Many of you may have read the article recently posted in the Music Feeds features, where Tool frontman, Maynard James Keenan spoke out about online piracy. There was one line that stood out amongst it all.
“It doesn’t seem like there’s as much, creatively, going on, ’cause most people can’t afford to do it.”
I don’t know about you, but I think that is a massive cop out. People can’t afford to get creative when it comes to making music? I’m pretty sure you can still make a great song with just a guitar and your voice. You can record a great album in your garage, without having to spend thousands hiring out Abbey Road Studios. If you don’t have maracas…throw some rice in an empty water bottle; it worked for Jonathan Boulet.
Home recording technology and software is becoming so readily available, what is stopping the average muso from recording all their material themselves? If Gorillaz can record an LP while touring, using just an iPad2, allowing them to distribute it for free because it cost them nothing, why can’t your average band do the same? To claim there is a lack of creativity in music and then to blame it on online piracy is pretty weak. Personally, I think is forces creativity because with so much music circulating around the internet, if you really want to stand out, you’ve got to push the bounds of creativity a lot further. We have a lot more technology available at our fingertips these days and recording capabilities, new instruments and sounds have become far more accessible to us, especially compared to when Tool first came into prominence.
I agree, there is a sense of entitlement that needs go but the idea that good music stems from big wallets does too. Creativity falls on the musician, not on how much fans spend on the albums, e.g. Madeon.
