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

Quote from Guitartone

9.3 million views

I'm familiar with him. Seen a few of his videos. Never found any of them terribly compelling (I could watch Tim Pierce all day long). Paul has 3.25 million subscribers. Impressive. 9.3 million views on this video. Impressive. I don't consider Paul Davids to be any sort of Kemper heavy hitter that every Kemper owner would know who he was. I could probably find a few cat videos with similar view stats. I Googled "YouTube cat videos". First hit was 8.8 million views in 4 months (Paul's video has been up a year). The next one had 81 MILLION views but it had been up 6 years. But those cats cannot play "Smoke On The Water".

Quote from lbieber

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

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I don't listen to H.E.R. and am neither a fan nor critic. But based on the above post I went and listened to the YouTube of her Purple Rain solo. There was a comment in that YouTube that said "it’s like she doesn’t practice at all. It’s natural to her bruh." and I almost replied, "yes, it clearly sounds like she doesn't practice at all."

But, pop music is pop music, and there's a lot of stuff my my teen years that everyone went nuts over that listening to now makes you cringe. Such is the nature of art, particularly when there's a lot of marketing dollars behind it. The moment any artist decides they'd like to be paid, they enter the "machine." It's only a matter of degree after that. Do I wish there were more (or at least some) music companies run by musicians? Yes. But I also which many companies were run by "users" (hello cable, cell phone, etc.) who were more aligned with the customers.

Taylor Swift isn't my cup of tea, but I certainly tip my hat to her, her work ethic, her focus on the fans' experience, her generosity, and the almost immeasurable impact she's having on the business. I'd love to see her start a label that focused on the artists the way she wished she had been focused on by ol' Scooter. I think she has the industry juice to pull that off.

But, artists of all mediums have been screwed by the "machine" since the beginning of time (just ask Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Howlin' Wolf, etc.). But really that's no different than any industry where the creator is not in charge of the company selling the creation.

Quote from Nikos

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.

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Quote from Wheresthedug

I am sorry if my long winded response seems like I want to be argumentative. I actually totally agree with this. I didn’t mean to come across as lamenting the good old days or suggesting that anyone should down tools and surrender. Quite the opposite actually. I believe that the new technology offers opportunities for those that choose to embrace it and can develop strategies to exploit it as a means of getting their product to a target market. I chose the words Product and Market carefully and deliberately avoided ART and AUDIENCE as we are talking about professionals in the music BUSINESS who rely on music to pay the bills. For them it is definitely a business and needs to treated as such. Realising this and putting assign any pretensions of being an artiste is essential to finding a way to survive in the music business now as it always has been.

Your opinion is welcomed, valued and appreciation (by me at least 😎)

Not remotely argumentative my friend and no need to apologize whatsoever. I'm very grateful that you took the time to read my post and respond in such a gracious and thoughtful manner!

You make some excellent points, all of which I have taken on board and look forward to reading more. Hope to interact in future. All the best to you and yours!

Quote from Edward Dixon

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...

That's your opinion and not mine. I don't tell anyone what to think and if you can't see the difference....