Career Opportunities

So, you know when banking institutions gamble and lose their money, only to grovel to their pet buddies in government to get every Tom, Dick and Harry taxpayer to help get them back on their feet, made ever more honest and genuine by threats to up sticks and take their business to some other economy that would treat friends like that or when labour intensive companies that cut thousands of jobs in the name of cost efficiency and smart spending, people get outraged?

Why wouldn’t they? What majority percentage of a population enjoys having their hard earned cash going to a minority who consider themselves above the law and legislation of government because of the services they provide, ballsing up more often than not, yet somehow indispensably necessary to the day to day function of our nation.

Retribution for those who find themselves in the cross hairs of such actions are well documented to us in this day and age of digital communications. Current technology allows the voice of those affected to be heard over the fingers-in-ears-la-la-la-ing of what old media sources, good pals of the not so good guys, would rather have you be aware of, but the extent kept hushed.

From coal workers to teachers, nursing staff to bus drivers, dissatisfaction with potential action that could harm their sectors has never been easier to be heard, opinions voiced, criticism aired.

However one industrial sector continues to pass under the radar of the majority of those who like to deem themselves champions of justice, a sector that most would scoff at when claims of knowing what it really feels like to be bent over taken to brown town, independent musicians.

Some may consider this a laughable claim that essentially boils down to an overly ambitious hobby not following the path laid down like in big budget, success story movies. Balls to those small-minded individuals.

For the last twenty years, children have had it ground into their every waking thought that any career path is possible, all they have to do is apply themselves. As kids grow up and decide that a career as a lawyer is far easier a choice to pursue than becoming Spiderman, a number decide that desks aren’t for them, using their hands, instincts, loves, passions and inner most thoughts though are and the acts that make them happiest most is producing music.

Where once packing out an East London pub every Saturday night, forging a miniature riot each time would once have been sufficient grounds for a record deal as the music was new and innovative, music consumers would nowadays much rather listen see what aspiring, inspirational ‘singer’ the X Factor spits out this week.

Disregard for small time musicians is all but apparent if you took the time to talk to those trying to pursue a career in something they love and want nothing more to do than build on that one true idea.

Knowing a few local musicians, hearing the horror stories about how bands can be treated in their earliest stages can strike up wonders of how these people managed to pass through being offered a gig opportunity only if they bring an audience of X amount and ensure the bar sales meet a minimum quota.

Venues friendly to these independent artists are far more lenient, but on the whole, to get to such a level, hundreds if not thousands of artists with talent and desires to try something different find the harsh reality that unless you bring in the orange and purple notes, you don’t have a chance.

The most recent abhorrently obnoxious and obvious FUCK YOU to musicians has come from the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) who are responsible for preparing for the imminent Olympic games, making it a policy not to pay any musicians under any circumstance and instead further add insults to injury by claiming the exposure they will receive for playing on a number of stages and occasions throughout the festivities will be payment enough.

How is it even a fathomable idea to openly approach a professional, even small time musician and, I’m paraphrasing here, say:

“Hey, we love what you do, we would really like to put you on a stage in front of a global audience to show this is Britain, this is what we do. Oh, payment? What on earth do you need money for when performing to such a potentially vast audience would undoubtedly supply you with the revenue you seek at a later date”.

When teachers and bus drivers kick up a stink at their pensions being shrunk, its six o’clock headlines, but when a musician shouts how their very lively hood is being threatened, no one bats an eye lid.

Are musicians sub-human? Is that how we as a society have grown to see those who are the driving force behind shifts in musical directions from a position that would never be acknowledged or accredited as the general scope of a new sound isn’t marketable as a whole, while certain aspects if broken down and reconstituted in the guise of a record label produced heart throb work?

Do these people not need food, shelter and other amenities in a world becoming increasingly more expensive? Independent artists already work harder to succeed than any mug who swans in front of Simon Cowell with a sob story about a pet dog who inspired them to become as popular as Justin Bieber.

The trend seems to be that people respect profit, not talent nowadays. Where auto tune and a computer programs can create an overnight star, shadowing the skills and trade accumulated from years of bedroom strumming, smashing and plucking, eventually upgrading to critical heckles and threats of forever remaining nothing.

It saddens me to think that in a world where rich men can be rewarded for losing billions and corporations lauded for increasing profits by laying off lifelong employees, those who seek to offer something new, different, fresh are left in the gutter, expected to be overjoyed at the scraps they receive and lambasted for asking for the most basic of amenities that the donors themselves have no problem surrounding themselves with, money.