Nashville Tn 2001 Music City USA
“You could make a platinum selling album and still owe the damn record company money. Once they got you in their tentacles they don’t let go.”
Nashville is music city USA. I have been in a Waffle House at 2 am on a Tuesday and a concert has broken out. Everywhere you go there is music. GREAT music, to bad most of it never makes into the recording studios. But take an adolescent young boy or boys, teach them a few dance moves, a bubble gum pop hit and they fill an auditorium. The fickle taste of the public.
In Nashville it is possible to see a heavy metal band at one bar go next door to modern country and then turn a corner and hear old school country western. You haven’t even walked a block yet and all of this in the shadow of Ryman auditorium the original home of the Grand Ole Opry.
The Nashville Palace is no where near any of that. Yes, located outside of the main entrance of the Gaylord Hotel, convention center, mall and the new Grand Ole Opry, call Opry Land. The building itself looks like it belongs in cow-town, where real country is still played. Clapboard siding, split rail porch and neon blaring, The Nashville Palace, beckoning all to come, be seen and heard at the Palace. A nightclub slash entertainment center slash Karaoke bar, many a want to be raising star has hit its stage for their first and for many last venue they will ever play in. Just a few miles from Broadway and Second where all the action is. As I said music is everywhere.
When walking into the Palace you have a choice to make, pay the cover, sit in the entertainment section, no cover and hang out in the bar side. So guess where I ended up? There were a fair amount of people on either side. How ever in the bar area you could hear the music, just not see it, the only concession to for sake of a $10 cover.
The bar area consists of rows of picnic tables, no stools at the bar, it looking more of a cowboy bar then a country bar. Wood, wood and peanut shells made up the decor. No pictures on the wall but an assortment of raw iron fixtures nailed in place. Not a palace at all but more of a barn. Some marketing person probably told them they would attract more people with the name Nashville Palace vs Nashville Barn.
I grabbed my beer and sat down at the least populated table. The others where filled with tourists, conventioneers and one that had three couples that were over the top neatly dressed compared to the rest of the gather masses. Plus there was a young girl heavily made up and dressed in jeans so tight you would think they were spray painted on, peasant white shirt, the country mile of fashion. My curiosity was peeked wondering what they were up to.
I sat down and started enjoying my beer when I was sucked right into the conversation of my table mates.
“Who the hell are you sugar”. The older lady of the group said as soon as I took my seat.
“I am sorry is this seat taken?” I replied half out of shock.
“By you, you tall drink of water, how tall are you?”
“5 foot 16″
“What, your 5′ 16″, thats tall.”
I could tell she was pondering this, figuring out the math behind 5 foot 16, not quit sure what to make of it.
“Shit your six four.” She laughed and slap her knee.
“For being such a smart ass your buying me a beer.” She held up her empty Miller Lite can waving it in the air. “John buy me a beer on his tab and while your at it I am buying Mr. five foot sixteen here his next beer. I like that. I am Lauren, this is my friend Vicki, our friend Tom, sweetie what’s was your name again?” Lauren ask the other woman sitting at the table. She did look out of place, wearing a t-shirt and jeans bit on the buxom heavy side. Where as Lauren and crew were dressed for a night out, slim in that country way, wearing jeans with the big concho belt, jewelry on every finger, necklaces, that casual country look. The other lady looked like she just got off the bus.
“Hi, I am Val, I just got here today trying to make it in Nashville, going to be a country signer.” Val answer as she shook my hand. She had just gotten off the bus.
“I tell you hon, you don’t need to be getting in that business, it will chew you up spit you out.” Lauren said as John bought over all the beers at once, dropped them on the table turned and walked back to the bar.
“Don’t pay him no mind” Lauren said “He is always like that.”
“Now hon, look at that table over there with the blond sitting there drinking her water.”
We all looked over making it very obvious that we were talking about them. I gave a nervous smile we all turn to look at the table with the three couples and the young blond girl. The woman at that table all had jewelry upon jewelry just like my table mates but real stones, diamonds and emeralds, their make up was not applied hap hazardely but with skill and meaning. The men, pressed shirts and shorts, and hard shoes no socks. They looked more of a country club than country bar set. The center of our attention was not the couples but the loan girl, not a woman like her companions but a girl. We guessed 19 to 20. She was pretty, in a cute country girlish way. She looked innocent enough which in the music biz is the death knell.
“The guy on the right of the girl is a promoter, he is grooming her for stardom, when they get done with her she won’t even recognize herself, cloths, surgery, backup signers, she will become a part of the machine. There bringing her here to get used to playing in front of a live crowd.”
“The machine?” I asked.
“The music machine, if she makes it and sells platinum the record company will make sure she still owes them money, forcing her into another contract.”
“What, a platinum selling record and she OWES the record company money, how can that be?”
“Easy, 6-4, looked they sponsor everything and charge for it. What she could do on her own they charge ten times the rate and hold that against the contract. When sales are totaled against what they spent the artist always comes out on the short end. Baby who do you think the industry employees. Artist and musicians.” Lauren laughed
So did Vicki and Tom, they had been there and done that.
Vicki chimed right in “Sweetie your to nice a girl, we know,this industry were in it for 10 years back in the 60s and 70s. Lauren sold two gold albums doesn’t have a penny to show for it, see she has strange men buying her beer now. Do you want to end up like her?”
Lauren chimed in “Yea the bastard accountants had charge me for stamps to mail out their press releases. STAMPS.”
Valerie Pulanski from upstate Minnesota had left her home town to seek fame and fortune in Nashville. Her name was on the list to sing and this was going to be her big break. We talked on about the machine and Val keep checking her name on the list which kept being moved down. In the end we figure Val had come down here for bragging rights. This would be as with so many her first and last performace in Nashville. She would take the experience back to Minnisota and for many a Christmas to come her cousins would talk about how Val had performed in Nashville. She would be in her and in her family’s minds a country music star.
The blond at the other table not sure what happen to her. She was very talented with a great voice. Lauren had me convince that she would become a part of the machine.
In 2001 the record labels took an aggressive stand against file sharing and sued Napster. They won the legal battle but lost in the court of public opinion. File sharing continues to grow as record labels see double digit sales loss each year. However there is a body of evidence that file sharing is not the primary culprit. Sony, Universal, Warner and EMI make up over 80% of the record sales in the world. The technology gap between studio and garage is getting narrower. A band now can produce, record and market their own works via the internet without the big four ever getting involved. The record label is becoming a greedy dinosaur in the age of music enlightenment. Artist are now able to reap a greater reward for their works and not end up owning a megalith corporation after selling over 1,000,000 albums.
Now in the internet age the record companies biggest enemy is the bored college kid in a dorm with a T-3+ line coming into his room or the audio geek in the basement with a good Apple computer. As long as they exist we will have music and they will buy their own stamps.
