I'm So Tired of the TMI Ggeneration

The TMI factor has nearly killed rock and roll dead. Too many candid photos, too many sex tapes, too many reality shows, too many tell-all books and painfully personal blogs. There's an art to cultivating mystique. That's right, mystique -- mystery. It's what makes an artist alluring and dangerous. The bands of the 1970s knew how to do it. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath. No photos on the album cover, or maybe just a real misty, creepy, iconic one that made you wonder if they were even real people.

Music has so much more power when you know less about the performer. Who wants all the mundane, unflattering, humiliating details? A splash of urban legend and innuendo goes a long way; who needs more? I want my Jimmy Pages ensconced at fucking Loch Ness, their libraries stocked with magic spells and their basements littered with the bones of virgins!

I'm so sick of seeing little myspace celebu-tarts promoting their "music careers" with a handful of trite, utterly forgettable, Pro Tools-damaged songs propped up by three hundred photos of themselves in various states of undress. I'm sorry, but if you have that many pictures of yourself on your website, you are instantly disqualified from Being Taken Seriously.

Hey, you! I know you just can't get enough of yourself, but I gotta tell ya -- all the overexposure is making you BORING. We know too much about you and unfortunately knowing too much means knowing how little there actually is to know. Your pathetic live journals and self-administered surveys only illustrate how fascinated you are with yourself -- what makes you think we want to pore over the boring minutia that makes up your life?


I close with the lyrics from one of my favorite songs:

move my feet and touch my sole
bass and drumbeat rock and roll
just play that music
i don't care what key it's in,
where it's come from, where it's been
just play that music

i don't need to see your face
don't need no autographs
i can't play your interviews
can't hear your photographs

you don't need to be profound
in fact don't speak
just play that sound
just play that music
i'll turn on my radio
if you've got a great live show
just play that music

if it's hitting make it stick
do your job, just play music
critics mags and interviews
who cares about bad reviews?

does it have to be so tame
do i have to twist and shout
do we have to play this game
or be down and out?
it don't have to look the same
i keep tryin' to tell 'em
it don't have to all sound lame
i sing the song, you sell 'em

if it's hitting make it stick
do your job, just play music
if you need an ear to lend
i've got the cash to spend

move my feet and touch my sole
bass and drumbeat rock and roll
just play that music

--Big Audio Dynamite, 1988