Talent, We Don't Need No Stinkin Talent!

One of the best lines I ever heard in a movie was in one of my favorites. “A Bronx Tale” when Robert DeNiro’s character tells his son “There is nothing worse than wasted talent”.

It rings so true. Wasted talent, you can never go back in time and use that talent once it’s time has gone.

The more I look around the music landscape today it’s more like the famous line from The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (changed slightly for this story) “Talent, We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Talent”.

The sad thing is that in todays music world, most don’t have talent to waste.

Really you want to argue this point?

Okay, lets look at a couple of the “hottest” (and please read the sarcasim in this next word) “artists”.
Right now one of the biggest acts out there is Dustin Lieber. (What, hold on a minute someone is yelling at me. That’s not his name? It’s what? Justin Bieber, really? Does it really matter, in a couple of years won’t we be calling him “what’s his name” anyway?) Okay back to my story, JUSTIN BIEBER (is that better?) is right now the hottest thing out there and the only thing he is missing on his resume is talent.

This is a kid that was found on YouTube singing a song and someone who obiviosly did not have the sound up on his computer thought “Wow, great hair. We can make this kid a star!” and guess what they were right.
In this day and age, talent can only get in the way of screaming pre-teens that seem to drive the music world these days.

Look who was the big music tickets this past year, Dustin (I couldn’t resist), Miley Cyrus, Ke$ha, The Jonas Brothers (can you hear the tick, tick , tick of their 15 minutes of fame running out), Taylor Swift to name a few and guess what. Talent is very sparce in that group.

Oh don’t give me that crap of, “Taylor Swift doesn’t belong in that group, she is a superstar, she writes her songs, she’s great” No she is not. She is a very cute girl with a guitar with a very limited voice range and once celebrities learn to stop dating her she will have very little to write about. Period, argument over.

I did with these so-called artists, what I do with all the new music I listen too. I sat back, closed my eyes, opened my mind and just listened to the music and guess what….at the end. Nothing, Nada, Ziltch.

I’m sorry. these kids don’t have talent, they don’t have voices, you know what they have….looks and in some cases the Disney machine behind them. Either one is the same to the pre-teen girls that are programming our airwaves.

One notable exception to the group above that was a dominate force in 2010 was Lady Gaga. Why did I leave her off the list? Because she is probably the smartest person in the music industry right now. She does have talent but she also knows that talent doesn’t mean anything in todays music. Image does. Why do you think she walks around in a meat dress or in outfits while going thru airports that TSA would be afraid of patting down. Simply image. She keeps her name out there and acts as outrageous as possible. She is 80’s era Madonna in 2010. Why else would she come to Cleveland twice in 2010 for sold out concerts when most big acts simply skip over us (big shout out to Sir Paul for skipping Cleveland to play in Pittsburgh instead this year, thanks). She knows fame is fleeting (remember the Jonas Brothers comment earlier) and get the money now. She knows that the teens and pre-teens that are buying her music now have the attention span of a nat. For her it’s a simple fomula, Get the money now and later work on being a real artist.

Sometimes when I see the Biebers of the music industry out there performing I wonder could a band like the Eagles have made it today if they broke in 2010? I mean I remember the first time I saw them in 1974 when four guys came onstage in jeans and t-shirts and just said “Were the Eagles from California” and launched into four part harmony that just absolutly blew me away. You know what they had?

Talent…..
Would that work today?

The only way to end this story is this. There will be over a thousand musicians playing all over Cleveland this weekend in bars and clubs that have 100 times more talent than Justin Beiber will ever have but does it matter?

Sadly no………

Nuff said, least till next time
Have a great thanksgiving
Peace
Bear