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Mad Mike Banks got it right with Deejays and Egos
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| torontotrance |
| Mad Mike Banks for all you noobs is the man behind Underground Resistance, the only pics that exist of him are ones which his face nearly completely covered and he has done 2 phone interviews in his entire career but yet I was thinking about this, he got it right in 1991, just people never realized it. UR hates publicity, they rarely do any, interviews you wish, media hype forget about it. It seems Armin, PvD, Tiesto and others rather make things in one mold and push their popstar status to new heights but Mad Mike Banks got it right from the start. He has never done interviews for the most part, he is relatively unknown to most but you know his name. UR does not advertise, they simply let the music do the talking and not let artist egos get in the way. You don't see them bitching about more time in mags, heck half their roster is unknown to most...drexciya was only known by name till the passing of the man behind it. I think Mad Mike Banks saw it coming that artist ego would ruin music, so he rather have his weird space diatribe as the label thing and let the music speak and hide the artists. Anyone think the same? |
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| Radagast |
| NO ONE HAS EVER HAD THIS IDEA BEFORE. |
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| torontotrance |
| what do you mean? |
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| aspergian |
Well, this has obviously been a longtime double-edged sword for electronic music. It certainly makes marketing and helping people to relate with the personalities of electronic musicians -- i.e. uber-Moby, whose face is well-known, or even someone such as Richard D. James the Aphex Twin-- a LOT harder. In fact, this is what turned a lot of people off of EDM before they had some more accessible association.
I'm an advocate for diversity -- we need all types of musicians in this, including the ones who want to remain anonymous. I like some of the UR stuff and that of other artists who have hidden behind the curtain like Michael Cretu (of Enigma fame), but I also gravitate towards the people who have their mugs everywhere too. Obviously, even among the all-time greats, not many know who Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream looks like, but the Kraftwerk iconography and their public Man-Machine philosophy endures to this day. Jeff Mills himself I've seen numerous photographs of, and given his complicated history with UR, it's not surprising.
There are arguments for and against it. So, I see it this way: many types of music made by many types of musicians for many types of people. :D |
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| wwu.punisher |
Here's one of those "face-covered" pics...
Weird , man. Weird . |
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| basd |
This kind of topics are really a relief from all the crap posted on these boards lately.. Good to see there still are people thinking about music here, rather than only drooling over pics from other board members :)
Here's my 2 cents:
Unfortunately, lots of todays DJs are seen as superstars, when all they do is play other people's music. I know, most of them have become successful through their productions as well, but a show of Tiesto or Armin playing only their own work would get boring as hell pretty soon (and that's not just because I don't like trance, it would to almost everybody).
Although personally, I think UR overdid it a bit in their efforts to stay anonymous, some DJs should know their place a bit better. It's really not about them, it's about the music they play, whether it's their own or other people's music. I hate that star attitude that some DJs are getting nowadays. |
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| Mr.Mystery |
I think you should find the golden path. Being ultra-exposed is annoying and shunning all publicity is just stupid.
If you're good, the publicity will follow naturally. You don't need to make interviews or photoshoots but it's quite pointless to completely cover your face or not say to anything anyone ever. People want to hear your music, that's why you're in the business in the first place. Why make it so hard for them? |
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| Sand Leaper |
| quote: | Originally posted by Mr.Mystery
People want to hear your music, that's why you're in the business in the first place. Why make it so hard for them? |
Because you only want people who are "in the know" to hear your music. Whether that's a good thing or not is another issue.. |
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