As 2018 draws to a close, here are 10 big myths that some people (mostly old farts) like to keep repeating. I hope you like them.
1. There will never be another Rush 2112 (or insert other big deep album title here). Several years ago, I wrote that there would never be another Rush 2112, because no one would be able to afford to park themselves in a recording studio for months at a time. Boy was I wrong! I just watched an interview with Alex Lifeson and Terry Brown, and Alex said that Rush wrote 2112 while out on the road, in the car, in the van, during sound checks, etc. In other words, they had to do their “day job” (of being a touring band) and they squeezed in time for writing music when they could.
Sound familiar?
Also, Rush didn’t spend months recording the album – they spent 4 weeks. Fly By Night took 2 weeks. Rush would later go on to spend months in studios, once they were huge. But 2112 was a massively important Prog Rock album.
2. Vinyl is making a huge comeback. No, it really isn’t. Vinyl sales have increased in recent years because vinyl is now a special collectable. But vinyl sales are still very, very small. No one is going to run out and buy hundreds of $20 vinyl records unless they’re old and very wealthy. Vinyl is neat, but streaming is crushing everything else and like it or not, streaming is the future.
2. Records sound better than CDs. This can sometimes be true, but not for the reasons people think. Technically, the record is an inferior format. I wrote a big post on this. If you want to start getting into vinyl, I have a suggestion – get a stereo compressor and a 10 band stereo graphic eq, and stick them on your CD player. Then tweak away. In no time you’ll have that CD sounding as good or better than that record.
3. The guitar as an instrument is dead. The guitar is the most popular instrument in the world. Guitar-based music does not dominate radio like it used to. But it sure dominates some styles of music. The public’s taste in music is sort of like an 8 year old at the candy store. They want the easy sugary stuff. Hence disco. There was a time when big bands ruled the radio, but that went away in the 50’s and never came back. But people still play those instruments. And those instruments still have a huge role in many other styles of music (ska, jazz, and so on.)
4. You can’t make a living in the new music business. Tell that to Rob Chapman. Hell, it’s always been hard. The difference between 1979 and now is that there aren’t any gatekeepers. In 1979, to make a living in the music biz meant working at a music store, giving lessons, repairing instruments, doing gigs, and anything else you could think of. Not much has changed, except that now the gigs are fewer and don’t pay as much, and you can have a worldwide following online for practically no money.
5. All of the music today sucks compared to back when I was a lad. Get offa my lawn, ya damn kids! This lie is as old as the hills. My parents listened to Andy Williams and Perry Como. They thought the same thing about the bands I liked (Genesis, Rush, etc.) My grandparents listened to big bands. This never changes – modern music isn’t written for old farts. And yet it is. Love classic rock? Check out Phil X and the Drills. They’re awesome.
6. You can’t make good music by yourself. THIS one is still being repeated over and over. The theory is that you can’t master every instrument by yourself, so you should form a band. Or you can’t write good songs without a bunch of other musicians telling you what to change. Or something. I’ve never been sure. Did Mozart need string and brass players to write their own parts? Or Beethoven? Did you know that Paul McCartney was probably a better drummer than Ringo was? If you want to be solo, there has never been a better time. Yes, it’s harder, but it’s going to become the new thing. In EMD, it already has. I’m not dissing being in a band, because that’s fun as hell with the right people. But people say you HAVE to be in a band. No, you don’t.
7. It’s easy to be a bass player. Ha ha ha ha! This is another old one. It’s easy to play a simple bass line, yes. But to be a good bass player, you need a lot more than that. Every guitarist thinks they can play bass. Then they record a bass line, and the volume of each note is all over the place and there’s no groove. It’s challenging to be a really good bass player.
8. We were better off in the past before the Internet because people still bought music. But… where you? The only people who sold enough music to make a living were the people who got past the gate keepers. Was that you? It wasn’t most of the people I know. Yes, the music business didn’t see the Internet coming, and it closed a lot of companies. If you want to debate capitalism, this isn’t the blog. The vast majority of people never got a recording contract. Of the people who did, the majority of them never made any real money. It was only the cream that rose to the top that made out. Most people who made a living in music were selling or fixing instruments, or giving lessons, etc.
9. Super huge vintage 100 watt tube amps or really old Fenders are the only way to get a superior tone. Sheesh. Almost no one is buying 100 watt amps, because they only really work in a stadium setting. Most people who buy them aren’t cranking them up. Modern tube amps sound great. There’s so much BS about guitar tones. In reality, the guitars you’re hearing on modern songs could be anything from a modern Fender to a vintage Fender to a Helix and you likely won’t be able to tell the difference inside the track.
10. Vintage guitars sound soooo much better than modern guitars. No, they don’t. They might feel nice to play because they’re been worn in, like a baseball glove, but there’s no actual magic in the old wood. Some old guitars sound amazing and some sound like ass. Just like the new ones. A state of the art Ernie Ball is going to be a much better instrument that almost anything Fender ever cranked out of their factory, because the tolerances are so good on the high end instruments. We sure do love the old stuff, don’t we? But in reality, as cool as a 50’s Strat is, if you take off the logo, most people would say it’s a cool old guitar worth maybe a couple of grand because it’s old. The guitar is a tool. It’s what you do with it that makes the magic, not the age of the tool. Side note – yes, a vintage guitar can inspire you to play new things. So can a really expensive modern guitar, or a great looking guitar, or a guitar owned by a famous person. We’re just talking facts here, not placebo effect, which admittedly can be a real thing.
Yup, I do have strong opinions. But I like being an old guy who understands the new rules. This is an awesome time to be making music, and things will probably continue to improve as technology levels the playing field. It used to be that money kept people from making the music in their head. Now that’s mostly not true. The cream will eventually rise to the top.
