Jonatha Brooke
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THE FINGERTIPS Q&A Jonatha Brooke [continued] |
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For those keeping score at home, there have already been five questions. But if you're interested enough to read to the last page here, you deserve one bonus question, which is a sort of meta-question, based on the fact that I was probably leaving out something important. Here goes... Q: What question would you like to answer about music and the internet that I didn't ask? A: I guess it would be a question about the future of the middle class of artists. What lies ahead for us? Perhaps this is a corollary to the first five questions, but it's important. There will always be the next 19-year-old who's cute as a button and sells a gazillion records because some conglomerate pushes the green button. There will always be another sullen whiny boy that teenage girls go wild for. There will always be an underground indie cult arena, and kids lurking on and scouring the internet for the cool thing no one's ever heard. And then there's the middle class. How will working musicians with long-term careers and impressive track records survive in a more and more hostile environment? How will we find and develop these kinds of artists without investing in them, and nurturing them? If the internet's major avenues are owned and controlled by major corporations, what makes anyone think that makes for a level playing field? Who will develop the next generation of real artists? And where's the future if there's no middle class? I'm answering a question with more questions. I guess time will tell, and we'll see soon enough! Many thanks to Jonatha Brooke for being such a prompt, willing, and articulate guinea pig for the new feature. Jonatha's new album, The Works  , is out as of August 26th. On it, she has written original music to previously unheard lyrics written decades ago by Woody Guthrie; for what it's worth, this is the first time a woman has ever written music to Woody Guthrie lyrics. The album also contains two songs written completely by Brooke. © copyright 2008 Fingertip Productions |