To
Play Or Not To PlayTop 40 Music
Top 40 Music
Are you rich or are you a
starving artist. My guess is normally the latter.
If you work as a musician, sooner or later you will
have to do something kind of humiliating in order
to pay the bills.
Many musicians play weddings,
Bar Mitzvahs, or graduation and birthday parties.
Others write songs for commercials and soundtracks.
In my case, I pay the bills working in a cover
band.
The Top 40 Music Charts
It is a harder gig than you
might imagine. You really have to stay on top of
the tastes of the bar crowd, and that can be tough.
At first, I really did not know how to stay up to
date. I looked at the top 40 music charts, figuring
that that would be the best way to figure out what
was popular and what was not.
As the band leader, I had the
authority to decide which songs we played. The
Billboard top music songs seemed to work pretty
well for a while, but the crowd was not quite with
us.
They would nod along to the
music, and we would make decent tips on most
nights, but for the most part no one really
listened to what we were doing. The top 40 music
songs just were not working. Whatever the reason,
we were not in sync with what this crowd wanted to
hear.
From Top 40 To
70s
For a while, we switched it
up. We disregarded the top 40 music entirely, and
focused on classic rock and oldies, mixing it up
with a bit of blues and R&B.
That seemed to work pretty
well for a while. We would have more folks actively
listening to us, and we seemed to get better tips
as well.
The weird thing was that
people would not stick around as long. Mostly, the
younger folks would go somewhere else. It is
possible to make a living off of the tips of the
35+ crowd, but you really don't want to alienate
younger listeners.
Mixing It Up With Top
Forty Music - A Winning Combination
We only hit on the right
formula when we decided to mix things up. We would
play top 40 music, oldies, and a few more obscure
numbers for the music snobs in the crowd.
Somehow, that was the golden
formula. Usually, you can not keep everyone happy,
but at this bar we could. People who liked top 40
music got enough to keep them around, but we also
kept the classics there for people who favored
older tunes.
It was a good bar, so it
wasn't that hard to get everyone to stick around
once we figured out the right mix. So, what's your
venue? Do you want to play just what you like or do
you want to get paid? Mixining in top 40 music
might just help pay the rent, or at least, help buy
some new guitar strings!
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More Music Notes
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Rolling
Stone Magazine - What It
Was
-
Ever since Dr. Hook sang On the Cover Of a
Rolling Stone the magazine was forever
embedded in the minds of music fans who
wanted to read about their favorite music
groups and performers. But, what about
today? Is it gone
forever?
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Mucisian
Referral
-
Finding a musician for your new group can
be a daunting task. Where do you look to
find people with the musical talent you
desire? Well, musician referral is coming
on the scene to help.
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