Ian Too
Group: Members
Posts: 72
Joined: Aug. 2005 |
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Posted: Nov. 29 2005, 09:25 |
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I think this negativity is the result of simple frustration, some justified and some not, but natural. It is only natural that having found a source of truely unique music, people would want more and want to like the source of it.
Despite what Mike says, music is important and personal to people. It should be thought of as a form of communion - a meeting of souls - for otherwise, why would people choose to listen say, to The Blues? It doesn't make sense, if music were mere entertainment, that expressions of 'negative' emotions should be as popular as love songs, but they are. As well as pop, there is rock. As well as Britney, there is Kate Bush and used to be Mike Oldfield, the man who once said that the mark of a good musician was to be able to play one note and really mean it.
More than any other popular artist, Mike Oldfield owes everything he has to people who are serious about music; people who value originality and passion in their art. People who don't want to be pandered to, but to have genuine emotion in the art they buy. Aren't such people just the sort to feel the necessity to stick to thier guns when there is an issue? Aren't such people the sort to hang aroud Tubular Net to swap notes and await news? By criticising such people, Mike has been foolish enough to bite the hand that feeds him and is lucky that he has food in store.
He needs to remember that a recording artist's relationship with fans is a symbiosis: they give emotional release and receives ample monetary reward and something we all secretly want: adulation. We all secretly want to be stars, to be appreciated and respected and loved.
And this brings us to Mike Oldfiled the man. Does he deserve the respect some people think he should have? A parallel cold be drawn with the late George Best, for both have been known to overindulge in drink and drugs.
Some argue that Best should be remembered for his football prowess and little regard paid to his life off pitch. After all he gave pleasure to milions all over the world, so these things should not be linked. Well my first musical idol was Gary Glitter, who must have given pleasure to quite a few people, because after all, he had more than one number one. Is anyone seriously going to say we should remember Gary Glitter as an entertainer and forget that he's a child molester and pervert? No, these things are linked whether we like it or not.
Thankfully, Mike Oldfield is not Gary Glitter and like George Best, has been the main victim of his over indulgence. In these circumstances, I think we can put these things into perspective and distance the incidents fromthe music. Composers are known to be temperamental and all that, aren't they?
But ask yourself this: would you want Mike Oldfield as your father? What would you think of your dad if he parked the family Ford over the edge of Beachy Head? Imagine opening the paper one day and finding your dad opening his heart to total strangers and saying how troubled he is; especially after the incident where he had got drunk and mum had had to lock herself in the bedroom because she was scared?
Face it, Mike is not a person who should be respected. He is only a self indulgent fool - and there are plenty of them about - but he has the resources to make his foolishness truely remarkable. Park your Ford over a cliff and it's only the police who will be interested, but do the same with a Mercedes and you've made the papers.
"But you're forgetting the music!" I hear you cry, but I'm not. We are people who want our music to come from the heart, to mean something, even if we can't put it into words. In this case it is the whole person that matters and I'm not talking about expecting saintlyness either, Keith Richards is a rock star too.
Mike's trouble is that he seems to have become mean. Once upon a time, Mike would have spent thousands on a guitar, mixing desk or computer, because it would allow him to do new things, but now the money will be spent making it easier to do what people seem to expect of him. What he's missed is that we expect a lot more than Britney fans: we expect Mike to be committed, passionate and original. We don't want the dream, we want the reality.
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(-: Ian :-)
Currently reading:
What Remains to be Discovered by John Maddox
Also doing far too much decorating than is good for one 
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