Speaking The Language Of Pop: An Interview with Roger Joseph Manning, Jr.

Posted in Current Faves, Interviews, Music |

Roger Manning: I have no clue. All I know is that the model I grew up with—and I’m not saying it’s the right model—no longer exists. We are in the birthing pains of what will be a new, grand, and glorious way for people to listen to, exchange, and experience music. I honestly believe that.

The old model, where the major label was basically the mafia loan agent—

Popshifter: (laughing) Oh god. . .

Roger Manning: —where they basically were the bank and they gave you a loan. And for that, they collected huge interest, just like regular loans. But this afforded a small percentage of musicians to get their music heard by lots of different people. That model is completely over with, no matter how much people are trying to hang onto it. And I can’t tell you what’s it’s going to look like, but I will say this. I guarantee that the creative people, the artists themselves, the producers, art directors, video directors, everybody who is involved in the creative side of the record-making process? They will come out much more ahead, with much more control and much more freedom. But that’s also going to mean maybe less income. It’s going to mean, more responsibility. The artist has to take more responsibility because suddenly they have more freedom.

These are all going to be things we’re going to have to learn and figure out. We may have a perfect model in three or four years or maybe 15 years. I can’t tell you. Right now, we are in the thick of it turning itself upside down. It’s very uncomfortable for people like me. And it’s confusing for all the older farts who want everything to stay the same.

It’s really weird. There are huge ups and huge downs. Well, perceived downs. I think it’s really positive. The roughest part for any of us is that, the old model, if you were part of the “club,” so to speak, you could figure out a way to get the bills paid.

The only reason money has to be exchanged is because money is how we provide for the basics in our lives. As far as I’m concerned, music should never be paid for. It should all be exchanged. . . it’s no different than standing in front of your friend and singing a song and dancing. You don’t go, “Hey, check out this new song I wrote” and after you’re done, say, “Okay, that will be four dollars.”

Popshifter: (laughs)

Roger Manning: You were giving a gift to your friend. And if they enjoyed it, they sang along. It’s reciprocal and it’s an exchange. That’s all a record is. Or a live show or a DVD. But that control mechanism has to be in place so that there can be some level of, “Thank you for your effort. Here’s your compensation. Now go buy your five-dollar-a-gallon gas.”

Popshifter: (cracks up)

Roger Manning: That’s what the old model was. For better or worse, we had a setup that worked. Now the setup is being turned on its head and music is being treated very. . . well, a lot of its specialness and uniqueness is being devalued through piracy.

See, by the same token I just said music should be exchanged freely. So what is the larger question? It becomes, how do artists get compensated for what they do? Because it takes so much goddamn time to write and record the music, put a show together, etc. But you’ve gotta give me and everybody else who does this some kind of compensation so we can pay our bills. That’s it. As soon as we figure that part out, I have no problem how music gets exchanged.

That’s what we’re all learning to figure out. I’m not one of these guys running around going (adopts old fart voice), “You remember when we were little kids?” No no no no. That was fine for them, but change is always going to happen. It’s going to continue to evolve.

I love the fact that recording a quality record is so affordable now that some little kid, some 14-year-old, in his mom’s basement in Jacksonville, Florida whom I’ve never met, could be making the most brilliant pop or dance record that the world has never heard. And 20 years ago, in the old model, he couldn’t have done that because he couldn’t have afforded it.

Chances are he would’ve never been able to get himself out of his environment if he wasn’t born into some kind of affluence, to get enough capital together to start his own band to then do that whole thing that you had to do to get signed.

Now, he saves up $500. Literally, with $500 he can make a state-of-the-art record that is sonically as good as the latest Radiohead record. That is, flat-out, a miracle. To see that in my lifetime, to see both extremes in my short lifetime. That’s cool as hell.

Popshifter: I agree.

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Click to read more from Roger Manning on. . .

Bill Bartell and MST3K
Playing well with others: new TV Eyes EP!
Jamming with Beck and Ross Angeles
The importance of humor
Where does Jellyfish fit in?
Movie soundtracks
Favorite kind of music
The music mafia model
“Just do what you’re passionate about. . . “
A reason to get out of bed in the morning
Speak my language

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