I am an average 50 something female. I grew up in the 70’s when a political voice was something to be proud of and music was not cookie cutter over produced crap. I have a voice and I want it heard. If you have any questions or would like to leave me a message, please feel free to email me at: willpen14@aol.com
UPDATE: SEPTEMBER 13TH
When I started this blog back in early August, I did so mainly as a place for me to just write down my feelings. As I peruse my daily blog stats, I have been amazed at how hundreds of people have clicked on my “About” page to find out who I am. I guess that must be something that people want to know about, if they are going to read your thoughts and your musings.
For the past two years I have followed the career of American Idol winner, Taylor Hicks, through on line communities and message boards. I came to realize that these communities were not a place where you could really voice your opinions. They were just places filled with unconnected and disjointed voices all vying for a chance to have their voices heard, without ever really stopping to listen to what others had to say. If you did not tow the line, you were either ignored or chastised for those beliefs and you were accused of not being a loyal and true fan. Sort of like art imitating politics.
So I ventured out into the blogosphere not knowing much about the power that it held. I started off by posting some thoughts on music and such. I have very strong political beliefs, so when the Presidential election started really kicking into gear, I began being swept up in what I was connecting to out there in blogland. I was amazed at the power that is being generated by a group of every day people connecting through links thus creating a chain which can reach the furthest reaches of our world. In my quest for information, I began to realize the power that I held in getting my voice heard on a daily basis. I have followed links from my blog that have taken me to online news sources where my willpen name has been quoted as a connection to some article that I posted. I find this all truly amazing.
So on I go every day trying to do my part in the workings of the world. I try to post only legitmate things and I hope that I can be of some help to anyone that happens upon my little piece of the world of blogs.
I like your ‘about’ section.
I like lots of what I see here, but it’s still too much a Taylor Hicks fan site for my tastes. I like him, but enough already. He’s a talented musician – but just one of countless many.
hi, willpen,
just watched your vid, found it on mudflats. here’s a suggestion. very powerful but your images and comment on the organizers SPEAK for themselves. no need to put in the text that bashes the repubs…it is good stuff standalone. i think you could cut the duration and end just after the jesus slide with some of the hilary stuff or a nod to obama but really, your theme is so powerful on it’s own, a powerful tool just to juxtapose the photos with the text explaining who these community organizers are.
no i am not a teacher, just an english speech comm web journalist who is confounded by sarah palin. i live in arizona. not a mccain fan…live about 2 miles from him.
good luck and keep on posting. wish i had time to do vids on this
best to you
Count me as one who thinks there is definitely NOT too much Taylor Hicks. I love the political commentary and the Taylor Hicks stuff. I just wish there was more posts although the ones that are posted here are well thought out and allow for differences of opinion.
Wow! I didn’t know that I could comment on the “about” page. What I like about this blog is that different opinions are being voiced in ongoing dialogues — “conversations” where we can really learn about issues (& about each other).
And don’t forget the music!!
Ok, musically, I’ll bite into the debate…do you think that Taylor Hicks and American Idol are helping to bring back a sense of music being “not cookie cutter over produced crap”? No arguments about Hicks’ talent – he is talented. But, being one who works in the industry, I have seen the effect Idol has had. I’ve even worked with some very talented people who have been through the Idol camp. But talented people can still be overproduced if they enter through a system of overproduction, which I would argue that American Idol is a continuation of (see Motown, Stax, and a hundred other record companies in the 50s, 60s, and 70s and groups like the Monkees, Partridge Family, David Cassidy, etc). Idol, AGT, and all of these similar enterprises use very similar contracts that deny artists any ability to be artists in the first place. A winning Idol contestant is about the only person in the world (anymore) who has their persona and artistic output licensed to an organization in perpetuity…it’s really pretty sick when you look further into it. It is, IMHO, little more than a continuation of the created pop star, the payola scandal, and the predatory practices that began when music went from being a sole form of expression and became a business. But I do have to admit…I’ve tuned in a few times myself, and just as easily get caught up in the overproduced glamour of the whole trainwreck. And I make my living off of working with some of those same stars, in the same controlled industry. It’s a crappy dilemma.
IBD,
I know a ton of people that would be thrilled to read your comment.
Taylor Hicks was the problem child of AI from the get go. Very early on in the competition he tried to get a consensus together in order to force the producers to do things that were more beneficial to the Season 5 contestants. Needless to say, the entire original group of 12 chose not to take that route, but Taylor’s fate as the problem child was sealed.
He knew that he had to play the game until he won then he proceeded to set himself up in a position where he could legally get out of his contract due to AI’s lack of promotion on his part. The media was all over the fact that he was dropped by the record company. He wisely let it just be.
