New Orleans lament: Or, Why The Hell Don't We Have A Real Music Industry Here?

[jedilaw]

Before I start, lemme say right off I am not dissing any other city with my comments. I have lots of love for Atlanta, Nashville, et cetera.

BUT

Being from New Orleans, the birthplace not just of jazz but a lot of rock (just check how many of the early rockers recorded here, passed through here, or were from here), R&B, and funk, it is a source of constant bewilderment and aggravation that we have no viable music industry in this town. By industry I mean recording studios operating full time, session players with enough gigs to pay the bills without having to slum on Bourbon Street (and believe me, you see a NOLA musician on Bourbon Street, dude is slumming to get by, and making jack in the process).

Atlanta, great city, invented...what, exactly, musically? Um...nothing. But Atlanta has a recording industry. Nashville obviously has a lot of musical history of its own, but I still see no solid reason why Nashville's industry thrived and grew, and ours in NOLA didn't.

We gave the world Louis Armstrong, but the most notable recent artists from here are (gag) Master P, Mannie Fresh, and Lil' Wayne.

It's messed up, Huey. It's like if all the great chefs in Paris had to move to f'ing Lichtenstein to make a living cooking...

[hobson]

singin' to da choir.. my friend..

even Louie moved on and called NYC his home later in life... after Katrina - Cyril Neville raised some serious funk with his comments that Austin welcomed him and gave him more real work as a musician than New Orleans (his home!) - to paraphrase, "local musicians can really only count on 2 gigs - jazz fest and mardi gras - after that, you'd better have a day job or a steady paying gig on Bourbon playing for the tourists."

we breed 'em - train 'em - nurture 'em - and then (for the most part) fail to launch them.

i've been on a tear for a looonng time about indie rock in Naw'lins - so many talented bands hit the ceiling and imploded way too early in their careers - if only for the fact that we have no real industry down here.

here's hoping that this situation can change - and there are exceptions... but it would be a welcome addition if REAL managers/labels/etc would make a home down here... or at least have representation.



.

[jedilaw]

Originally Posted by hobson

singin' to da choir.. my friend..

even Louie moved on and called NYC his home later in life... after Katrina - Cyril Neville raised some serious funk with his comments that Austin welcomed him and gave him more real work as a musician than New Orleans (his home!) - to paraphrase, "local musicians can really only count on 2 gigs - jazz fest and mardi gras - after that, you'd better have a day job or a steady paying gig on Bourbon playing for the tourists."

we breed 'em - train 'em - nurture 'em - and then (for the most part) fail to launch them.

i've been on a tear for a looonng time about indie rock in Naw'lins - so many talented bands hit the ceiling and imploded way too early in their careers - if only for the fact that we have no real industry down here.

here's hoping that this situation can change - and there are exceptions... but it would be a welcome addition if REAL managers/labels/etc would make a home down here... or at least have representation.



.

Dude, I've been trying to figure out how to turn my law degree into real music managment/representation since...forever, really. When a cat like Justin Zitler is the best known (in his mind) entertainment lawyer in town, that's just f'in wrong.

I keep hoping that there's some way to capitalize on less expensive recording technology, plus the availability of digital distribution, to create a viable recording industry on a much reduced budget. If Dash Rip Rock or the Radiators had come out of any number of other towns, they would've become at least as well known as say Los Lobos...

[nukmusic]

Folks this is much bigger than just the music or the people involved in creating it.

Economics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

[hobson]

Originally Posted by supagrouprules

I've lived here a long time and it takes a lot to reach the empathetic New Orleanians.

possibly meant to say "apathetic"?

we certainly do need more local audience support of indie/rock/alt music... more clubs to help developing artists/bands... and people to keep the clubs happy.