MBH
Acrobat
From Newsday:
A Whole Lotta Love Visits Austin
By Glenn Gamboa
Austin, Texas - The always-controversial Courtney Love was the belle of the ball
at the South by Southwest Music Conference Saturday, and she did not disappoint.
For nearly 90 minutes, Love told the standing- room-only crowd about everything
from her groundbreaking lawsuit against the Universal Music Group, which touched
off the red-hot battle between artists and record companies over long-term contracts,
to her plans to bully stars like U2 and R.E.M. into forming a musicians' union. Love
said the mergers of the music companies in the past five years led to the widespread
elimination of creative, artist-friendly executives in favor of cost-cutting businessmen,
leading to poor results artistically and financially. "It is failing," Love said of the music
industry. "Within three years, it will have failed."
In her freewheeling style, Love unveiled a string of startling claims, ranging from a
music executive telling her, "If you were on my label, I would still have you on
Quaaludes" to her insider view of U2's recent success, which she claims almost didn't
happen because the promotion budget of the band's Grammy-winning album was
higher than the record company wanted to pay.
After U2's Grammy win, Love said she stood on top of a stove at a celebration,
screaming about the need for a musicians' union. "Now it's time to step up," she told
the post-Grammy party. "I will not be martyred."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't know what to make of this. On one hand, I realize that Love is an outspoken fluzie who should be taken with a grain of salt. On the other hand, she actually makes some sense here. It appears that she is mad and jealous of U2's path toward their recent success(big budget, big money, promotions).
Her point about the big corporations swallowing up the smaller ones(which happened to Island in '99) is not necessarily a good thing and it makes music execs. think in terms of $ rather than talent. That is not good. U2 has come under criticism for this recently and, to an extent, I agree with some of the criticism.
Curious to see what you guys think here at Interference.....
A Whole Lotta Love Visits Austin
By Glenn Gamboa
Austin, Texas - The always-controversial Courtney Love was the belle of the ball
at the South by Southwest Music Conference Saturday, and she did not disappoint.
For nearly 90 minutes, Love told the standing- room-only crowd about everything
from her groundbreaking lawsuit against the Universal Music Group, which touched
off the red-hot battle between artists and record companies over long-term contracts,
to her plans to bully stars like U2 and R.E.M. into forming a musicians' union. Love
said the mergers of the music companies in the past five years led to the widespread
elimination of creative, artist-friendly executives in favor of cost-cutting businessmen,
leading to poor results artistically and financially. "It is failing," Love said of the music
industry. "Within three years, it will have failed."
In her freewheeling style, Love unveiled a string of startling claims, ranging from a
music executive telling her, "If you were on my label, I would still have you on
Quaaludes" to her insider view of U2's recent success, which she claims almost didn't
happen because the promotion budget of the band's Grammy-winning album was
higher than the record company wanted to pay.
After U2's Grammy win, Love said she stood on top of a stove at a celebration,
screaming about the need for a musicians' union. "Now it's time to step up," she told
the post-Grammy party. "I will not be martyred."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't know what to make of this. On one hand, I realize that Love is an outspoken fluzie who should be taken with a grain of salt. On the other hand, she actually makes some sense here. It appears that she is mad and jealous of U2's path toward their recent success(big budget, big money, promotions).
Her point about the big corporations swallowing up the smaller ones(which happened to Island in '99) is not necessarily a good thing and it makes music execs. think in terms of $ rather than talent. That is not good. U2 has come under criticism for this recently and, to an extent, I agree with some of the criticism.
Curious to see what you guys think here at Interference.....