Posts by Simon Grigg
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I'm not sure if that's NZ on Air's job though, though I presume their work has helped in some way in sales.
Sure, but there is fairly strong evidence also that commercial radio is fairly out of step with what, using a very broad sweep, many NZers would want or be comfortable listening too. The very fact that an album like Fat Freddies has sold so many copies, and the number of indie NZ records that have crashed the charts over the years may indicate that the listening public is more advanced than those providing the researched fodder.
Opshop would probably have far far fewer albums in NZ without airplay, but the volume sold with the amount of airplay they've had indicates that just about every copy sold was like pulling teeth for EMI.
And sales are a huge part in the viability of the industry to survive, let alone prosper, which is claimed as a part of their brief.
Isn't putting more of NZOA just a ploy to bost APRA's 'turnover'?
uhhhhh, no, because APRA administers all writer's performance income, not just NZers. How would the national split change that?
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i thought part of the arguement was that we shouldnt be pandering to international tastes?
No, my point is that I think we all want to see NZ recording artists do well internationally (and we've proved you can do it from NZ, signed by a NZ label). The above two, which are the two NZ acts in recent years with the most radio pickup in their home market stand little chance because are simply watered down, to be honest, lessor versions of something that the rest of the world can do better.
Crowded House on the other hand worded initially because they stood out from the post punk and pomp rock landscape. Savage stands out because he is not the American hip hop cliche, whethr that is intentional or not. Conchords, boy do they stand out.
A tiny little country like NZ, pretty much unnoticed by the rest of the world doesn't stand a chance on the international stage with lessor versions of what bigger countries already provide. The simple politics of the industry mean that no label in the US or elsewhere is gonna risk anything on a release that competes with somethng they already do.
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And the biggest selling NZ album this decade was largely airplay free.
Sorry, meant to be second biggest selling, assuming Beautiful Collision is the biggest and Fat Freddies second.
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The latest crappy winner of NZ idol is as much a part of our cultural identity as poi-e or Prince Tui Teka or Moana or anything else that is uniquely NZ.
The irony in that statement is that it didn't matter how much radio thrashed much of that stuff, it really didn't sell. Great TV stuff but few buyers beyond a short burst. Clearly radio is out of touch at that level.
To be honest, with a couple of exceptions, radio doesn't sell NZ records the way it should if one looks at the airplay. Indeed many of the most successful NZ albums have done so without radio support.
Even the likes of Opshop, with the massive airplay, haven't sold anywhere like the numbers of albums one would assume they would. Someone is out of touch with somebody.
And the biggest selling NZ album this decade was largely airplay free.
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That's not being narrow, that's being relevant.
And it's also not being given any options. As the album charts and the Australian quota system indicates, the people often want and will accept more.
Radio worked out when the voluntary quota system was set up that there were ways to sidestep it. They've done a pretty good job of doing just that.
As Russell pointed out above, commercial radio can be great, adventurous and profitable...its a win all, and European and Uk radio has often played that game.
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so lets have the more long winded "I'm not really coming from the same place as dubmugga, and I'm not prepared to say things as rudely as robbery is, something like that eh?
ok, fair call, but I do have an issue with the hammer and tongs approach and I'm also broadly supportive of what NZoA has done historically and in particular Brendan. That's a fairly major point of difference
or would you like me to list you in with gray bartlett as an established member of the music community?
nah, not so, I'm happily on the edge looking in. I've always preferred it that way.
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Hi Brendan,
Ok..this is a late night ramble. Thanks for replying here and attempting to address some of these concerns. Firstly, a couple of things: I’m not really coming from the same place that Rob or Dubmugga or a couple of others are here. I’m not making qualitative or taste judgments about the music funded by NZoA and I think that all original music made for and by New Zealanders should be worthy of attention. I think encouraging NZ’s creativity and then allowing it to be heard is the issue at hand, no? Like you, my personal taste doesn’t come into any of this.Secondly, I know how far we’ve come and I know what a big part you have played in that and I know what battles you’ve had to fight (some you’ve won and some you’ve lost, but the ratio is pretty good) over the 25 odd years we’ve known each other…I guess that makes us the old white men alluded to above ……..but also I know how far there is to go. And how fragile these gains are (with that in mind, I’d love to see that 20% NZ airplay figure broken down into formats and stations????)
Myself, I think only a small part of the war has been won and we’ve lost track of what I’ve always thought the end goal was, even if it was unwritten, which was to allow our music to stand on its own, to have a fair shot at international success and to be supported by a vibrant local industry. That last part is almost there, in no small due to the work of yourself, Mike and Ant at APRA and others. A look at the charts will tell you that commercial radio doesn’t play a major part in this right now. However, we’ve gone from a place where music is no longer completely ghettoised..where radio stations don’t automatically sneer at an NZ record (or at least not at Opshop or Brooke)…I remember being told by a Wanganui radio station that The Screaming Meemees should record…they were number one at the time, and that sort of attitude was prevalent until the early 2000s. Lets not forget, these same people who now turn up at NZ Music ceremonies fought tooth and nail to keep it off the air.
And in a way that last bit is the problem I have. It’s a tricky one because, as you say, these stations are not publicly owned and they paid good money for the right to broadcast. Sadly (and that’s another reason I ask about how the 20% is broken down) these people, commercial radio, play a very small part in the rise of the industry. They play safe, and play as little as they can get away with, taking no risks. The bulk of what we call NZ Music still remains thoroughly ghettoised by them, but survives because of widespread public support, b-net and the like. Take a look at the singles chart, it’s almost NZ Music free (unlike the albums, but many of those have sold despite the lack of airplay). The bulk of your Kiwi Hit discs are ignored by radio because they can hide behind the two or three tracks they are playing.
None of which helps our music stand up and gives it a shot internationally. We need to be encouraging points of difference, not radio friendly tracks that merge effortlessly with the formats. I may be proved wrong but Opshop and Brooke Fraser are exactly the sort of NZ records that don’t stand a shot outside NZ. We need to be a little more brutal in forcing radio to play the Fat Freddies and the ilk, so that they get exposure. Radio needs to be forced out of its comfort zone. When commercial radio makes up it’s percentage by high rotating one or two radio friendly acts, we’ve not come that far at all I guess.
Maybe this far into the game, we do have to look at changing radio.
Talking of radio, this survey in the US today is fascinating. I don’t think NZ is that different.
Amongst it’s conclusions: 86% of music buyers find out about music through TV, radio or movies. -
Back my day all we had was:
That's just been reissued on a double CD remastered thingy and I was tempted for about 12 seconds in Hong Kong..quite cheap, but not cheap enough for the oen or two plays it might get.
Re: Ak89...I'm hoping it had Totally Fucked, whoops, I meant, Total Effect on it: NZ's answer to the Vanilla Ice school of how many uncleared samples you can put on a song.
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- If you like the music, don't own it and it's available, consider buying it and helping the nice artist :-)
Considering what I want transferred, that would be well tricky.
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A shit tune is a shit tune
I'm with Simon on this. Shit, there are lots of shit tunes that I really think are the shit.
Just quietly of course.