of upcoming screenings. Jela, looks like you and Richard will have 2 opportunities to see it while you're in Austin for SXSW next month.

Upcoming screenings

But you can also purchase it on DVD:

Buy it here.

KarenZ

Karen thanks for passing that along...interesting.... and so very true!!

Folks,

I got the documentary on DVD and watched it last night. Really, really interesting stuff. Some of the artists interviewed who give their take on the current state of the music industry are Dave Matthews, Erykah Badu, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Les Paul and many others. One guy commented that music has gone from being an art to being a business. Similarly, one guy who "discovered" a terrific rock musician couldn't do much to help him when he was an executive in the record business but when he left that company and became an executive at ATO (I think that's Dave Matthews' label) he felt that he then became an executive in the music business. I could go on and on, but just get the DVD. The closest artist to an Ellis Paul who was interviewed was probably Steve Poltz (the guy who stumbled upon Jewel).....who demonstrated on the spot and on guitar that he knew what it would take to write a hit song for Britney Spears. When they showed a young 17-year old girl who could NOT sing making a music video...and a sound technician "fixing" her voice so that it didn't sound flat, I came close to losing it. Erykah Badu shared some pretty strong feelings...it was worth the cost of the DVD just to hear what she had to say.

KarenZ

Karen - that sounds like a greadt view...... and it is an issue that concerns artists across genres

We had a pretty long discussion about this a year or two ago on the Bryndle (Karla Bonoff, Kenny Edwards, Wendy Waldman, Andrew Gold) web site. Modern technology provides many tools for self production outside of the business world. The problem then becomes finding ways for users to separate the wheat from the chaff........