Submitted by Staff on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 17:13.
I propose a general rule of musician rewards: The amount of money you make from music is inversely correlated to the amount of social benefits you gain by playing it, assuming the level of competence is equal. Social benefits are groupies, friends who buy you drinks because you're in a cool band, the respect of bosses at work, being introduced as someone interesting at parties etc. - basically social status and access to sex.
Read Martin Regnen's latest column: What Do Musicians Play For?
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umm okay.
Okay, I think I might understand your argument a little better now. So you are arguing that the relationship between social acceptance and musical expression is extremely imbalanced? If so, then this essay makes a lot more sense now. It should be the highly-skilled musicians who should recieve more social acceptance and through that be more inspired to become better musicians and be more sought after by those who promote music to the masses. But this delves into the deeper issue that people are not exposed to better music as much as they are to pop-rap-hip hop- consumer driven music, so therefore the demand for intelligent music isn't as high. Thus, the imbalance occurs and we realize that this is just another symptom of a decaying society.
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -albert einstein