There is a widely held belief in our genre that degrades both the value of the artist and the level of support that fans will indulge. That belief is that our fans live lives of economic struggle and are not willing or not able to support the artists’ work at a level equivalent to other genres of music. In addition, artists are restrained from appearing wealthy or talking about wealth as a positive thing (with a few exceptions, notably busses and clothes).
All this tends to be credited (or blamed depending on your point of view) on scriptural warnings about wealth, love of money, and greed. (One could wonder as to why other scriptural passages like the parable of the talents have not taken precedence.) Against this poverty mentality background, it is no wonder that lots of artists and other business entities in the genre live “on the edge” or just barely get by, and some even “wear” it like a badge. While the issue of money is discussed often and everywhere and “dumbs down” almost every endeavor, rarely is the question “are we really that poor?” asked and put to the test.
You would think that the Gaither success story over the past 15 years would have put the issue to rest. Yet even some artists who have been participants in that success are still careful to observe the poverty mentality rules when working on their own outside of the tour. Which begs the question as to whether the shared belief in this mentality is actually functionally true or whether it just functions “like the truth” because we believe in it and follow it. I would argue the latter.
Beliefs are powerful. There’s an old story about a jeweler who had a small line of matching items that were not selling after months of sitting in the store. The owner, before going on vacation, left a note for one of his clerks to change the price of that line of jewelry by one-half. The clerk misread the handwritten note and doubled the price. When the jeweler returned he discovered that the whole line had sold out.
If a promoter follows a pattern of putting on concerts in gyms with poor sound and lighting, he is going to draw crowds that are only comfortable with very low ticket prices and looking only for “bargains” at the record table. When the Gaither tour comes to town, however, people are willing to pay higher ticket prices for a great venue and buy all the CD’s and videos that they value. Bill has valued himself, the artists, the tour and the people. He shows that the genre’s fans do value the artists highly and, even more, they value seeing those artists framed in a setting that is “as good as” those of other genres. And they value seeing themselves in that setting equal to fans of other types of music. They value the artists, they value themselves, and they value the appearance of equality with other artists and fans of other music.
So what exactly is value? Value is the perceived worth of something compared to price or cost. We know that value is relative — it depends on who/where you are in life. If you are poor and hungry you value eating. A little higher up the ladder you may value the quality and nutritional value of food. Further up you may value fine restaurants. Value moves us toward having our needs and/or wants, met. It means we will choose to move toward things we value and not others.
But value is also co-determined by whoever is offering the thing of value. The “presenter” sets a price based on the value of the offered thing to him. In so doing, he begins a “discussion” with the buyer. But in the southern gospel business, those with something to offer tend to shortcut this discussion by starting with the question “how much will someone pay?”, where he devalues the buyer. Then he offers something “cheap” because of his perception of the buyer. The offer is degraded, the event is degraded, the artist(s) are degraded, and the value of the music is degraded. The “industry” is degraded.
Then, in this context, we try to offer ministry and expect people to think it is valuable! Hmm.
Loading...
what you describe is a phenomenon that exists in all music microcosms. It can happen in niche markets like SG or in community markets like the WNC music scene that suffers from under-bidding, devaluing talent and the market taking advantage of a high supply of talented disproportionate to the area. The example of the local market here in WNC is a bit different to the examples you are laying out i know but the mistakes are the same in that music performers are undermining themselves by not placing a fair market value on what they have to offer. There can sometimes be a rut that musicians find themselves in, which is sad, in that they feel like they have to take what they can get in order to survive.
I completely agree that the southern gospel industry (along with other music microcosoms!) suffers from the poverty mentality metioned. To begin, tywindy makes an excellent point: ” high supply disproportionate to the area”. In a given 100 mile radius, one may find 200 free concerts held at area churches in lieu of a sermon. (not factual – just a statement) How valuable is any given concert when there are so many groups offering them? Isn’t it also imperative to look at how simply a southern gospel group may call themselves a group and hit the road? Doesn’t it begin with radio stations who create programming often including the group who just so happened to be a knockout in the area (i.e. Pleasant Crook BC) last sunday and handed over a cd to the WDKM Saturday night DJ? Isn’t it likely that a southern gospel fan may enter for a free concert and excuse themselves to the restroom as the offering plate makes it’s rounds and will likely later choose to criticize an artist for playing a ticketed concert citing “they’ve lost touch with their mission for ministry”? I agree that it seems the dilemma is somewhat self inflicted by the artists. However, seeing as how record companies, (who are NOT non-profit organizations) are businesses that must turn a profit in order to move forward, much less stay afloat, a certain responsibility lies with them to set the guidelines for viable southern gospel entertainment. Isn’t it true that beyond sharing a powerful message, the ultimate goal is to fill concert venues thus selling records thereby “feeding” every element of the industry from the record companies to the artists to the songwriters? In my opinion, it’s not okay for record companies to say “book your concerts wherever you feel the Lord leads you”; “try your best to fill the seats – promote however you’d like – or not at all, and,hopefully, we’ll sell some cd’s in the process”; We are talking about a business, upon which countless American families are dependent. The joy of operating a business like this is that people’s lives actually can be changed by the ministry and, go figure,they can also have an incredible evening of family entertainment. How far fetched would it be for a record company, who has been so instrumental in creating a project worthy of standing against an album of any other genre, to begin to drive the promotion and sales of that project, specifically in artist development and concert promotion? The end result would be increased product sales, heightened artist notoriety, expanded audience demographics and a definite step forward in altering the overall perception of the southern gospel music industry? I completely believe that radio doesn’t echo this sentiment – but is radio really “selling” that many projects or does radio actually make money selling advertising spots? Yet so much focus is given to what radio thinks or deems a quality artist. What’s in it for them – why change? If they can still sell ads, what difference does it make how the world perceives this music or that a top artist may be followed by a poor recording of a song that’s been recorded by 7 other artists in the last 2 years? If you look at the sucess of Gaither, the only reason people view him as a business genious is that he’s created a persona of stardom – the value of his product is a given. I completely agree that for the sake of the cause, artists tend to see themselves as martyrs so that they don’t appear to have lost their focus. Get real – any sense of how God works in a crowd of 10,000+ people? My call to the major record companies is that they begin to insure that their artists are performing in highly promoted concerts, insure that the show is, without a doubt, entertaining and of high quality. In essence, plan a tour including multiple artists on your label(s) placing them in a situations where records will sell, where fans are exhilirated by what they just witnessed – accomplished by teaching your artists how to deliver an unbelievable show. Give God nothing but the best and make no mistake He will show up and make it something that defies explanation. It is unfathomable to me that God would intend for His messengers to devaluate the message that He places upon them nor the talent that has been given. In every genre, there are infinite numbers of musicians/singers who are not stars, yet still work tirelessly to share their gift. Southern gospel should be no different. There are plenty of groups and artists who will continue to minister mightily in churches or concerts across the country and every weekend at that. Then there are those artists who literally feed the industry and the genre as a whole and yes, those may be who we call the southern gospel stars. Some sector of the industry simply must bring this to pass in order to see growth rather than a steady trot in the same direction as the last few decades and it seems only natural that the responsibility lies with those who are in the business of creating and selling records. How wonderful for record companies and artists to be in a business that applauds them for having a product that also furthers the cause of Christ.