Moving Beyond The Age of Narcissism

At this point we’ve been glorifying musicians for a long time. Since Elvis and The Beatles (or you could argue Mozart and Beethoven) certain musicians have been elevated to the mantle of genius, star, and that ubiquitous term of musical achievement, “Idol”. But any professional musician who has had his feet in the biz for a while has stories of the absurdities and excess that goes along with the success. More importantly, for most working musicians the idea of becoming a star is not at the top of the list. The larger question is, how do I make a sustainable living from the years of practice, performance, recording and schlepping gear? As the perception of the “successful” musician continues to come into sharper contrast with the realities of making a living in music it seems a good time to rethink the larger question what is the role of musician in our culture today?

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