As for AI not being cookie cutter over produced crap, that is their mainstay. They benefit from assembly line artists that are just shoved willy nilly on an unsuspecting and gullible audience.
Taylor on the other hand, was and always will be the consummate working musician. His strengths lie in his live performances. This is sort of a problem for him since he will need to find that one producer that can help him to translate the raw emotions of his performances into the recording studio. Taylor is not the kind of performer that would ever have fit into Idol format. Taylor did not wish to have his “persona and artistic output licensed to an organization in perpetuity…”. He chose to take the high road and to continue to make one fan at a time. I would love to talk music with you anytime.
IBD I will echo Willpen here, and say I am one of those thrilled by your post- thanks for basically confirming what we knew….
Willpen- your post is great too, and I had no idea we could post here either
I want to thank you for this blog, and a place for discussions about our world today….and the music 
Ok, I can see where you’re coming from then. =o) I must admit, I didn’t follow Taylor much beyond seeing an occasional performance on TV post Idol. It would be really interesting to know how he got out of the contract with Idol. Most of what I know of the Idol system came from music business classes during 2005. The instructor used the Idol contract to point out how there are still clauses being slipped into contracts to scam artists out of basic financial interest in their work, and doing it in a form that kept ownership of many of the financial rights with the company in perpetuity. I’d be interested to know if Taylor’s case changed the law any, or forced Idol to make changes in their contract. The reason it’s such an issue is that it was not that long ago that artists were being locked into contracts that have left some of the greatest writers and musicians with pennies on the dollar. The first ones to go are almost always publishers rights. Being pre-union days as well, it was common for artists (especially house session bands) to get a fairly small fee up front, with no back end royalties when the song became a hit. Since most artists are starving until they are discovered, and the cost of making a mainstream record in the $50,000-$100,000 range (sometimes for studio time alone, with the majors still being in the $1,500-$2,000/day range), it’s still easy to buy into the dream, only to find yourself still struggling to pay the bills when you’ve sold thousands of records. Inflated expense reports when the distributor, publisher, and manufacturer are held by the same company don’t help either, since most artists don’t really get a cut of sales until expenses are recouped. It’s one of the main reasons so many artists have begun to turn to independent labels, with distributorship through a major. It’s just easier to keep people above board when they’re not part of the same ship.
IBD, your perspective is fascinating to me and confirms a lot of the thoughts I had about Taylor and his contractual obligations, about which he has kept strictly mum.
However, I know he has worked hard to wrestle creative control out of the hands of the big guys and back to himself. He has created his own record label and now has signed with a independent distributor called “Artist 2 Market” for his upcoming CD in 2009. I’ll be interested to see if he is able to maitain artistic integrity and put bread on the table at the same time through this new endeavor.
It saddens me that he seems to have to do the road show of Grease to pay the bills instead of being out there concertizing. He’s the kind of personality who tries to make the most of things, so he has never bitten the hand that is currently feeding him. But my hope is that the music and the money aren’t going to be mutually exclusive forever.
IBD,
The exact way that he got out of his contract is probably more speculation than truth, but with some real facts in between. Taylor has a very loyal fan base and they manage to get information. Like I said before, I believe that Taylor and his Lawyers may have used a clause, regarding Taylor being adequately promoted by J Records, to their advantage.
J Records was not very interested in promoting Taylor since they knew that he was not really a mainstream artist. So Taylor basically just went out on the road touring for a full straight year and then some, knowing that the record company was not keeping up their end of the bargain. Again this may be just speculation, but it does make sense. Clive Davis went overboard promoting Carrie Underwood and Chris Daughtry ( from Season 5 and the fourth place contestant) simply because they were way more mainstream than Taylor. My best guess is that Taylor’s lawyer used this as some sort of leverage to get Taylor out of his contract. Maybe it was simply that they agreed to let the record company say that they were dropping him instead of the other way around.
I do know that Taylor has been taking a long time to get his sophomore release out since he is going the Indy route. He has his own production company called “Modern Whomp” and has recently signed with a distributor, whose name escapes me for the moment. He also recently re-released some of his earlier music in which he combined his two previous self released CD’s under the name of Early Works. For this he made a distribution deal with Target, which, in my opinion, was not very smart. He has barely sold probably no more than 10-15,000 copies to this point. On the other hand this may have been part of his previous contractual obligations with J Records. Again this is all speculation, but makes sense since this was not a money making deal for him by any stretch.
