I'm sure every Kemper user has watched this Paul David's video?

Quote from Terrapin

I really don’t get the point of the OP’s post, particularly on this forum. Perhaps I’m wrong, but surely people here (on the private forum) have already purchased and are using the product. Maybe he is simply plugging the content creator for some reason.

The title, “I’m sure every Kemper user has watched this video” prefaced with “9.3 Million Views” is somewhat baffling. If he is sure that “Every Kemper user has watched the video, then why post it here? What is the motive?

This. Reminds me of a stupid comment from a woman i used to work with. She said you don't like Michel Jackson? He sold millions of records. Me: So what?

Quote from Ruefus

The hate leveled at people you have absolutely no clue about is amazing.

Taylor Swift has written or co-written *every* song in her catalog. She was getting paid for songwriting at 14 and has 12 Grammies.

H.E.R. has 5 Grammies AND an Academy Award for best original song. Which she wrote.

Industry puppet?

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

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So what does grammies and academy award mean? Prizes are bs no matter if it's music, film, sport etc.

Quote from GearJocke

So what does grammies and academy award mean? Prizes are bs no matter if it's music, film, sport etc.

Fine. Ignore the awards and assume it's all garbage. A convenient dodge, but fine.

Taylor Swift has been getting paid for her songwriting since she was *14*. Every song in her catalog is hers or co-written with her....and people listen to and buy them consistently. Fans pay extortionate amounts to see her live, which is something she has railed against time and again.

H.E.R. has been a professional performer since the age of 10, writes her own songs, plays 5 instruments and earned platinum, gold and silver records. At 26.

Like them, don't like them. It doesn't matter. Suggesting these artists are somehow worthless because you aren't aware of them, they dress funny, operate in an exploitative industry or don't conform to the 'correct' way to go about it is crap. It's music and it makes (other) people happy. Why hate on it?

Quote from V8guitar

I reject the whole "huge machine planning everything in the background". The music industry was and always is a business, not a charity. No one pretends otherwise. It doesn't exist to promote music, it exists to make money - and in fact so do many artists. The basis behind any company.

Sure. But in the past they could be patient and let bands grow slowly and some of them made it and a very few made it really big. Music business became only about the money and nothing else. So they killed the business themself. I remember when Neil Young got fired from Geffen records late 80s I believe. The reason? He didn't make enough commercial hit songs. He replied I have never written a commercial hit song. With a business only concerned about the money no one is willing to take risk. They want the new new kids on the block, the new nirvana, new....fill in. We see the same in the movie world. Take a risk a make something new? Nah lets do a remake instead. So the question is how many of todays hit songs will be remembered 50 years from now? How many of of them will be remembered 10 years from now? Or even 1-5 years from now?

Quote from Ruefus

... Why hate on it?

I have heard that great minds discuss ideas and concepts, average minds talk about places and things, and small minds talk about other people.

Quote from Ruefus

Fine. Ignore the awards and assume it's all garbage. A convenient dodge, but fine.

Taylor Swift has been getting paid for her songwriting since she was *14*. Every song in her catalog is hers or co-written with her....and people listen to and buy them consistently. Fans pay extortionate amounts to see her live, which is something she has railed against time and again.

H.E.R. has been a professional performer since the age of 10, writes her own songs, plays 5 instruments and earned platinum, gold and silver records. At 26.

Like them, don't like them. It doesn't matter. Suggesting these artists are somehow worthless because you aren't aware of them, they dress funny, operate in an exploitative industry or don't conform to the 'correct' way to go about it is crap. It's music and it makes (other) people happy. Why hate on it?

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Yes all awards are garbage. I don't care if a band have sold millions of records or if I'm the only fan. Music is an art. Period. I wouldn't watch a award even if all my fav bands would be nominated and won. I couldn't care less and all the silly thanks for the prize and and thank you....and thank you...and....yawn.... zzzzzzzz

Why do you take it as an personal attack on your musical taste? You can like her and taylor how much you want. No one have said anything else.

Quote from GearJocke

Sure. But in the past they could be patient and let bands grow slowly and some of them made it and a very few made it really big. Music business became only about the money and nothing else. So they killed the business themself. I remember when Neil Young got fired from Geffen records late 80s I believe. The reason? He didn't make enough commercial hit songs. He replied I have never written a commercial hit song. With a business only concerned about the money no one is willing to take risk. They want the new new kids on the block, the new nirvana, new....fill in. We see the same in the movie world. Take a risk a make something new? Nah lets do a remake instead. So the question is how many of todays hit songs will be remembered 50 years from now? How many of of them will be remembered 10 years from now? Or even 1-5 years from now?

