• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Blu DeTiger seeing her bass at GC

If she was male, and we were having the same conversation regarding the possible disconnect between skill level and popularity (and we WOULD be having the same conversation) would that be OK? If it WOULD be OK if she was male, isn't that therefore also sexist?

That trope HAS to end. Not everything is sexist or any other kind of "...ist." People hear what they hear, independent of an artist's demographic. People agree or disagree with policy, too. If the disagreeing parties happen to be from different demographics, that does NOT mean the demographics are the reason for disagreement.
Would we be having the same conversation, though?
 
You could copy and paste some of the thread responses when Tal Wilkenfeld first hit the scene to the Blu threads. Same as it always was.😉😎
Or, if someone really can’t fault Mohini, they’ll grouse about her slapping(which I find fascinating, as she uses tabla rhythms and similar, bringing something new to the technique).
 
  • Like
Reactions: DJ Bebop and jerry
I do think that, as a society, we would do well to tweak what we find popular and what merits popularity. There's no harm in examining all the facets that contribute to a certain artist's popularity; reflection is a good thing. Perhaps Blu's success IS 100% due to her ability as a bassist and singer. My ears don't hear that, but there's no reason others have to agree.

Part of the issue is that 'popular music' is basically chosen for us at this point by marketers. Sure, you can become successful on your own merits in the music industry but I'd reckon it is a lot harder now then it used to be. Yes, there's platforms like youtube that one can use to promote their own material and get a following but you'd be up against companies with a lot more influence that can easily push some random new artist to the top with a couple of 'hit songs' written by some people in an office. It's kind of unfortunate that we currently have more access to music then ever before but that what is popular is basically so concentrated on a relative few number of pop artists that nobody is exposed to all of the great music being made (when I say no one, I mean the average non-musician consumer who is just happy to listen to top 40 radio). Of course I could be totally wrong about all of this, just my opinion about how I see the music industry today.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: DJ Bebop
Part of the issue is that 'popular music' is basically chosen for us at this point by marketers. Sure, you can become successful on your own merits in the music industry but I'd reckon it is a lot harder now then it used to be. Yes, there's platforms like youtube that one can use to promote their own material and get a following but you'd be up against companies with a lot more influence that can easily push some random new artist to the top with a couple of 'hit songs' written by some people in an office. It's kind of unfortunate that we currently have more access to music then ever before but that what is popular is basically so concentrated on a relative few number of pop artists that nobody is exposed to all of the great music being made (when I say no one, I mean the average non-musician consumer who is just happy to listen to top 40 radio). Of course I could be totally wrong about all of this, just my opinion about how I see the music industry today.
Honestly, I think a pretty much similar thing could have been written in the ‘50’s :).
 
Honestly, I think a pretty much similar thing could have been written in the ‘50’s :).

Yeah for sure. I just think there has been a bit more opportunity and airplay provided to some more obscure or less mainstream artists to make it then would be given now. I have a hard time seeing a band like Radio head in 90s getting played on the radio on today's mainstream rock stations. At least I'm the 60s and 70s there were music scenes developing that tried to push boundaries and were successful commercially like Yes, Pink Floyd, Rush etc. Like everything else these days, commercial power is essentially monopolized by a small few players leaving few options for anyone else to gain traction.
 
Yeah for sure. I just think there has been a bit more opportunity and airplay provided to some more obscure or less mainstream artists to make it then would be given now. I have a hard time seeing a band like Radio head in 90s getting played on the radio on today's mainstream rock stations. At least I'm the 60s and 70s there were music scenes developing that tried to push boundaries and were successful commercially like Yes, Pink Floyd, Rush etc. Like everything else these days, commercial power is essentially monopolized by a small few players leaving few options for anyone else to gain traction.
I agree, back then the DJs could push or play a band and help break them, corporate radio doesn't offer that option. Also, back then you had indi record stores that were always fertile ground for breaking non mainstream bands and artists.
 
  • Like
Reactions: N4860
Would we be having the same conversation, though?
No, we wouldn't.

If this were some young guy playing the same pop and funk tunes, touring with the same artists she's toured with, making the same records etc., nobody would be saying he didn't earn it or that he isn't a real musician.

No one would say that stuff because it's more or less exclusively directed at female artists. There's a default assumption by some that a woman must only be getting attention because of her looks, that she isn't a good player, that someone else must be writing her stuff or playing her parts for her. There's no way a guy would be getting that assumption made about them.

It's strange to me, because you could just say you don't like the music. That's fine. There's no need to go out of one's way to take a swipe at her dignity as an artist or a person and act like her presence offends you or sickens you. That's just really strange.

I listened to her "This is... " playlist on Spotify tonight at the gym, and it was all good. The bass tone is nice, the feel and groove of the parts are nice, and she can really play. If the people cutting her down didn't know it was her playing the parts, if they thought she was only the singer on those tracks, they'd probably like the bass parts too.