If you are interested in hearing some of his early stuff there is a pretty comprehensive web site that has tons of information about him. If you click on the music tab it will take you to all his previous music. The site is:
http://www.tay-online.com
I would be curious to know what you think.
Regards,
Willpen
Thanks to Seven Days for filling in the blanks for me regarding the name of the distributor, Artist-2-Market.
I can see where the possibility would be to get out of a contract through means of insufficient promotion – there is a basic argument that when 2 parties enter into a contract to sell an artist, both sides have to at least attempt to do so. And there are some smart (and, unfortunately, usually expensive) lawyers who can do that. I would venture to guess that much of whatever money Hicks did make from his fame (I believe I remember a few national ad campaigns, etc, and album sales at least in the 100,000+ range for some of his stuff, which *should* have netted him at least a million) dwindled quick when forced to hire expensive entertainment lawyers and fight legal battles. Even for the winner, lawsuits like that come with a high price.
You make a good point about Hicks’ distribution, and the problem faced with going through an indie distributor. The indie distributors just don’t have the market power to hit stores like Best Buy. Interesting to note, however, Guns ‘n Roses over 10 year in the making Chinese Democracy is finally being released – through an exclusive distribution deal with Best Buy. I haven’t looked far enough into the deal to see what it does with regard to electronic downloads, but I would also venture to guess that there is a stipulation that will allow it to go to iTunes…it’s just impossible to make it without it. Another interesting story to note is the recent market data that was released about Radiohead’s In Rainbows. They made it available first as an electronic download based on donation – you only paid what you thought it was worth. It was then made available at the usual price in brick and mortar stores. They reports have come back in – the album sold 1.25 million online and 1.75 million in hard copy sales. Extremely interesting when you consider that Radiohead’s previous released (one of which was a grammy winner) sold in the hundereds of thousands. Although it should be noted – they got a fair amount of free press for releasing an album on a “pay as you wish” system, which probably didn’t hurt sales. The last time they sold with those kinds of numbers was in the mid 90s. Radiohead is now on ATO – a label founded by Dave Matthews, that has some amazing artists. I’d highly recommend checking them out – http://www.atorecords.com/. So far, it seems like they have a business model that is working better than the majors in the new climate – and they are certainly being more respectful to the people whose art they’re peddling.
I’ll check out some of Taylor’s stuff and get back to you on what I think. For now, the pillow roars, and I must listen.
[...] About [...]
Willpen, Great “about” page and a fantastic blog. I like your writing.
Admittedly more of a Snow Patrol and Cold Play fan, but as far as politics go, we seem to be kindred spirits.
Keep up the good work. I look forward to more.
Catherine,
Hmmm… Cold Play…. I’ll have to give them a listen. Thanks for the reply.
Hey Willpen,
I dropped by to see your About Page since you dropped by my site. I knew that anyone who posted Bushisms had to be a kindred spirit. I read Mudflats too. It gave me such great background on Sarah Palin during the campaign. I swear that for two months, I wrote about nothing but politics. I was bitten by the bug. I even worked on the Obama campaign, and boy did it feel good when Virginia went to the Democrats for the first time since LBJ. I was crying my eyes out. Actually, I cried a lot during the campaign. I was hard not to because we haven’t had such an articulate, inspiring candidate in a long, long time.
I’m not a big American Idol person, so I can’t chat with you about that, sorry. But I’ll be glad to jump on board the outgoing man who would be president and his sidekick, Dr. No. anytime.
The blogging world is actually pretty fascinating. I think that I have over 12,000 hits now, and some people with whom I correspond regularly. I do try to find new people to read and correspond with as it makes the whole experience much more than a belly-button introspection, especially when you are talking to people from all over the world. I’ve already added you to my blogroll.
Good luck with your adventures in blogland. It can be a bit like going through the looking glass at times.
poietes,
Going through that looking glass or down the Rabbit Hole with the White Rabbit and Grace Slick…. I have spent many, many wonderful hours there. I am glad that we have found each other as well.
Hi willpen. I laughed when I read your “update” to your About page. I’m fairly new to blogging and asked a person experienced if there was an etiquette I should know. I was told when I found a blog interesting, entertaining, of shared interests it was ‘proper’ to mention that on the About page. Maybe many know this proper etiquette and that’s why you found that “hundreds of people have clicked on my “About” page to find out who I am.”
I’ve never watched American Idol. I am an oddity, I know. But you and I share political persuasions! I enjoyed poking around your blog! Thank you.
LOL…. I knew there just had to be a reason why everyone was so interested in little old me…
Thanks for stopping by…
We’d be honored to add you to our blog roll. Would you mind that?
http://iggydonnelly.wordpress.com/
Thanks…