First Impressions And Thoughts About 'The Man'

[SteveB]

Anyone who has seen the Film/Movie 'Rock School' will know about 'The Man'.
Anyone who has made a personal decision outside the Parental/Guardian Home will have come into contact with 'The Man'.
'The Man' can be dressed in a suit, or a pair of jeans, have a beard, or the best female figure on the planet. 'The Man' is everywhere. For our purposes it is only sufficient to state the one personality trait that 'The Man' almost certainly has, and that is a limited & depressing taste in music. How else can it be explained, that there appears across the media such a shortage of musical breadth and diversity, when just on this one Forum alone there is an untapped abundance of creative wealth? 

I have only been here a short time, and am frankly astounded at the sheer talent on display. Later in my Membership I hope that there could be in-depth analysis of the plethora of styles and influences on show here, but for now, I'll just mention quickly the first 6 contributory Artists on my personal BR-Community CD: From the BR-8: Beezer. Br-532: Makumbator. BR-864: Mikespi8. BR-1200: Pinedog. BR-600: Assassin. There's a honourable inclusion of 48s All Stars also. (If some of the contributed gems have passed you by, PLEASE, make time to pinpoint and listen to the Artists), I've not been to all the individual MP3 Child Boards as yet, and obviously I've only as yet skimmed the superficial layer of some of the others (Just not enough hours in the day), not that I'm ignoring the Micro-BR, but the navigation of the other threads was less problematic than those possibly encountered among such a potential flowing stream of talent. Nor am I ingnoring some of the indivdual performances by other Artists on the Forum. Their time will come.

But the question is: How has 'The Man' missed all this? How can the music buying & listening public of the World be so badly-served, when there is so much abundance?

And so, in a Musical-Experience sense, what are your thoughts on 'The Man'?

[Bro]

How do you define the man? In musical sense? Thats really what's on my mind? Is the music downloader, the guy who downloads music illegal instead of buying the cds? Is it the evil record company? Maybe thats more a myth. As far as I'm concerned there is no man in music. Thats what i like about it so much. I hope that was something you wanted to hear.

[Bluesberry]

What a question Steve, you are a character, and I mean that in the nicest way.  "The Man" hu?  When I think of this concept I always think about in the Great Sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick way, the "Black Iron Prison" that we all live in.  Most don't even notice of course, but those that do know what it is really going on are forced to watch what they say so they don't get noticed.  In that example "the Man" is probably the prison guards that watch over us and make sure that we don't escape, and more importantly, don't even notice our fate.  The Black Iron Prison keeps all our thoughts and emotions mundane, the music we listen to and art we see cannot contain too much truth or else we would all want to bust out.  It is like the lead character (portrayed by Jack Nichlolson) in One flew over the cuckoos nest.  Or Patrick McGoohan in "The Prisoner", those guys knew the truth (everyone around them was happy to let "The Man" direct what they thought and felt and experienced),  but they couldn't do too much about it or they would get silenced, they had to work within the Black Iron Prison system and try to bring about awareness in others slowly, bit by bit, always at their own peril.  But of course I tend to have a paranoid overactive imagination (my wife tells me anyway), so who really knows.  I feel the need to get a few red ales now after this thread.

[SteveB]

BB - Well, you certainly seem to be aware of 'The Man' and have questioned his malign influence. However, perhaps a Forum-clarification is needed, and I'll try to answer JHX's enquiry. Do you have a television show entitled 'Denmark's Got Talent'? or 'Denmark's X-Factor'? or any variation on this theme? Well, 'The Man' will undoubtedly will be involved in those.
'The Man' will stand in the way of you getting the exposure you need for you and your group (should you have one), because a new Boy-Band has been produced and the advertisers will be pumped to favour these in the shows on television, rather than you by 'The Man'.
'The Man' is the one who has missed ALL the talent being displayed on this (and no doubt other) Forum(s), so that yet another Spice Girls' can be programmed to make money and dominate the airwaves. That is 'The Man' in our musical sense.

[Bro]

Oh then i get it! We have got X-Factor in denmark too. I meet the man everyday at work, when listening to a radio channel called "nova fm". A horrible horrible station that only plays the most electronic pop music. I hate it. They cut out all from of instrument solos or so. And i am absolutely disgusted by knowing that i have to go around making 10 dollars a hour, while listening to the man, infecting teenagers, like me, minds with bad music. Bad music which the man calls the "hottest hits" or some sort of nonsense. I hate that Radio Station.

[SteveB]

JHX - There you are, you know 'The Man'.

A couple of other pointers: 'The Man' (Who is sexless and nameless), cannot play a musical instrument, and cannot have been an Artist.

Someone has enquired as to how old I am in relation to some of the lyrics I wrote down in 'Everyone's Writing Process'- I was harping on about a Retirement Town.
Well, in the legal UK sense I'm still many years from retirement, but that's just the thing, isn't it. Artists' never retire. Your brain won't let you. You will stop being an Artist after your final breath, and then your work will live on.
If you are a guitar player, you simply cannot walk past a guitar without stopping and wanting to either look or play the instrument, and that will apply to all musicians' and their respective instruments. And so 'The Man' cannot have been a 'true' Artist, because, even though we may all at some time feel a little envious of other Artists' and their work, this can spur us on to create better from within ourselves, and we feel a sense of pride for belonging to the same endeavour as the more successful. And that sense of wanting produce better work doesn't stop because you've reached the top rung of the ladder - Paul McCartney once said that there was a particular Beach Boys' song that he wished he'd written. Howz about that, eh?

The Thread title speaks of 'First Impressions', and that is meant in a Forum sense. What have been your first thoughts on arriving and being accepted here. Well, certainly my first impression has been one of amazement, that all these wonderful songs and pieces of music have been overlooked somehow by 'The Man'. And then some disgust that this is so.

One note on the Artist choice I placed in my opener. There's no one from the BR1600, or the BR900 Child Board either. It is not that you are not inherently marvellous, but I just haven't been able to give you the listenings you require to form a firm opinion. I like to take a single track by someone and give it several listenings, to try and understand what the Artist is doing and what they're trying to say. If you are the type of person who can buy a commercial CD and after one complete playing know everything about all the tracks, then you earn my undying admiration, I simply can't function like that. And so no doubt my BR-Community Personal CD will be added to over time. That's if 'The Man' doesn't get in the way.

[Davo]

Maybe "The Man" is just a reflection on us.  Since Hes everywhere.

[SteveB]

Maybe "The Man" is just a reflection on us.  Since Hes everywhere.

DVO - Well that is a point-of-view that has been expressed in the past by others', so you're certainly not alone in your opinion. Personally I hope not, but who knows..?

[Bro]

Maybe "The Man" is just a reflection on us.  Since Hes everywhere.

A short bit creative answer. Maybe your right. The man might just be a reflection on what we want. Something bad so we know whats good? A something we know to always go against, to be our selfs. Newer saw it that way!

[Davo]

The salty veteran musicians of the music industry are well aquainted.  Who's "The Man" here?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBaxRYGtrkI