Dereklick

diewolfe:I’ve noticed something interesting, it’s a theory based upon my observations in the decade I’ve been involved in the music industry.
The “Rock” community is a very segregated community, based on egos, status, aesthetics & other bullshit factors. The music has become the least important factor. There is no sense of community, everyone views each other as competition. It becomes a petty high-school scenario of pretentiousness and dramatic antics.

Even some of the bands that tour together, have something negative to say about each other. No one can get along anymore, you can’t be on the same playing field, you NEED to be better than everyone else. Although this mentality can be productive it is also equally detrimental. There is no real sense of unity.

I look at the Hip-Hop/Rap community and although they have their equal share of fault and flaws, there is one thing that I deeply admire… and that is the collaboration between artists.

Common, Kanye West, Lauryn Hill, Talib Kweli, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, The Fugees, Dead Prez amongst a whole other ocean of artists have ALL worked together at a different point in their career, before they were relevant and they continued afterwards. All of them have collaborated in a song together, whether it was a collective writing of a song or just guest vocals, they showed a sense of unity and we the “dying rock scene” as I like to call it NEEDS to display this sense of unity if it hopes to make a real return.

“United we stand, departed we fall”

Readers, if you didn’t know, the music scene that you love and participate in is falling apart. There is far too many bands doing the same thing and it’s over saturated the industry. Touring is losing it’s luster. Bands are hardly making minimum wage on the road. We need a change and I think this might be the key. I implore every reader to grab their close friends in others bands and work together to create a new powerful moment in the music industry.

As for myself, my next album will adopt this very concept. I want the voices of all my close friends to be included with mine. I want to create a REAL family within the artists. Whether your band is bigger or smaller than mine, I don’t care, I want to include my tight knit circle of friends in this and eventually expand to other like minded individuals that share the same ideals.

So to my close friends ( you know who you are) that are all on the road right now experiencing this decline in an industry we love and have given everything up for, are you in? Are you going to use your power and influence to make a significant change or are you just go to read this, stand idly and watch as the one thing that we love falls apart? Let’s inspire change.

Look at all the Hip Hop artists that I mentioned above, they all worked with each other, helped each other rise above the industry and now they all live well above their means while they do what they love with all their friends to a committed fan base that will never leave them.

Think about it.

-J. Wolfe
The Hollowed
www.facebook.com/TheHollowedLA
www.twitter.com/theHollowedLA

I rarely interject my personal opinion into other peoples twitters/facebooks/tumblrs. As I see it everyone is entitled to their perception of how things are, but I would like to make a couple notes on this article because I think the right mentality is there, but I see a few misconceptions. 

First off, lets make a short list of colaborations between rock bands and other artists:
1) The secret Handshake- Used to be sweat, Feat: Lights
2) every time I die- Kill the music, Feat Gerard way of My chemical Romance
3)Set your goals- the few that remain, feat hailey williams
4)Say Anything- In Defense of the genre (The album features 23 individual guest vocalists and musicians, including Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, Pete Yorn, Anna Waronker, Adam Lazzara of Taking Back Sunday, Aaron Gillespie of Underoath and The Almost, Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio, andHayley Williams of Paramore)
 5)Forgive Durden- Razia’s shadow (album)- 
O the Scientist – Casey Crescenzo (The Dear Hunter)
Bawaba Brothers – John Baldwin Gourley (Portugal. The Man), Kris Anaya (An Angle)
Narrator – Aaron Weiss (mewithoutYou)
Gargul the Oracle – Danny Stevens (The Audition)
Toba the Tura – Chris Conley (Saves the Day)
Sangara – Dan Young (This Providence)
Barayas the Spider – Max Bemis (Say Anything)
Princess Anhura – Greta Salpeter (The Hush Sound)
Pallis – Brendon Urie (Panic! at the Disco)
King Malka – Nic Newsham (Gatsbys American Dream)
Doctor Dumaya – Shawn Harris (The Matches)
Nidria – Lizzie Huffman (Man in the Blue Van)
6)Two Tonges (a band comprised of members of Saves the Day and Say Anything)

Next Lets look at a few rap “beef’s” (I wont go into each disagreement, but feel free to look up any of these confrontations for more details):
1) T.I vs Lil Flip
2) 50 cent vs The Game (also see 50 cent vs Ja Rule, 50 cent vs young buck)
3)Dr. Dre vs Easy E
4)Nelly Vs Chingy
5)Ja Rule vs DMX
6)Tupac vs Biggie Smalls (a confrontation leading to the death of both artists)
7)Jay-Z vs Nas
8)Nikki Minaj vs Lil Kim
 
I will agree that some “Rock guys” can have a big ego. It sucks, and when someone has that type of attitude but I cant agree that the rock community is worse than rappers. In my opinion the lack of community in the “band” scene comes from a much different type of income and financial mentality almost to an incomparable level along with extremem over-saturation and a lack of quality venues. .”Band guys” in so many cases dont care about people knowing and will even boast about how broke they are, they are most interested in the exposure of their group at any cost (selling cds at the mall, or to people who arent going to your concert). Rappers in more cases, weather they’re broke or not will inflate their “ballin’ lifestyle” to keep their image. 

You mention about how most bands dont make minium wage on the road; I hardly know ANY bands that make minimum wage in relation to the hours they work (I dont make anywhere near minium wage compared to how many hours a day/ week I work). Simply put, the rock industry on the local, and small regional, and small national levels dont bring in much income (usually a few hundred dollars a night), and as your band grows more people want their hands in your pocketbook (please feel free to read “how it all breaks down”. A small article I wrote recently). 

Along with this most bands consist of 3-6 members where a rap group will be only a single member up to few members so at the end of the night the rap artist himself will retain more of his earnings than a singer who has to pay out the rest of the members of his band.
Lastly the quote you’re looking for is “united we stand, Divided we fall”.

 This is totally my opinion and I’m sure you can find just as many examples that I am wrong as I used to prove my point. Take it how you want…