There's nothing more ego-deflating than sitting with somebody you know is talented and telling them:
"look, you need to write a love song. Psychoanalytical shit about how the planets align with the sun and the Age of Aquarius will come and your Ras Kass-like verse about human history spit in triplets or whatever other bullshit you're saying in this first verse is not going to give us a return on investement. Just rhyme 'love' with 'above'. Say 'kiss' with 'miss.' You will fucking sell."
They dumb it down the chorus to: "Girl we can be together, blahblah forever."
It sells, you make an ROI. Rapper lives with himself and an empty soul for the rest of his life. Rapper gets paid and you get a return on investment.
A Faustian bargain. Welcome to the music business.
I do get completely where you are coming from and it stands undeniably true from a business standpoint. I see similarities in the film business because both industries sell to the exact same customer base.
Teen Comedy / Romantic Comedy - A relatively cheap cookie cutter format of movie but girls love em and their boyfriends get no pussy if they don't come along causing big sales and a return on investment.... Pop Music?
In the film and television industry the way they put it basically is "We get paid to entertain people". The majority of movie goers (the exact same people I'd imagine qualify as typical music listeners) don't give a shit that every movie they see has a rigid formula. Things like high contrast lighting, composition, homage, dutch angles and all the shop talk are wasted on their ears. They can't appreciate what makes it great all they care about is weather they liked it or not... "Man Batman was fucking awsome remember when..."
The filmmakers who do it for the art face similar problems as musicians. People who know and can appreciate the difficulty of the craft can draw more from the work than what appears on the surface. Much like many of us on this forum can draw more from a song than Joe Music Fan can. "What the fuck is this shit... man play that Kanye CD again... that's REAL music yo".
I think the real ego buster is that if you choose to be more of an "artists" artist and end up going over most peoples heads (not even intentionally) you get thrown in the same trash can just as quick as "Teddy Bangers" producer extraordinaire who's been makin' "heat" on his psp for 2 weeks. Even tho skill wise it's a pitbull VS a bacon wrapped chawawa the average music fan still won't like you all because they simply can't relate.
...
I do like this discussion even tho it's straying off topic and it will be interesting to gain some first hand experience when I finally do get this project out. In the end I could just be a terrible novice producer and have to watch it crash and burn. However, it is my first release and even if I have to look back on it as a failed attempt at least I didn't spend 20 years locked up in a basement making the perfect album nobody gets to hear.
