Check out this video of her performance of "Rehab" from last week's Glastonbury 2008 where she is obviously uncontrollably under the influence and actually hits a fan in the audience!
As funny and ridiculous it is to watch, it's really sad to see such a successful Grammy award-winning musical artist slowly waste any talent or hard work she's already accomplished. She can't even start the song correctly and tries to blame it on her drummer. Watching this video inspired me to think about the importance of the live show for musical artists.
With CD sales dropping by the year, musical artists rely more than ever on touring and their live show. It's where they'll find the money to sustain being an artist in a very competitive industry, selling tickets, merchandise, music. At the center of all this is the fans and their support of their favorite artists. Major labels have started realizing this in the past couple years and are trying to cash in on artists with their 360 Deals- agreements that the label takes a percentage of tour/merch sales in return for having artists on their labels. Some artists have completely left their labels in favor for concert promoters. Last October 2007, Madonna announced that she was leaving Warner Music to be the founding artist for the new music division Live Nation Artists. Now more than ever, the live show is the most important part of being a musical artist.
So then why are some of the highest top-charting artists completely disregarding this?
Remember last year's incident with Akon tossing a kid off stage which caused another kid to have a concussion? Let me refresh your memory:
All that because the kid threw something on stage at him. Akon was in trouble again earlier this year for pulling a 15 year-old girl on stage and started simulating sex and molesting her. What is he thinking?
When I pay to go to a concert, I'm expecting to see the best performance possible from the artist performing and nothing less- I mean, it's their job, right? In 2003, the band Creed was sued for ticket refunds because members were to stoned to finish multiple songs. Now flash forward today and we have performances like Amy Winehouse's stumbling show at Glastonbury 2008. I would want my money back- especially if she elbowed me in the face!
I want to thank all the musical artists out there that work hard- in the studio and on stage. That is what being successful and respected in the industry is all about. Hopefully Ms. Winehouse can regain control of her life soon or we'll have more videos to laugh at on Youtube. (On second thought, maybe it's not that bad of an idea:)
1 comment:
The irony contained in the fact that she's singing a song called Rehab is too much.
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