For example, the hero of my story, Brian Young, is a musician that plays the bass guitar in a band that performs at the night club where he meets the heroine, Melena Kyle. Brian has become an interesting character to write now that I've been pulling from the people and experiences around me. Brian's character (his personality, job, and talent) is a combination of my husband, my oldest son and a family friend, rapper Immo Stax. (With the exception that he's white and they aren't....LOL!) These three men's lives revolve around music, but all in different ways.
My husband is an studio engineer/producer for 3D Sounds and Bloc2Bloc Records (He has his own blog: www.thehometek.net). My son attends a Fine Arts Magnet School and is in Orchestra and Jazz Band. He plays the bass and the electric bass guitar. Our family friend is a rapper, a very talented young man who is working his butt off to take rap music and music in general to a whole new level. He and my husband have collaborated on a lot of different tracks that I can assure you will be heard in the future.
But I digress....
My experiences this week have taken me out of my home and put me in the club scene, a place I rarely hang out at. But, because of a joint venture between my husband and Immo Stax, I've had the opportunity to hang out and use the experience to vividly describe the club scene. This has yielded several results. First of all, great description of the club and it's patrons. It especially has been helpful in putting myself in my girls shoes (high heels that hurt like crazy after several hours. Where was Doctor Scholl's when I needed him????). Being in the club allowed me to imagine how she would feel about her wardrobe (Too short? Showing too much????Do I really want this kind of attention????????)
The second thing that has come to my attention......radio stations and record labels must think the general population are idiots.
A majority of main stream artist lack the ability to be themselves...to be real. They are falling into the cookie cutter mold the record labels are putting them in. They look alike and sound alike. And even worse, they're own tracks are repetitive. Who wants to spend money on an artists CD only to hear twelve songs where the singer/rappers voice is the same, monotone d roan saying different words (Drake....)? And what do most people do? Turn into bobble heads to the same mess being repeated over and over again. Their minds aren't opened to what is lyrically being said. It's all about the size of their rims, what type of car they drive and how many women like them. BORING!!!!
How does that affect the artist who is striving to break into the music industry? They follow suite and give the A&R agents the cookie cutter routine so that they can fit in and get signed to a label. In the meantime, if you happen to be like me and be at an open mic production at a night club, you get stuck listening to the same repetitive music from different people that look alike, and rap alike about the same stuff. What hood their from, how many girls they've got and what kind of car they drive (most of which isn't true in the first place).
Since my husband is a producer, my family rarely listens to the radio. The majority of the music we listen to are tracks that are made by my husband. Real music that has flavor and sustenance. (Click here to hear tracks he's produced. Some have lyrics and feature artist that he works with, others are instrumental: Sound Click artist: KTEK) Not just repetitive tracks with thumping bass lines. You know what I'm talking about...once you've heard one, you've just about heard them all. Don't believe me? Go to a club and sit around for three hours. You'll swear you've heard the same song over and over and over again with different lyrics.
Now, when I say bring back the real music, I'm not talking about Jazz or R&B, I'm referring to club tracks, party music, stuff I have to sit and listen to on the radio in the car because my CD player is broke . I'm referring to the lyrical delivery given to us by the artist on the track. Still don't understand what I'm talking about? Here's an example.
Warning!: Some of the lyrics may be offensive.
How many times did you have to hit the replay button to hear what was said? Did that beat sound like anything you've heard on the radio before? That's what I'm talking about. If you had to stop and pay extra attention, if you had to actually LISTEN in order to hear what was being said. I'm talking about the fact that there was actually words, thought put into what was said. There was nothing dumb about it.
Now that's what I call REAL MUSIC!
I want to shout out KTEK for creating the music for and producing this track. Shout out to Immo Stax for having no problem telling it like it is and creatively doing so! Keep it coming!
