Do you know what people in the industry call music artists that refuse to do television, film, commercials, interviews and/or product endorsements???
BROKE!!!
Ghetto Physics: Will The Real Pimps and Hos Please Stand Up (Official Trailer)
We now live in a world where Ray-J can remake his image as a music artist because everyone watched the two seasons of For The Love of Ray-J (“Tie Me Down”, and “143″). We live in a day where acting in a hit teen television show/film can catapult you into a major selling artist (Miley Cyrus “Hannah Montana”/Drake, “Degrassi”).
Too many artists put themselves in a box and limit their musical potential. I “only” do ballads”, I “only” do hip-hop, I “only” do pop, I “only” do conscious music, I “only” do club music. No one wants to hear how inflexible you are!!!
The fact is, the more different audiences you appeal to, the more marketable you become. Agents, managers, and labels would rather have an artist that can sing, rap, produce, model, interview, act, write conscious music, write club songs, play piano and drums versus an artist that “only” writes conscious music and hates being on camera.
More importantly, there is no longer enough money to go around to only do music, all the time. Labels are no longer signing as many artists as they once did, recording budgets are constantly shrinking, and A & R departments are getting smaller. Labels are only picking up new artists that already have an ongoing movement. They are not picking them off the street and they are no longer accepting CDs handed to them. They select artists by seeing that Wiz Khalifa’s new video on Youtube has gotten 3 million plays, by seeing Nipsey Hussle has sold out a local concert, by hearing your band’s song in the new Jersey Shore episode.
Getting “discovered” is no longer an accident, it is the result of building up a movement and a following on your own so that you become less of a risk to the record label or investor putting money into your movement.
Therefore, artists need to hit as many avenues of entertainment as humanly possible that mesh with their respective images.
Currently my band (DaPhysics.com) is trying to catapult off a film written and directed by our bass player E. Raymond Brown (Official Trailer above) and the official songwriting contest (GhettoPhysicsContest.com). E Ray, as well as our lead, Trey Billie, have had to conduct numerous interviews, act, mix, write songs, and handle various business aspects of the project. If they were not willing to be versatile and do a few things they would not normally like to do, the band would not be a part of a film that will be hitting the theaters in the Fall.
Exposure is everything! Does a great band, playing in a deserted forest(or basement), make a sound??? You might possibly be the next Jimi Hendrix, but if you refuse to get in front of a camera, you will just be Jimi.
“Ask not what music can do for you, but what you can do for your music!”
DefendSound.com