It's a silly thing to get down in the mud about, but the preposterousness of the idea that Brian Detiger, random male bassist would be taking the same flak is hard to resist hammering down.
 
Last edited:
I kind of wish this three would be closed. Some posts from early on were scrubbed so some of the context is missing. But while it’s still open, I’ll share that I finally played one! I live in the SF Bay Area and haven’t seen one in person - had to come to the Fender Flagship store in Tokyo to play one!

It was great - felt “solid” and yet not that heavy. No G string 5th fret deadspot. With the active eq and pickup selection could go from bright for slapping to more of a fat old school sound with the neck pickup. And of course I love the binding with dots. Wish I had thought to play Vintage on it!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_5757.jpeg
    IMG_5757.jpeg
    5.4 MB · Views: 12
Part of the issue is that 'popular music' is basically chosen for us at this point by marketers. Sure, you can become successful on your own merits in the music industry but I'd reckon it is a lot harder now then it used to be. Yes, there's platforms like youtube that one can use to promote their own material and get a following but you'd be up against companies with a lot more influence that can easily push some random new artist to the top with a couple of 'hit songs' written by some people in an office. It's kind of unfortunate that we currently have more access to music then ever before but that what is popular is basically so concentrated on a relative few number of pop artists that nobody is exposed to all of the great music being made (when I say no one, I mean the average non-musician consumer who is just happy to listen to top 40 radio). Of course I could be totally wrong about all of this, just my opinion about how I see the music industry today.


😊
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: N4860
Part of the issue is that 'popular music' is basically chosen for us at this point by marketers. Sure, you can become successful on your own merits in the music industry but I'd reckon it is a lot harder now then it used to be. Yes, there's platforms like youtube that one can use to promote their own material and get a following but you'd be up against companies with a lot more influence that can easily push some random new artist to the top with a couple of 'hit songs' written by some people in an office. It's kind of unfortunate that we currently have more access to music then ever before but that what is popular is basically so concentrated on a relative few number of pop artists that nobody is exposed to all of the great music being made (when I say no one, I mean the average non-musician consumer who is just happy to listen to top 40 radio). Of course I could be totally wrong about all of this, just my opinion about how I see the music industry today.

Have you ever heard of the Brill Building?

What you are describing is the way the music industry has always worked, for as long as there has been a music industry. Popularity - sales or public recognition of an artist - has always been a factor of the interest of a music label in promoting that artist, and by "promoting" I mean "spending money on."

There are some things that change. The 60s saw "independent" labels promote a wave of new artists that the old majors were a little slower to pick up on. But even then (I was just literally reading about this last night) the majors were not as out of the loop as is sometimes depicted, and the independents that produced really national successes were the ones that had more money to invest and acted more like a major (Atlantic, Chess).

The Beatles really introduced a new paradigm, the composer/performer. They made it cool for artists to perform songs they had written themselves, and created an audience that was more likely to expect it. That got some Brill Building writers out of their offices and onto stages (Neil Diamond, Burt Bacharach, Carole King). But that always existed alongside the more traditional division of labor between composer and performer, it never displaced it entirely. To grab a random example, Michael Jackson's "Rock with You" was not written by Jackson (though he did write some of his other hits), but by Rod Temperton. They originally offered it to Karen Carpenter to sing.

Another difference about that wave of 60s labels was that they introduced a paradigm of cultivating artists' careers (again, Atlantic is the main example I know of). Previously the focus had been on the hit single. They started signing artists that the A&R people felt had potential to bloom into big stars and would release three or four less-successful albums before the fourth or fifth exploded and made them household names (Billy Joel, Prince).

The Digital Revolution upended the whole paradigm. It fragmented the market, where the low investment bar to release music meant that label and radio gatekeepers no longer controlled the audience, and people could get access to music without the gatekeepers (initially, most notoriously, with Napster). That meant a lot of retrenchment where labels would only put their money into sure things - instant hits, and legacy artists. No more signing an unknown to four albums in hopes that by the end of that run they would have broken out into a big name. The top 40 of today is not the same as the top 40 of Casey Kasem's countdown. Your cover band can play a top 10 hit from last year in a bar and chances are no one recognizes it.
 
I kind of wish this three would be closed. Some posts from early on were scrubbed so some of the context is missing. But while it’s still open, I’ll share that I finally played one! I live in the SF Bay Area and haven’t seen one in person - had to come to the Fender Flagship store in Tokyo to play one!

It was great - felt “solid” and yet not that heavy. No G string 5th fret deadspot. With the active eq and pickup selection could go from bright for slapping to more of a fat old school sound with the neck pickup. And of course I love the binding with dots. Wish I had thought to play Vintage on it!
Thanks for the detail, I was curious about the bass. I don't think I would buy one because the finish isn't my style, but the sounds are great in the videos I've seen.

Does it have the MM sort of thing going for it in active mode and with the HB isolated? I love that sound, but most of the time on a Ray I find the neck too small for my liking.
 
Last edited:

Latest posts