Big Jim,

That is a good estimation from your perspective. It should be noted that the belweather for most artists since the Beatles have been the American Marketplace. They didn't exactly stay in Hamburg, Liverpool and London and be happy with that. They came here. Which is what the majority of people have strived to do for the past many decades. There may have been very huge artists that have been enormous in Europe, and are unheard of in America. And monetarily, up until recently the American market was the one everyone tried for.

Making a comment like all things sound the same can cut both ways. In many opinions the same can be said for European music,in that the majority of it sounds unstructured, random. often indecipherable, and uncommercial in our market, which is why overall it represents a much smaller share than even country. And almost ALL the English and European household names are unknown here. Making jaded observations on anyone else's music scene can cut both ways.

The reason that there are music classes, education, critiques, courses, etc. are that it is one way to learn and build your network. And to do it in a somewhat faster time frame than spending 40 or 50 years learning it and finding that you are too old for any market outside your local region. And if we didn't have a constant stream of people from every other country coming attempting to find how to do it here, I would agree that it probably wouldn't be a anything needed.

The reason people try to find forays into Nashville is because almost all other forms of music are totally artist oriented. That is the artist is the writer, and inner circle controls that market. Here it is different. Particularly in the country market, but other markets as well. Going back to the 1800's, American music had composers and artists. As the music and recording developed over the years, that remained true up until around 1964 when the Beatles, (another English Group) changed the parameters and most rock and pop music became mainstream and artist oriented.

In country music, there were still composers and artists. That line remained there until the late 80's and now has permeated into the mainstream marketplace. Now there are some of them but mostly it is an inside world. And one that is dictated by the marketplace, not the other way around. There are hundreds of thousands of songs released of all kinds, but very few resonate with the public. So the marketplace dicates what is played.

In the 80's and 90's, Nashville experienced a huge boom of people coming to this town seeking success in musical endevors. In 92, the entire money generated by the country music industry was around $210 million. In 1994, the total money was around $2 Billion. That was primarily fueled by Garth Brooks who sold more records in a decade than any one in history.

That created a ripple effect of people coming to Nashville seeking fame and fortune, just like the gold rushes of old. As a result of that a demand was created for a secondary market of people seeking to learn about the industry, the craft, etc. The majority of teachers, people that do paid critiques, workshops, write books, do DVD's, etc. are people that have had successful careers in the industry (you have to have had some success to get public demand for your product)and are sought out high and low for advice and yes, paid critiques. When you are barraged by requests, e-mails, phone calls, asked in public for help continually, often you respond in that way.

People seeking paid critiques are doing just that, and almost every writer in the past 25 years that have come into this town have done some form of just that, particularly in the past 15
it has grown expotentially. It is a way to get known, and learn the rules the exact same way that for hundreds of years people apprenticed at a trade. Interns come out of colleges and work for publishing and record companies and are paid nothing or very low wages until they are able to "stand on their own two legs."

So far from the nonsense of an industry that "exploits" songwriters, it is actually one way to get an education, and is obviously not required from anybody. But to insult someone for having that desire to find their own way in something different than you might feel is shortsided and somewhat ignorant of facts in a different market.

This is not to start an international incident. I don't think anyone in this country (at least not if I have anything to do with it) ridicules or denigrates someone from another country in how they do things. People come here from England, Scottland, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Australia, and every other country around the globe trying to find out how to make their music applicable to OUR market. And in many cases, what they do there doesn't relate here AND vice versa. I wouldn't presume to come into some pub or concert hall there and believe that I can show them how to do their music better. I would never be that arrogant.

But when people come here, try to integrate their music here, try to interact with the community here, there are ways that they can do it in a reasonable time frame. And often when you are on a limited work visa, and have to be back in a very short amount of time,you don't have months and years to find out how things work, and wait around till you luck up into success or wait upon the "Good music fairy" to float down,teach you to write and promote your music.

Some of that has to do with paid critiques. Because that might not work for you is irrelevant to other people's journey.
And to ridicule them and tell them they are some kind of lesser human being for being willing to pay for professional adivice is professionally short sided. What works for one person might not work for another and vice versa.

There is a reason there are forums like this. People are looking for other people with similar ideas, thoughts and journeys. They are trying to find a way through the myriad of obstacles which are the modern music scene. Different people have differing perspectives on things. What may work for a writer/artist will be very different than what works for a pure writer. The elements of making something work in the UK, Australia, or other areas will differ from market to market. And all opinions and methods are valid. Some work better in some areas than others.
I just don't think it adds anything to the discussion to denigrate something that some people find great value in just because it doesn't work for one's self. A pretty big world out there. Lots of different approaches. This one works here more than it fails.

MAB