Just to reiterate - the 'making it' question has been brought up really too many times, and always, invariably, the question of how do you know when you've made it always remains unanswered.
As per the topic, it's about iceland & singapore, i.e. it's about multi platinum bjork vs indie analog girl, it's about nationalistic naturists sigur ros vs homegrown observatory. Immediately i can tell you, everyone on that list don't think they've totally made it. Each have their own definition of success, but in the eyes of the public, guess who sells more, who seems to have made it more?
Without marketing, what are the chances that anyone, of significance in world music, is going to hear your music? You're in Singapore dude.
Engrish music here doesn't get the moolahs to push through. Even then, me thinks our bands aren't good enough. BUTTTTTTT there is talent that can make it BUTTTTTTTTTTT they are split up amongst different bands.
I do appreciate your concerns but just like looks, one's skin colour is bollocks when it comes to factoring in whether one can make it or not in the music industry.
Precisely, the marketing of a band is entirely about getting the largest base of people to be able to relate to you and that translates into sales, and tickets. In the geopolitical musical landscape that iceland partakes in, make a guess where asian folks fit in.
Hence, the most successful of our musical exports are never in the western hemisphere. But even then this hegemony of western culture is so widespread, that even in the east, musical expression in the popular market is couched entirely in western trappings. You'll never hear gamelan dangdut being number one in china.
how about this one for the singapore charts?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_o47Gs6DQ0&feature=related
btw those guys supposedly made it in their province. It's all about how their music speaks to the audience.
So back to iceland & spore, bjork & sigur ros. I think when someone asks why iceland has made it, they're actually asking why no one in singapore has the same cachet, ie. coolness, as bjork, sells as many albums as she does, or why no one in spore has a string quartet like sigur ros has, or plays large shows like they do, or are able to make up their own gobbledigook.
The answer is obvious. We spores don't have as much cultural commonality as icelanders when it's viewed in the context of the western market.
The funny thing with jamaica, is that they have been in the doldrums for years. After bob marley and hash, they've basically stoned themselves out of any other musical output. The only saving grace is the influence of dub/reggae in the uk scene with dubstep, grime and mc lyrical flows.
The other bit about making it, is the making of a truly defining moment in musical history. Grunge, beatles, elvis, nirvana, the clash, blur vs oasis, 50cent etc. All of which are strung along the terms of the western media. How much of it is manufactured, and how much is the real deal? I'll bet there are some people in congo who wouldn't care who's number one on the pop charts. But in terms of mtv/nme/rolling stone style of defining moment, will an asian band ever be included?
And there's also that little chestnut:
Snuffle my man, who asked you to go and write songs about organising riots in Orchard Road
There are many ways to describe skinning a cat, but spore kids, mostly, there's only one way, and the approved dethklok method.
heh, what if everybody wanna be bono and nobody wanna rock and roll, from the heart and thrusting energy from the waist down
There is nothing wrong with wanting to rock with the clock out, but compare chou pi jiang with something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QevijY6XEU&feature=related
Who's going to come across better in the west?
In the end, noone should sweat about making it, unless you're in the chinese or malay music industry, which of course those goddamn icelanders will never crack.
