Saturday, September 06, 2008
An Interview with Gene Simmons
Great interview...
Business has never been easy, and the delusion that musicians and writers and artists and people like that, who aspire to this thing called show, actually never really paid much attention. In the spirit of full disclosure before the fact, and truth in advertising, it is actually called the music business and show business. It's not called music or show—it really isn't. And it isn't called film, it's called the film business. You know? And art, it really is the art business. They call it the art "world," they don't want to use the word business, and words like inspiration and all that stuff is nonsense. The classic musicians and artists of the past, during the Renaissance period, these were commercial artists. These were commercial writers. Chamber music was based on the premise that the lord of the manor walked up to the guy, and said, "I want a three-minute piano concerto, put it in my chamber, there's going to be just a few guests and royalty"—that's why it's called chamber music, by the way. And that's why Mozart sometimes had three-minute piano concertos. You know why? Because that's what he was paid to do. [What] they were all paid for, and that includes the Sistine Chapel. The pope shows up and says, "I don't like that." They're commercial artists. - Portfolio
Labels: Music
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