Such cynicism.....identical to our parents....their parents and their parents....and.......

Everyone has a soundtrack to their lives. These songs will be remembered just fine by the people listening to them now that find belonging, comfort or joy in them.

Quote from GearJocke

Yes all awards are garbage. I don't care if a band have sold millions of records or if I'm the only fan. Music is an art. Period. I wouldn't watch a award even if all my fav bands would be nominated and won. I couldn't care less and all the silly thanks for the prize and and thank you....and thank you...and....yawn.... zzzzzzzz

Why do you take it as an personal attack on your musical taste? You can like her and taylor how much you want. No one have said anything else.

See that's the thing.....Where have I said I like Taylor Swift or H.E.R.?

GearJocke

I find it extremely ironic that your signature line says "Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

Henry David Thoreau" and you seem very insistent on pushing your views to others. Thanks for the laugh...

I think the Grammys are rigged anyway, and have been for a long time. I give no kudos to how many you have. After all, EVH only got one for 'Rock Performance'. HER and Taylor Swift got more? It's a joke.

Quote from GearJocke

Sure. But in the past they could be patient and let bands grow slowly and some of them made it and a very few made it really big. Music business became only about the money and nothing else. So they killed the business themself. I remember when Neil Young got fired from Geffen records late 80s I believe. The reason? He didn't make enough commercial hit songs. He replied I have never written a commercial hit song. With a business only concerned about the money no one is willing to take risk. They want the new new kids on the block, the new nirvana, new....fill in. We see the same in the movie world. Take a risk a make something new? Nah lets do a remake instead. So the question is how many of todays hit songs will be remembered 50 years from now? How many of of them will be remembered 10 years from now? Or even 1-5 years from now?

I know what you are saying and, of course there have been some record companies/film studios that allowed artists to grow but even before the 80's they were in the minority.

The entertainment business has been about money since the beginning of time.

Tin Pan Alley songwriters used to clock in office hours and write songs all day to fulfil quotas not to make great art.

Hollywood film studios had actors under contract and churned out films weekly like soaps on TV now. Some of them are now regarded as classics most are forgotten.

We all tend to look back at our own youth or early adulthood and see it through rose tinted glasses. I'm sure we can all remember our parents and grand parents complaining that the stuff we loved was just noise. They said with conviction that nobody would be listening to it or talking about it in 50 years, 10 year, 5 years etc.

Van Halen 1 isn't that far off 50 years old and the previous generation thought it was just noise that wouldn't last. The Beatles Please Please Me is 60 years old and people said it was just a fad at the time.

There were plenty of mediocre acts around the time of both of these and record companies were turning out sound a likes to capitalise on the trend.

The first mass produced manufactured boy bands and girl groups were probably the Motown stable. Some of them were average but very well produced. Some of them were amazing artists. Motown in the 60's was only interested in churning out hits.

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

Quote from Wheresthedug

Regardless of the reasons, I think you would be hard pushed to find many artists that have a viable income stream from physical CD or Vinyl sales alone.

Hmmm... I think that has been the case for many decades. The record company gave you an advance, which was both your salary for the album(s) the contract covered, and also for studio rental, paying producers, mixers, recording engineers... Marketing... bla bla bla...

Royalties are then used to pay back that advance, and only once that advance was paid out did you receive any royalties for sales from that point on.

I will say that the worst happened due to file sharing (Napster etc), which caused the record companies to consolidate around the "sure hits", as opposed to spending some of their budget on more "risky" artists.

Quote from Wheresthedug

I know what you are saying and, of course there have been some record companies/film studios that allowed artists to grow but even before the 80's they were in the minority.

The entertainment business has been about money since the beginning of time.

Tin Pan Alley songwriters used to clock in office hours and write songs all day to fulfil quotas not to make great art.

Hollywood film studios had actors under contract and churned out films weekly like soaps on TV now. Some of them are now regarded as classics most are forgotten.

We all tend to look back at our own youth or early adulthood and see it through rose tinted glasses. I'm sure we can all remember our parents and grand parents complaining that the stuff we loved was just noise. They said with conviction that nobody would be listening to it or talking about it in 50 years, 10 year, 5 years etc.

