I love REAL music and REAL musicians!

OK, so a lazy Saturday morning watching the MTV EMA nominees for Best Live Act got me thinking. Scary, huh?

I love some of the nominees; Bon Jovi, Muse, Kings of Leon etc. Still not sure about Lady GaGa though as I am (and always will be) a rocker at heart. I saw the Jovi at the O2 in London in June of this year and nothing can compare to a group of talented rockers getting over 20,000 people bouncing up and down to Livin' On  A Prayer! Probably why they are getting the first MTV Global Icon award! OK, enough hero worship...on to the blog.

I love REAL music. Now when I say real music, I am talking about music that is played...on a guitar, on a bass, on drums, on keyboards, on a harp, whatever it takes. I am not partial to all of this auto-tune out there and remixes, samples and drum machines. To be absolutely honest, I can't stand all that crap. OK, the band I play and sing in use a laptop for drum and bass, but that is because we don't actually have a drummer or a bass player. It is in this case, a necessary evil and other bands we have played with have commented that we need a real drummer. I would love us to have a real drummer and bass player. Any takers? LOL.

I was watching my step-son show me the preview of Rockband 3 on the xBox today also. It has support for a cheap (maybe not so cheap as it is Fender who designed it) plastic guitar that can do "real" chord progressions and has strings. Now my step-son is thinking this is really cool and I really do appreciate that these games are getting our kids in to music. But here's the question....is it getting them in to REAL music? Nothing can replace playing live to a crowd. Whether it is one man and a dog or 60,000 in a stadium. You get a reaction, always. You cannot replace the true mechanism of picking up a REAL guitar and playing it. My left (fretting) hand now always has callouses on the fingers through playing and practice. I can't see that happening on an xBox. When you get up on stage to play live with that strange feeling in the pit of your stomach. You won't get that in front of an xBox.

What I am trying to say here is that REAL music should be shared. Not played in front of a TV screen through a games console. My step-son took a few guitar lessons and I tried to help him but because the right sounds weren't immediately apparent and it took a lot of work to get them right and there were things like technique, posture and practice every night, it just didn't happen. Now I am not blaming my step-son here, I am blaming a whole society who seem to want everything NOW. Playing a real guitar properly can take years and years. I have only been playing for 4 years and it is bloody hard work to get it right. Right down to getting the finger pressure right, avoiding fret buzz and the like. You won't experience any of that on a games console! Take the likes of Santana, Clapton, Sambora and Gilmour. All guitar legends but they have become legends over decades and I bet they will all still say they are STILL learning. 

I would much rather see the young kids get REAL guitars and REAL drum kits and set up in a garage and make loads of noise until they get it right. Bon Jovi started out like that in Sayreville, New Jersey over 25 years ago. It is REAL, and more importantly, has true soul. It builds up friendships and camaraderie that you just don't get on gaming consoles. It involves REAL people doing something REAL.

You have to work damn hard to be a REAL musician. I will never be as famous as the likes of the Jovi and I would be more than happy to get a millionth of their fame and adulation but I am willing to work hard with REAL guitars, REAL vocals and songs I have written. Not samples of other peoples work, nor covers. I love doing covers with the band though. But in that environment, we are celebrating the original artists and having fun playing music we love by REAL artists that we love.

We are at risk of moving in to a musical world of mediocrity where people copy others and plagiarise other people's material. We are also and risk of removing the road that young people need to take to become REAL musicians. The xBox being a prime example. Shows like the X-Factor are also at fault. They work the other way by encouraging people with zero talent to think that they have. I applaud the contestants on these shows who ARE talented, but Wagner? Please, give me a break. I have seen more musical talent in a house brick. Simon Cowell does know talent when he sees it but all he goes for now are viewing figures. Why do you think the likes of Wagner and Jedward get through to the final rounds? So that people watch it on TV! Also, Mr Cowell exploits those poor contestants who are good. you can now download their live performances. The artist gets 0.01p per download. That is just cruel. You can guess where the rest of the money goes right? Isn't it about time Cowell and Walsh put their money in to festivals and live venues that are going down the pan right now due to the economy, instead of lining their pocket's? The public would love it and they would still get to see live acts who they could sign? Surely a better model to work to? I'll let you decide.

Bon Jovi are up for an MTV EMA Best Live Act award and are getting the first MTV Global Icon award. Bon Jovi rarely get awards because they are quite often not the music press favourites for some weird reason. Now after 25 years in the game, it is happening. This is what I mean. It is not a NOW. They have worked bloody hard for a quarter of a century playing LIVE for the majority of that time so that their fans can see and hear them. I know which route to music I prefer. I prefer the one where the band get rewarded for the labour of love, art and dedication they put in. The Bon Jovi road must have been testing at times but they put in the hard work and still do. They didn't have an xBox to give them that sound right here, right now, when they wanted. They evolved, developed and became the global icons they are today. That is why they have been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year and that is why I voted for them, plus David Bryan (keyboards-Bon Jovi) has just won a Tony award for his score in the Broadway show, Memphis. 

The likes of Bon Jovi epitomise what is REAL about music and all that to me is soul, art, whatever you want to call it but it sures kicks the crap out of a games console generation of plastic musicians.

I talk about Bon Jovi alot don't I? That is because they inspired me to be a singer/songwriter. I am sure they inspired many other bands and artists that I also love to listen to; Spaceship Days, Haunting Heather, Jack Stevens, Tombland, Top Hat Alleycat, Rob Holmes Band and Trigga-Boo to name but a few. These are all independent bands working hard to make their mark and I have been privileged to play the same live venues with some of them! They all love their art and work extremely hard. None of them learnt their craft from a games console. None of them rely on auto-tune, samples or remixed drum machines. It is REAL music with REAL musicians!

If you want to invest in your kids musicality this Christmas, buy them a REAL instrument, not a games console, plus get them some lessons in that instrument. 

The best gift you can give them is encouragement and investment in something they love to do. Who knows? Maybe in twenty years time they will be accepting an MTV award, a Grammy, a Tony, or if in the UK, maybe an Ivor (Ivor Novello award from BASCA) for songwriting.

You just never know and if you don't invest in that talent properly, you never will.

Have a great weekend!

SCB