rudeness is the biggest obstacle to overcome in the music industry…
One of the biggest obstacles to overcome in the music and creative industry is the pig ignorant behaviour of the few who think they are above everybody else. The amount of times you do not get an email back from an enquiry you’ve made, never ceases to amaze me. How long would it take to press the bloody reply button and answer back? If you are at the bottom, most so called movers and shakers will not have the time. Take Cork X South West as an example, my emails have gone out and the organiser has not bothered to reply to me. Even though they were supposed to be having a spoken word stage, and as a spoken word performer living in Cork, it might have been nice to be involved. You don’t expect to be on the bigger festivals when you are starting out, but with a festival on your doorstep the odd Cork poet might have been a good gesture, a missed chance.
Theatre companies can also fall in to this bracket. There is an element of big fish in small ponds here with some. Directors can act like mini Mafia leaders, promoting from within, even though most of the time they are directing a bunch people that have day time jobs in the first place.
Not all are like this of course. I’ve had some great experiences too. Here in Cork Mutant Space / Trash Culture Revue leads the way, motivating people to get involved. And the Dublin poetry scene (Glor, Brown Bread, Nighthawks, Tongue Box) to name just a few, are well run, friendly and inspirational.
But it can be frustrating. There is an eliteness to this industry, and of course we can’t all play and be involved and they have to pick only certain acts, but Jesus lads lets be nice about the rejections. Cork X South West might work as a festival, but it might not, and let’s hope, if it fails, we are all a little nicer to the organisers than they have been to some of the acts that have tried to get on the bill. Good luck with it though.
The music industry seems to thrive on this kind of in crowd mentality. I for one have no time for it. Enough said…
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