Van Halen 1 isn't that far off 50 years old and the previous generation thought it was just noise that wouldn't last. The Beatles Please Please Me is 60 years old and people said it was just a fad at the time.

There were plenty of mediocre acts around the time of both of these and record companies were turning out sound a likes to capitalise on the trend.

The first mass produced manufactured boy bands and girl groups were probably the Motown stable. Some of them were average but very well produced. Some of them were amazing artists. Motown in the 60's was only interested in churning out hits.

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

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I totally agree and highlights my point better than I could.

If anyone thinks that the music industry used to be about art but has somehow changed, its plain incorrect, its always been business. What has changed to access to music and distribution - notably MP3 helped enable sharing of music and arguably killed the album. Youtube killed MTV...video killed the radiostar ( oops song reference there).

Is anyone saying there is no good music out there? If you use pop music as your reference then you are missing so much stuff.

Pop music has always been pop music and cutting edge music will always exist.

My main contention though with the previous comments is the conspiracy theory that there is some collaboration to direct the musical direction of the genres - no evidence and does not reflect reality - if that was the case, I agree they haven't done a very good job!

Money drives most things, that is reality. We can moan about it but it makes no difference.

Whilst I tend to agree awards aren't a perfect measure of good music, stating they have no relevance is again throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Quincy Jones and Stevie Wonder both have won many Grammy's - anyone want to say they are not great musicians? I'm sure we can point to crappy ones as well but it doesn't make it meaningless, just not absolute. If music is only art, then it is purely subjective and no ones views are relevant. Great...then there is no crap music..

We can all take the high ground that we are artists and should not be swayed by money or awards, but given the choice I'd love to earn a living out of music and be recognized for it.

I embrace the changes and I feel its mainly positive.

One of the first hard knock lessons that I learnt when I first went on the road was: "You can't please everyone and not everyone will like you". So many times I was heart broken because some people didn't seem to like me. Now I mostly ignore the haters.

Its a hard pill to swallow but if you can't put that through your head you will never survive the "Music Machine or life itself" and you will get into a lot of fights that can be prevented.

Not everyone thinks like you, some of us might agree some might disagree but I will still respect your opinion even if I don't agree.

By the way Taylor Swift is beautiful, amazingly talented and fearless to go on stage with bands like Def Leppard and many more. Some times its a good thing to give credit where credit is due instead of being a hater.

And now I'm going to go grab a beer and sit back with my guitar and dream of being on stage with bands like Def Leppard. cheers...

I believe this post has derailed itself and no longer has a purpose. But I'm not in charge so I'll just sit back with my popcorn/beer and enjoy the show.

I've seen some changes in the music business over the years.

Big Joe Williams very special

9 string gibson mod

who needs a luthier anyway?

That vibrato on purple rain just made my cat bleeding out of her ears..Seriously..

I don't want to pick on HER, but I pick at my own playing so it is somehow fair.

Made my ears bleed too. I have a particular dislike for what I call nervous vibrato. Makes me think the player isn't really listening, but just going through the motions. I've always wondered why guitarists can't figure out that the speed of the vibrato should somehow be aligned with the tempo of the song. Habitual vibrato is all too common and not pleasant to listen to.

Purple Rain solo with the notes that were blatantly out of key. Then the amateurish pentatonics that don't follow the chord sequence. The sequence in that song provides so many target notes, yet she hit almost none on her own. Although, she did hit some when she aped some of the Prince parts of the solo.

So, not playing her ass off IMO. She seems to be a creative songwriter and a gifted singer. Wish I had that vocal talent. Needs a lot of work on the guitar.

I heard her mention that she liked the Lucite guitar cause it showed off her outfit. And Fender stated that they made her the sig strat because she is a guitar influencer. That's interesting language that I interpret as a subtle back-handed compliment.

To be clear, I am not criticizing her out of hand. I listened and I read. My $0.02

Exactly. I don't know her songs. Also Taylor swift..not my thing..

But if something is not good..it is not good!

I don't like this "yea but she has a million fans and 10 Grammys and you are only jealous"-kind of thing. This is not valid. Or any porn actress with their "million clicks & fans" is a better actor than any nameless but talented actors in the small little but precious theaters I know.

Enough with this BS. This goes to long.

As I said.. I don't know HER and I don't care about Taylor Swift. They may deserve everything they have... just leave this "they are famous and everything they do is class"-thing out of this.

talking about vibrato and master class ..

RIP Bernie Mardsen.

Honey and gold for the ears no more..