Calling All Rockers: Get Your Rock on and Step Up to the Bar!

Calling All Rockers: Get Your Rock on and Step Up to the Bar!
“It’s time to Pass the Pick”

Week 13 | July 13, 2017
By the Forgotten Woman, JoOnna Silberman

If you have read my previous 12 blogs you know that I often speak about the fall and fragmentation of the Rock Music Industry. The need to take it back and unify. The responsibility of us, the seasoned veterans; musicians, producers, media and fans alike to take a stand and do something. What, I am unsure, but this particular blog is going to vet a few thoughts and feelings around the subject. Let me state from the beginning. If you want to help please contact me. If you have ideas please comment. I want engagement with this. It will take unity and participation to make this happen! We will have an announcement in a few weeks and I would like to see as many people as possible professionals and fans alike step up! Read on!

I read an article this week in the New Yorker “MTV News, Chance the Rapper, and a Defense of Negative Criticism” and of course it is about the reaction and response of the modern music culture; which highlights their inability to tough it out, and take criticism and/or reviews for what they are-education. The piece was primarily about a rapper, MTV and the demise of their “News” department (in a nutshell). It appears that the younger industry can’t take the heat and when they feel it, they immediately threaten anybody and everybody, like petulant children, throwing tantrums and crying foul. Grow-up!

MTV, I believe made a wrong turn when they forsook Rock Music and Music videos for reality television rap and the Hip-Hop Nation…they probably would have been much better off embracing their roots and sticking with us folk, who actually made them what they are. At least we could take punch and didn’t feel a sense of entitlement. We fought for what we got and have. We actually wrote music, and welcomed reviews and critique. It meant we were being noticed regardless of the favorability or not. In some cases, negative meant positive. Hell, we composed music and played it on instruments, unlike the newer artists who seem to filter everything through electronics and cyber sounds. Don’t get me wrong, there are some very good artists still in play, but they are far and few between and their numbers are dwindling. I applaud them and embrace innovation and change, but, I want rock music back, I want it to thrive, and to unify and I want it to be prevalent and relevant again. I don’t give a damn about MTV as far as I’m concerned, they sold their soles to the devil, but it is interesting to see how they caved to the whims of a culture and how the all mighty dollar made them weak and vulnerable.  But at what cost.

“I want to know how do we rise again, and start to produce music that matters. Music that says something. Music that makes a difference.” ~ JoOnna Silberman, The Forgotten Woman

Almost everywhere I turn with very little exception, I can’t find new Rock Music and when I find it, it has  gone through some sort of white-washing process by the label; or music it all sounds the same (I have said this numerous times before, so will not bore you with a rant on that subject right now).  I find many who reach back and there are plenty of classic rock groups, pages and communities, but new (which I have also discussed on numerous occasions)? Somewhere along the line we let other genres overshadow us, then we separated ourselves from ourselves with different communities slowly alienating themselves from the one great Nation. The Nation under Rock. I see Prog Rock to one side; then I see Metal to another (Metal itself has about 5 or six different sub-groups) and I often wonder, does Indie Rock include all types of Rock or is that yet another genre these days (I hope not) as far as I knew, it meant independent, which I think means all of us who are not signed to a label? So all are included there. Then there is Alternative Rock, Grunge Rock, Blues Rock, Country Rock and the list goes on. We need to pull ourselves together. Support each other and figure this out. When we fragment like that our power dwindles and we become ineffective and an industry and one, we become strong.

I also think that we need to extend a hand to the younger generation of rock musicians, and I think the younger generation needs to reach out to us to see how it’s done.  I think that producers, radio and media who believe in Rock need to make themselves more available and step up to the plate. I also see the need for rock musicians to ask questions and share information, to find answers and impart knowledge and experience…these are just some thoughts that I have on the subject. With the magnitude of musicians today and the ease with which each person can share their music, the web has become inundated with so much music where do we find it and how does anybody hear my music? It’s become so big and vast out there that it is almost impossible to be heard.

I came across and article in Forbes Magazine from 2013 which is even more true now than it was 4 years ago, “Where Have All the Rock Stars Gone?” by Michele Catalano. In it, he speaks volumes about the industry and the lost art, but a particular quote struck me.

““Says producer/mixer/engineer Jonathan Wyman: “The sheer amount of music that comes out now makes it difficult to keep up with new music.  I’m 100% for the democratization of music recording and am not a major label sympathizer, but keeping up with and separating the wheat from the chaff in new music is daunting. The listener is faced with a constant barrage of new stimulus, and it’s hard to wade through it.  I’m sometimes paralyzed in a pre-caffeinated haze in the morning, trying to figure out something to listen to while I walk my dog.””

The confusion , volume and overwhelmingness of it all only grows;  I don’t have all the answers, nor do I have many of them, but at least I am thinking about it. I know that my company is starting to try to figure this out and I wonder how many other like-minded people are out there.  For instance, at our company we are starting to do band mentoring. Andrew works with young musicians in bands in Manchester, helping them learn how perform, record and write. Chris also works with at risk youths in Scotland enabling them to see music as a possible vocation. Me I write about it and reach out the the community to see who can help and what we can do. We collectively are in the process of creating a community dedicated to just this subject, which will offer at the very least resources, feedback, networking and sharing for critique, as well as promotion, and it will be open to anybody in the Rock Industry and then perhaps a fan page to follow. We want to create a dialogue and a place where people can find answers and ideas. We are also thinking about doing a competition of some sort to find great artists and bring them to the people. That’s in addition to working on our own stuff. Yes, we have stuff.

When I see articles like in It’s Never What You Think like “ Is Rock Music a Dying Art”  I get sad. Even sadder is the suggestion that rock has turned into pop because it sells. That is a devastating blow. There are plenty of articles and commentary out there on the state of the industry. If you love Rock, you know what I am saying is true…so let’s do something about it.

This blog is about ideas and creating positive energy. I would love to hear from people what they think and how they think we can bring the music back. Don’t need naysayers or Negative Nancy’s or Ned’s. I need input and I want constructive, innovative ideas. If you would like to participate, let me know. Feel free to contact me via our Facebook Page Forgotten Man Productions or simply comment…

While there are rockers who are passing the pick, like Carlos Santana and Kenny Loggins. We don’t have to be stars to contribute. In fact I think there are more of who are not stars than are and we all need to pitch in!

I want to figure out how we make the Rock Industry rise again devoid of the Labels and with an Independent business model that serves the Rock Nation and its people.  When I look at the Billboard Top Rock Chart and see Imagine Dragon’s  “Believer” at # 1 and Twenty One Pilots “Heathens” as #2. As far as I am concerned, both those songs are not Rock, they are Pop. For cryin out loud Heathen’s starts off with Autotuning his voice…thankfully the second chart for mainstream has better choices…but really, two charts?  Stone Sour “Song #3” is #1,  definitely better, but sounds familiar, too familiar (like I have heard it somewhere before)…finally Foo Fighters “Run” #2…but Foo Fighters are not a new band (and Run in not one of my favorites…#3 was Metallica…so again, in the mainstream chart, they are reaching backwards…Let’s embrace the younger generation and show them how it is done! Help them! Teach Them…and Young Rockers, suck it up and start to reach out to us. Tale the criticism as a good sign, not a bad one…let’s make this happen. Stay tuned and follow Forgotten Man for news of the community we are building. We will be announcing very soon.

I want to hear from you! What are your thoughts? Comment, message, email me…I want involvement!

Thanks for reading,

JoOnna Silberman, The Forgotten Woman at Forgotten Man
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Art: Painting “Rock of Ages #2”  by Daniel ‘Dano’ Carver