Collaborators

Barbie - The Bips
Barbie is bassplayer in The Bips from the Netherlands. She's a new breed of punk who's writes as well as she plays. I only picked 4 of her columns as she has more on her bands site so check em out, the music is just as potent.

The Love For Music
It all seemed so nice in the sixties and seventies. People were tired of society and authorities and how could that better be expressed as through music. What difference did it make if you could play an instrument or not, you had a message which could be heard through music, so more and more people got to know your opinion. Together against the rest of the world. The times they are changing..and everybody had confidence in the future .........no future...........for music!
Now here we are in the year 2001 and it's not cool anymore to talk about the past, I do not say that everything used to better in those years and because of the fact I was born in 1972 I do not claim to have experiences I remember very well, still I have an opinion about it and everyone who has little common sense only can confirm that opinion.
Of course in those years a lot of shit music was made, but I think that the shit music of then had a lot more cachet than the garbage we have to listen to nowadays. At least, people had more intentions and with intentions I do not mean the intentions of creepy businessmen, I mean the intentions to make something of the world you live in, to be a part of it, to make something clear.
My motivation to play music was that intention and I know that's never gonna change but in the year 2001 nobody wants to hear about intentions, if you wanna talk about that sort of hippie-shit bullshit you don't get yourself a number one record and -more important!- no cash on your account. If you want to be part of the business you have to suck up, kick down, got to know the right people and got them to know you . I myself can not imagine to make money out of music, that's not the way I feel music and if some people think different about that it's their right, my main problems consider the people or companies that have money-making through music as their biggest goal in life.
Noone can say it's fair that so many bands in The Netherlands has to use a magnifying-glass to find a rehearsal cellar because a lot of youth clubs think 'growing' professional is more important than keeping those rehearsal cellars. That so many bands don't get a fair chance to play a support-gig because of the fact that booking agencies only offer packagedeals with two or three bands.That if you get a gig in (smaller) clubs, most of the time they aren't much professional due to the lack of subsidy or the subsidy is so little they simply don't have enough men or material.That promoters of the so called 'A-clubs' never offer you a chance because you don't match as support act with that more important band from abroad and they don't feel like organizing a night with only unknown bands from Holland....that doesn't attract people and without people there's no money.
That promoters of the big clubs always tell you they prefer a local band to play the support gig (support your local scene!) but when you finally ARE that local band, they never ask you. That they wanna pay you much to little while they can get a subsidy of 500 Dutch guilders for letting a Dutch band play as support act, money YOU could have spend on strings, drum-equipment or recordings to send to the clubs so they MIGHT wanna book you. Meanwhile a lot of bands never leave their rehearsal cellars and wait and see all the 'day-flies' being recognized, getting attention and gigs ofcourse.
A lot of people thought the real live tv-show 'Starmaker' was so ridiculous, cause what's seriuos about that: putting a bunch of kids in one house with cameras, select the (best) looking ones, in the end tell them their band name and,yes, we got another project to make money with. Ridiculous but that's the way the music business goes. Nevertheless many people will say enough bands grew big by their own, it's clear there aren't many intentions left. It's a fact, money destroys so many things in life, the love for music is just one of those things!
© 2001-Barbie L.L.