Atlanta Business Consulting | Keeping Music Minimal | Twelve ...

I tend not to watch music award shows much anymore. It seems over the years, they?ve gone from great musical acts kicking butt with some bright lights to overly produced and tightly scripted shows that appear to be more artistic and creative, but they?re not.

Music in and of itself is art. If it?s great, it doesn?t need a big production around it.

Two of the best concerts I have seen in my lifetime as an Eric Clapton concert and a Robert Cray concert. No fancy light shows. No opening acts. Just two artists playing music for nearly 2 hours and blowing it up.

Don?t get me wrong. I?ve been to shows there the production value is high. I saw AC/DC and they rolled out actual cannons when playing ?For Those About To Rock? and had a huge bell go out over the audience when they played ?Hells Bells.? Iron Maiden had spectacular pyrotechnics and big mechanical versions of their mascot ?Eddie? walking around. But those shows also featured musicians playing their guts out.

How many times have you watched a music act on an awards show today and just know that it?s lip synced? This example has been debated, but I think there is lip syncing going on. Still, the fact that it needs debate is just odd. Here?s Katy Perry from the 2012 Grammy Awards:

There was no doubt at all however about Chris Brown?s performance. Total lip sync:

Now let?s step back in time to 1991. Arsenio Hall was cool late night talk show host and as such, was asked to host the MTV Video Music Awards. Let?s take a look at two young stars at the time. First up, Mariah Carey. She was only 21:

And a young LL Cool J. He was only 23 and just killed it with ?Momma Said Knock You Out?:

Want to rock? Same awards show. Van Halen with Eddie Van Halen starting things off with his guitar?and a drill:

Granted, not everybody takes the easy way out. Adele tore it up during the Grammy Awards as did the Foo Fighters. In fact Dave Grohl called out the other ?artists? who seem to be more concerned about everything being just right. When accepting the award for Best Rock Performance he said:

?To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of music is what?s important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that?s the most important thing for people to do.

It?s not about being perfect, it?s not about sounding absolutely correct, it?s not about what goes on in a computer. It?s about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head].?

Spot on.

And here is the real problem, and it?s not just a part of the music world (in a sense, I wouldn?t even say it was the musical world as much as it is the music business world) and the overall business world:

We are afraid to take risks.

We have become so scared of making a mistake or failing at something. Our culture has taught us to play it safe as much as possible. But where does that get us?

If we choose not to step outside of our comfort zone and risk failure, we are never going to rise above mediocrity with our art or our work.

20 years ago, a 21 year old singer and a 23 year old hip hop artist took to the stage and gave it 110% with no use of auto-tuning, not a huge spectacular stage show and no fear of failure. The result was the art of music at its best.

About Jay Caruso

I am a photographer and businessman living in the Atlanta, Georgia area. I can help with your company branding through the use of photography as well as SEO, social media marketing and business consulting.

Source: http://www.twelvestonescreative.com/minimal-music/

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