Can you imagine Bob Dylan using Twitter?

This question was put to me a few weeks ago, and I’ve been pondering it ever since.

Picture the scene. You’ve got a bunch of aspiring musicians hanging out before a gig. They’re talking the usual hipster stuff, discussing local scene politics, different makes of guitar, whatever. There’s your usual musicianly cliches, like unorthodox hair cuts, smoking, tins of lager, scruffy atire. As often happens on these sorts of occasions, the conversation turns to bitching about some aspect of the music industry – in my experience musicians will often bond over shared pet hates, justifying frustrations and jealousies. The conversation this time turns to the recent comments of Trent Reznor on the need for muscians to exploit every internet resource available to them and to bypass the traditional music industry ( Trent’s comments are talked about here – http://www.zeropaid.com/news/10000/case_study_trent_reznor_and_the_future_of_the_music_industry/).

I was defending Trent’s point of view – I personally think it’s great that nowadays, not only is it ridiculously easy for absoutely anyone to make a music video, but pretty much instantly that music video can be watched by anyone else in the world via youtube or similar sites (and ditto for all the other fields of activity that being in a musician involves). You maybe surprised to find out that the others who I was talking to were not into this point of view. The crux of the other side of the arguement was summed up in the title of this blog. It seemed that spending hours building a web presence just wasn’t considered cool.

The problem here is a mix of lazyness and inepititude. It stands to reason that those best at making music might not be the best at geeking it out on forums and blogs. Also, it doesn’t fit the cliche of a rock musician spending his or her time partying, gigging and recording (let’s not forget that that this cliche is one that arose in the sixities, when the music industry was young and prosperous). I think it’s time this cliche was eradicated, or at least seriously revised and updated.

As for the original question, well I’m not sure, and I don’t know if I know if I’m educated in the ways of Mr Zimmerman to say either way. However, in true blogging style, I welcome your comments and thoughts on the matter.

To finish, for no other reason other than gratuitous self promotion, here’s some of my music.