roninriot
Banned
I'm bored uotta my mind, so just decided to post since I haven't posted on soft for a while. Everything I'm posting is just in my personal opinion only so don't mind me.
The metal scene is flourishing! Looking at the frequency of the metal gigs in Singapore, Just shows the growing willingness of people to head down to gigs and support the acts. In an industry that only encourages a slewage of pop and everything accessible, having a lively and thriving underground scene is such a wonderful thing.
There used to be a time a year or so ago where the forum bashing of bands happened with such frequency it was such a shitty thing to read about it. IMHO, the scene only benefits as a collective, and not when say one or two bands start making an impact. And even if they start doing so, these bands should promote the scene as a collective.
Right now at most gigs, most of the people attending them are 1) the organizer's friends 2) people who are in bands themselves. 3) people who are hoping to be in bands themselves. Most gigs anyway. The general public still isn't really attending any major gigs, unless you say like Baybeats or something.
So I guess the scene only benefits if bands are willing to share the limelight, while individually excelling in friendly competition. So instead of someone saying, e.g. "Ugly in the morning rocks!", they can actually tell their friends "OMFG, the funk rock scene is damn rich in Singapore my pants get wet at the very thought of it!".
This has been told to me by a producer friend of mine. That being a 'rockstar' is a worse profession than a MacDonalds worker. Say a band sells 2500 cds (no 'top' band in Singapore has hit that sales mark yet), which is a huge number for a local band. Each CD they sell earns them say, 10 bucks, minus shop money intake, and distributor intake. That's about 25,000 bucks. Divide that by four or five. 5000 bucks or so, for months, years, of labour in writing the song, NOT including payment costs for mastering and recording. Divide that by 12 months. And you have a month income lower than a MacDonalds worker. But of course that doesn't include the financial income you earn from playing gigs. But more than half of the organizers around don't pay bands starting out, and the rest don't pay much, and those that pay a lot don't come around often enough for a band to sustain itself for all practical purposes. It's a very limited industry here because there just isn't the population for that. There aren't any real A & R Departments here, only labels that are mostly distribution companies. And even if there are A & R companies, most of them are either not financially equipped to handle massive publicity or they promote Stephanie Sun duplicates (yawn).
But money isn't really the key here. That is, if you believe in big dreaming. I know I do, and I know everyone here does as well. That's why we all gather around forums to talk about gigs and hype it up and praise the bands we like. Because we believe that what we are doing makes a difference.
The collective is growing, and I can't wait for the day where we'll infiltrate the narrow mindedness of most people that have been conditioned to think that local bands suck. And who think, wrongly, that sly is the epiphany of rock in Singapore *loud ough and face starts twitching and pointing fingers frantically*
But if anything good is gained from the, er, success of Singapore Idol; it's the fact that both of them achieved at least 15,000 in sales. Which does show support for things local and English (and Sylvester's version of English, rock on 'hown dawk'! !)
Keep the faith. Let's keep the music flowing like good mojo! Cause if we as musicians don't do it, no one will.
Levan,
RONIN
The metal scene is flourishing! Looking at the frequency of the metal gigs in Singapore, Just shows the growing willingness of people to head down to gigs and support the acts. In an industry that only encourages a slewage of pop and everything accessible, having a lively and thriving underground scene is such a wonderful thing.
There used to be a time a year or so ago where the forum bashing of bands happened with such frequency it was such a shitty thing to read about it. IMHO, the scene only benefits as a collective, and not when say one or two bands start making an impact. And even if they start doing so, these bands should promote the scene as a collective.
Right now at most gigs, most of the people attending them are 1) the organizer's friends 2) people who are in bands themselves. 3) people who are hoping to be in bands themselves. Most gigs anyway. The general public still isn't really attending any major gigs, unless you say like Baybeats or something.
So I guess the scene only benefits if bands are willing to share the limelight, while individually excelling in friendly competition. So instead of someone saying, e.g. "Ugly in the morning rocks!", they can actually tell their friends "OMFG, the funk rock scene is damn rich in Singapore my pants get wet at the very thought of it!".
This has been told to me by a producer friend of mine. That being a 'rockstar' is a worse profession than a MacDonalds worker. Say a band sells 2500 cds (no 'top' band in Singapore has hit that sales mark yet), which is a huge number for a local band. Each CD they sell earns them say, 10 bucks, minus shop money intake, and distributor intake. That's about 25,000 bucks. Divide that by four or five. 5000 bucks or so, for months, years, of labour in writing the song, NOT including payment costs for mastering and recording. Divide that by 12 months. And you have a month income lower than a MacDonalds worker. But of course that doesn't include the financial income you earn from playing gigs. But more than half of the organizers around don't pay bands starting out, and the rest don't pay much, and those that pay a lot don't come around often enough for a band to sustain itself for all practical purposes. It's a very limited industry here because there just isn't the population for that. There aren't any real A & R Departments here, only labels that are mostly distribution companies. And even if there are A & R companies, most of them are either not financially equipped to handle massive publicity or they promote Stephanie Sun duplicates (yawn).
But money isn't really the key here. That is, if you believe in big dreaming. I know I do, and I know everyone here does as well. That's why we all gather around forums to talk about gigs and hype it up and praise the bands we like. Because we believe that what we are doing makes a difference.
The collective is growing, and I can't wait for the day where we'll infiltrate the narrow mindedness of most people that have been conditioned to think that local bands suck. And who think, wrongly, that sly is the epiphany of rock in Singapore *loud ough and face starts twitching and pointing fingers frantically*
But if anything good is gained from the, er, success of Singapore Idol; it's the fact that both of them achieved at least 15,000 in sales. Which does show support for things local and English (and Sylvester's version of English, rock on 'hown dawk'! !)
Keep the faith. Let's keep the music flowing like good mojo! Cause if we as musicians don't do it, no one will.
Levan,
RONIN
