So... I'm in a band.. in South Africa...
WARNING! A SH!T LOAD OF VENTING AHEAD! Read at own risk.
Haha.
It seems that a lot of people love being rude to musicians. Like, they LOVE it. You'll probably find their online social profiles saying sh!t like 'I enjoy long walks on the beach, watching sunsets, and being an asswipe to musicians'.
We were playing at this venue, a real upperclass, trendy venue that has a lot of live, original music. This one rude old fart kept looking at us all funny. I didn't think much of it as I thought maybe he was trying to be funny in a non-douchebag kinda way. In the end he walked right passed the stage through the back exit which he did NOT need to use, blocking his ears, looking all sour and then calling our music rubbish.
Now let me tell you guys, we perform our own ORIGINAL songs, so he basically insulted our artistry and creativity. Other people seemed to enjoy it at least a lot more than he did. Also, why was he there anyway if that's not what he's into??? It was WELL advertised in advance.
Then, this SAME week, I try to market our upcoming tour with a video of one of our previous performances in a group called 'gigs @ garden route'. This guy starts telling me to remove it and that it's inappropriate and that the video is "shitty quality" and we don't have enough info etc. I was like, "I'm first showing people what to expect and WHY they should see us in the month to come". I literally broke no rules of the group. I was just trying to work hard and advertise our tour and our music. He deleted my post after insulting me and being FRIKKEN rude. Don't worry, I've screenshotted the whole thing.
These are just 2 examples of the many times we've been treated extremely unprofessionally in this industry. Not to mention the payments we've been waiting for from a year ago or some over a month ago.
People think musicians are these stupid, lazy, inferior, pathetic beings just oh-so desperate to be given time of day to. They don't realise we are some of the hardest working, nicest, most strategised and professional people there are. It's usually too expensive to even have a manager so we have to do A LOT of in between sh!t ourselves.
Let's change this. Let's stop playing for "exposure" or a "meal". Can you live off that for a month? You're basically saying your ART, your music is worth THAT. When really, it's worth a lot more. A piece of your soul. It's long drives, and packing equipment. It's hours of practice .It's dedication. It's phone calls and emails and rejection and last minute cancellations from venues. It's being a STRONG, BADASS madafaka who can also create poetry and melodies and rhythm. It is who we are.
Art is NOT cheap!!
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