Portishead - Incredible artistry...but who is it supposed to reach

About a year ago, a good friend of mine turned me on to Portishead. I had heard about them but never heard the music. I was instantly impressed. Their music skill, technical acumen and creative innovation were undeniable.

In April, the group released it's long awaited third album (aptly named "Third") which you can hear in its entirety on imeem.

I've been listening the album repeatedly. Now, normally, I like music that has commercial appeal. I'm not really into niche music created for special people who "get it". And this is not a "commercial appeal group" by any stretch. But, surprisingly, I really like it.

After some thought and numerous listens I came to the conclusion that I like them because I can appreciate them as a musician and producer. Even though they don't make standard radio playable songs, you can tell that they clearly could if they wanted to. They understand dance, hip hop and all the popular genres. However they choose to use this knowledge to create something totally different, something original, something artistic.

So the question is... who will Portishead reach? By spurning the traditions of commercial music, there are literally millions of people who will never hear of them. I can appreciate them because, as a producer, I happen to be in the class of those who "get it". But so many won't care about the intricate details of their musical production. Nor will they appreciate the way they seamlessly transition from one genre to another mid-song. No, most won't even stick around long enough past the 2 minute intro before the really cool groove kicks in (Check out The Rip below).

Still, is this just art for arts sake? Or can their art still inspire and affect people even if it's a smaller audience. If musicians are the only ones who get it, maybe one of those musicians will be inspired to create something that changes the world? What do you think?

So sorry for the extended delay

So many thing happened just one after the other.

First I released a single from the solo project I'm working on. I just wanted to test market before I got too deep in the project and see what kind of reactions I could get. Well I totally underestimated the kind of guerilla marketing that would be involved even for test marketing a new song. It totally consumed all my days and evenings for a few weeks. Fortunately, the efforts paid off and my song "Thank You" went to #1 on thesixtyone.com's Hot R&B chart within a couple weeks.

Here's a copy of the song you can hear.




So the response has really encouraged me and I'm hard at work finishing up my debut solo project. I've come to see that I have my hands in a lot of jars between the music recording, this blog and the radio show. But I'll try to make sure that these don't suffer too much.

Actually, that wasn't the only reason why I've been MIA. Last week, I moved across town, just outside north east Atlanta. And I guess the combination of moving and allergies was a bit much for my system cuz I've been laid out for about a week with a really bad sinus infection or something. It's been pretty bad and I've been coughing up things that I'm pretty sure should not be inside me.

The good news is that I'm definitely on the upswing of recovery and expect to get back to 100% in the coming days.

Oh yeah. I wanna shout out Bruce Warila who writes one of my favorite blogs on the music industry. He stopped through and commented on the blog and that was a pleasant surprise. Check out his blog when you can. He has great ideas for promoting music in this new environment.