Hey guys,
John you are correct on the 6-7 year cycles. This one has had much longer than most and gone through many incarnations, so it's actually much farther ahead that most. If you want to extrapolate further, you can look at other sites, or actually. Nashville and music itself.
I just got back from a "NEW TO NASHVILLE" networking event on behalf of MUSIC STARTS HERE.org. This is the site, myself, Doak Turner, Will Carter, and Adam Melcher have been working on for nearly 6 or 7 years. (there goes those numbers again. Will Carter, a client of mine who came from Michigan, kept trying to figure out how to "break in" to Nashville and couldn't find anywhere to start. So, being a banking, housing and business guy, he sat about finding people to fill in his blanks. That brought him to Doak, who brought him to me. And over the next couple of years looked for people, programmers, people to do content, to design a web site that could in effect be a CHAMBER OF COMMERCE for the music industry .Even had several meetings with the actual CHAMBER of commerce, who would always just put together MORE MEETINGS. Dealing with Beuacracy.
After a while we all sort of gave up .We were getting no where and when the Chamber decided to put everything into the new convention center downtown, that was it for me. I drifted back here where I have been all along for around 13 years or so.
About a year ago, the site was revitalized by Adam Melcher, a computer wiz kid who is actually the father of another female singer I have worked with. She is amazing and Adam was building things to help her along. Was a perfect fit, and he brought the site up to snuff and really has polished it up. Tonight was the second networking event and this was a NEW TO NASHVILLE event. About 60 people were there of all types, younger, older, some mothers, artists, writers, Myself, along with Rick Barker, Taylor Swift's first manager, A teacher at Vanderbilt a hit songwriter, an African American "Anything but country" producer, Everyone did speeches and presentations and got the room filled up with excitment.
Now this is where it comes to this site. When people are new with anything musically, like Phil's new guitar, they are all over it. People that do music in Nashville all come seeking the spotlight and the new territory. All have the best of intentions and you can tell all have that "Wait'll they get a load of me" look.
But they are all seriously delusional and a long way away from where they need to be. One guy, a 20 year old jazz guitar player, and his "producer" (that was younger than he was), was telling me of his new you tube video. It is all about the current gun debate and I could tell by looking and talking to him he is probably in the "guns are all evil and must go away! Why can't we just get along?" He was actually shocked at how much blowback he was getting. He is tuning into a pin cushion and was really surprised everyone wasn't ready to sing Kum Ba Yah! With him. I didn't have the heart to tell him he has probably destroyed his career already, and that chip on his shoulder is only going to get larger. He'll learn, but probably it is already too late.
Other people there from all over, as usual a lot of Californians and New Yorkers, a couple Texans, and then from all over. All with the same stars in the eyes, all with their own dreams, Most need to not talk and just listen.
They will all go over the next little bit. They will be excited. Many will hit the writers nights, most will stay in the Open mics. All will get trounced. One, was from a workshop I did in North Carolina five years ago. She was 16 then and now is 21. She told the story of coming to town all full of herself, falling in with an established hit writer, who tried to take her under his wing. But her attitude and ego were out of control. She also was hingeing her dreams on one song, that I did a critique on. It was, as Kevin said, okay, but no hit. She COULD NOT be talked out of it, and lost the interest of pretty much everyone including the hit writer. She is now having to grovel, trying to clear up her career, that she damaged at SIXTEEN years old. And she bow knows that song was actually a piece of tripe and is embarrised she even played it for anyone.
And this is how it goes. People think they know what is happening and they don't. The more they learn, the more they realize they have to learn. Life gets in the way. Another girl there was someone I had talked to before. These people come up and tell me about meeting me, what I said to them, and more time than not realizing the MAB was right and they should have listened. This girl, was three months pregnant and was really wishing she had listened to me.
There were several guys there. Drummers, guitar players, bass players, a couple of engineering people. One even had all his CHRISTMAS SONGS that he wanted to know how to pitch.
Pretty normal.
Within six months, about 35 of them will be gone. Some would have gone through the motions to move. Some will run out of money. Some will be having to make a decision to go to college. A couple will be broken up and divorced. A couple more will be pregnant. Only about six or seven will still be trying to do music primarily. All will have other jobs.
Within two years only about two will actually still be at this. And they will have gotten a REAL education.
That is the same with this and other sites. People come on and it's all fresh and brand new. They will participate and talk about all the things they are going to do. They will talk about the equipment they are buying, then a few months after that have buyers remorse because they can't operate that equipment and it is taking up space they really could use. They love being around and having fun with everyone. A year or so down the road they will make a trip, either to see me or one of you.
Then life gets in the way. A lot of subjects get covered then get boring. People put songs up and ask for critiques, but when they get the truth, they start to lose enthusiasm. They realize it is much more than just writing songs like they thought. It gets to be work. And the work never stops. They stop participating in the forums because someone says things they dissaggree with. They hear new people come in with the same subjects and they are bored with that, They look for other forums thinking they will find new answers but they don't. And after three years or so, it just gets tired.
Same with Nashville. We all like each other, all enjoy aspects of this. But most fall out of love with writing, with performing, life gets in the way. We keep at it in one way or another.
More or less it runs it's course. I admit some of it is my fault. I don't post as much as I used to. I am doing other forums and finding other people that have not heard my stuff before. There are always new forums that open up and others close. Last year the NSAI thread went completely down. BMI's site still is out there, but it has the same few people although new people join all the time, but then go away. Again, when most people realize how much work is involved to be a "real songwriter" they generally fade away.
And then most people are content to put their songs on Reverbnation, I Tunes, YOU TUBE, Pandora, Spotify, etc.
But there are always a few people that stick around. So that is where we are.
MAB
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